Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Some Words on Lampwork Glass Quality and Prices

I am currently working on the new CiM test batch, and should have a blog post or two done this week. In the meantime, I want to talk a bit about something that has bugged me for years. This year will be my 15th year of lampwork beadmaking. Not to be cliche or anything, but time sure has flown by!

Over the course of the last 10 years or so, I have noticed a steady decline in the quality of some of the 104 coe glass I have worked with, particularly with Effetre. I'm not putting Effetre down - I still love their glass. They easily have the most variety in color and, for the most part, the best prices. That's changing, though.

One thing I have been experiencing over the last decade or so is the increase in the air bubbles that run lengthwise through an Effetre glass rod - especially in the handmade opaque colors like Dark Pink, Opal Yellow, Copper Green, Sage and Avocado. Air holes like this cause shocking (and the eventual shattering), but they also make the glass impossible to use for making encased stringer. This might not be such a major deal if the prices for these glass colors wasn't so high.  When I pay a higher price for handmade glass, I don't expect it to be practically unusable. Especially since the quality of the handmade rods used to be really nice, around a decade ago. Granted, Effetre does have machine made glass that is somewhat less expensive, but the machine made versions of those colors just are not the same shades. Machine made Sage is a lot less rich and brown than the handmade version.

Speaking of Sage, the last time I bought the handmade version of it, all of the beads I made with it cracked - something I have never dealt with before with that color.

This brings me to the issue of different batches of the same color name. Effetre is not the only glass company that has issues with this - all of them do. And they aren't all that consistent with labeling when it comes to a difference in a color batch. For instance, I use CiM Adamantium and CiM Lapis regularly. They both used to be darker in color. CiM is usually really good about changing the name of a color if it comes out different, but once in awhile they don't. Effetre almost never lets us know when the batch is off on some colors like Rubino Oro or Silver Pink. But they have so many different shades of Coral and Dark Pink that it borders on ridiculous. And we have not seen the original shades of either color in years and years.

Shocking was never a problem for me a decade ago - now I am careful with every opaque rod I put in the flame, no matter what brand it is, because easily 50% of them shock a little, and I have way more problems with a total shattering rod than I ever used to have. Shattering rods are a complete waste of my time and money - and when it's an expensive color, I want to scream when it happens. 10 years ago, I barely knew what shocking was. Now it seems like everyone talks about it as a common occurrence.

The one company that seems to almost never have quality issues is Double Helix. Since they have decided to make their version of Rubino (called Rhea) a regular color, I am switching to it, no matter how much more expensive (and it really is expensive), because it is just so much better. Hopefully they will eventually make a version close to the Vetrofond version that I miss so very much. I'd pay really good money for that. DH glass is such good quality that I pay easily 4-5 times more for their clear glass - I will never go back to the scummy, bubbly, crappy monstrosity that is Effetre clear, no matter how much people try to convince me that it is an okay clear. It's not. Not for what I like anyway - which is optical clarity and neutrality.

Speaking of scumming and bubbling - I've noticed that has increased as well over the years in lighter transparent colors - especially blues and pinks. CiM's colors that bubble will respond to more heat and the bubbles will evaporate away most of the time - especially with their aquas and even their newer clear (which is the only one I would ever consider using in place of DH Zephyr if I ever can't get any). Effetre's transparents however will not respond that way - the more you heat them, the more they bubble. I have to be ultra -gentle with their pinks for sure.

For these reasons, I have more and more been replacing my Effetre colors with CiM colors when I find an equivalent. CiM's glass almost never has air bubbles running the length of the glass, and their rods tend to have more consistency in color than Effetre - with a few exceptions. CiM can be somewhat more expensive, unless it's on sale (which at Frantz it often is), but the quality is worth it. I do use Effetre still - some colors are just not found anywhere else (Dark Pink, Ink Blue Violet, Grass Green). It just irks me when a color I love (Opal Yellow!!!) has declined so much in quality but still costs a lot.

I guess, such are the trials and tribulations of being a perfectionist when it comes to glass. I don't think the Italian glassmakers really pay much attention to beadmakers, and never have (from what I've been told). They have much bigger markets to pay attention to. So the quality of the glass they send to Frantz is not high on their priority list. We get what they give us, period.

I am happy that companies like CiM and Double Helix do pay attention to us and are concerned with giving us the highest quality glass they can. So, silver linings. :) Rant over - thanks for reading if you got this far!  Comments and discussion are encouraged. :)

19 comments:

  1. this post is a revelation. i've been dabbling in flameworking for about 10 years on and off (with a long stretch off) and recently i've wondered if i had lost my touch, getting exactly the bubbling and shocking you describe! thanks for making me realize it isn't me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I appreciate your observations..I have issues with shocky glass too. I like Anice white (effete) and it has gotten so shocky I can hardly even use it anymore...I do warm my rods in the kiln and that helps most of the time..but when the rods are peppered with air bubbles nothing helps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I do that too, sometimes, but I need to buy a hot plate or rod warmer at some point. Eventually. :)

      Delete
  3. Justifying the price of CIM by saying Frantz often has it on sale...is typical USA-centric thinking.
    It's too dear....it's even more dear in the rest of the world.
    When it used to be a better cheaper option I bought it...not anymore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your comment is really insulting to me, given that I consider myself a pretty open-minded, globally-thinking person. And posting as Anonymous makes it even more so. Of course the post is my personal viewpoint based on my personal experiences - why wouldn't I justify the prices of glass based on where I get them? I shouldn't have to write that other people will have different experiences - you should already know that.

      That being said, you need to understand that CiM (and other US companies) are not actively trying to price gouge people outside the US. They are very small US companies who have to pay more to export the glass. Effetre is very large Italian company whose costs are lower because they deal in very large volumes. The prices are effected by this.

      You also need to consider that CiM is a little more expensive because the quality is so much better than Effetre, for the most part. Quality for me is even more important than price. So is customer service. CiM's interactions with their users is so much more involved than Effetre's. That's important as well.

      Delete
  4. I am a novice at lampwork, I notice that some of my glass rods would shatter so bad I didn't have much left, I now only use CIM'S rods. I get single rods from Howaco Glass to try out colors. If I really like the color then I will purchase by the pound.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love that Howaco lets you buy single rods - it's very helpful! :)

      Delete
  5. So glad to read this. I was also experiencing this, especially with normal white. So much that I kept checking that it was not Anise instead.
    Given that all glass is expensive here, and only a couple of kinds are available I will have to stick to effetre for now, but when i can i will consider at leat trying more cim.
    I do have a stash in storage that is being shipped here, I will definitely have to mark those rods as better ones so that I can keep them for the more difficult and time consuming stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, I have had that same problem with white. :)

      Delete
  6. CIM is a Chinese company, not from the US. I think glass is going the same way as a lot of other products these days. As production costs go up, quality goes down and they compromise to try and keep the product as affordable as possible. In doing so they take away our choice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, CiM is a company based in Seattle that has the glass made in a small family factory in China. The owner of CiM, Kathy, is good friends with the people who run the factory. They have a whole page about it on their website, and I have met and chatted several times with Kathy. Their quality is improving. Effetre's is not.

      Delete
  7. http://www.creationismessy.com/about-us.aspx

    For those interested in reading about CiM and their factory, go here.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I appreciate your efforts and dedication to this ..I tend to work haphazardly..meaning I pick the glass Im working with that day by whim. I rarely pay attention to which glass it is unless Ive just made a new purchase. Ive noticed the increase in exploding rods as well but couldn't tell you which it was right now..one color in particular was just not usable unless I annealed the rod first.. which is a bit of a PIA when you work like I do. I can tell you it was Effetre though. Its a shame really that we have to pay more for what should be an expected requirement. Quality.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your thoughts! I completely understand!

      Delete
  9. Adding this in response to your thoughts on Italian glassmakers. I got to visit Murano a couple of years ago and talked to one of the many glass artists there as he was working. He worked methodically and without much joy so I asked him if he enjoyed what he was doing. He hesitated and then answered that honestly the passion was long gone for many of them. They [in that generation and in that part of the country] are raised with the expectation that they will be in the glass industry and it has lost its flavor for him and many he knows. That shows in the work of the artists there in Murano in my opinion..its all the same. That's not to say its not the absolute best work you will see anywhere..its flawless. But the soul is missing. This is my opinion. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's so sad. I can't imagine losing joy for glass working. The joy is what gives glass work its soul. I feel really bad for those in Murano who don't love what they do.

      Delete
  10. This is an interesting post, having just started up lampworking fairly recently I don't have anything to compare my experience to except what I read.

    One thing though, have you tried pickling the colors that tend to be scummy/bubble? I wonder if they could have some sort of nasty film on them that's interfering with your work. I wonder if they possibly had been cleaned off in the past and no longer are.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't pickle - that's too much of a chemical for me - I tend to be pretty sensitive to that kind of thing. I do clean my glass with rubbing alcohol, though, and that really helps.

      Delete