[HN Gopher] Scientific glassblower continues century-old campus ...
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       Scientific glassblower continues century-old campus tradition
       (2021)
        
       Author : dredmorbius
       Score  : 84 points
       Date   : 2024-06-01 21:26 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (chemistry.berkeley.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (chemistry.berkeley.edu)
        
       | 082349872349872 wrote:
       | Nice to see the high end still in action; at the cheap-and-
       | cheerful end I read a survey chemistry lab book by someone
       | teaching at a small liberal arts college in which he claims many
       | civilisationally-useful reactions can be run in 2L drink bottles.
       | 
       | https://www.cavemanchemistry.com
       | 
       | EDIT: I was once surprised to learn that a glass artist friend
       | knew a great deal about borosilicate, until I figured out that
       | while he was proud of his art glass, he was paying his bills via
       | the craft of glass products intended for consumption of tobacco
       | and legal herbs only.
        
         | defrost wrote:
         | It's either that, lumpy shapes for bodily orifices, or develop
         | some real talent: https://linotagliapietra.com/artwork
         | 
         | Frankly pipes and bongs are much easier and don't have the same
         | health and safety liabilities as bad dragon glasswares.
        
           | 082349872349872 wrote:
           | La Madrina: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/anne-
           | gould-hauberg...
           | 
           | (the link being by way of Chihuly/Pilchuck; her father spent
           | 5 years at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaux-Arts_de_Paris
           | which probably didn't hurt...)
           | 
           | EDIT: https://linotagliapietra.com/artwork/tasmania is an
           | excellent material shadow of Hesse's glass bead game. The
           | reticello uses cane laid down upon independent axes, a wedge
           | product of canes if you will, and then this work layers those
           | in the remaining spatial dimension --alongside the bubble as
           | neutral element? or dreamtime?-- to produce an aesthetic
           | effect evoking its namesake.
           | 
           | If we were playing the gbg with textual quotations instead of
           | murrine, one might almost imagine this work as proceeding in
           | a Hegelian manner: the first axis of cane as thesis, the
           | second axis as antithesis, and the perpendicular excursion as
           | synthesis?
        
       | gtsnexp wrote:
       | The size of his glassblowing lathe suggests the potential
       | complexity of the artifacts produced in his workshop. What a
       | truly remarkable art.
        
       | jumploops wrote:
       | I once had the pleasure of working with my university's glass
       | blowing department --- I was building a digital hydrometer for an
       | undergraduate embedded systems class and needed a custom glass
       | housing.
       | 
       | I remember my first visit fondly, as the glass blower helped
       | narrow in on a more simple design using mostly "standard" tubes,
       | and then eagerly agreed to build the one custom piece. I came
       | back a day or two later and the result was perfect.
       | 
       | This was at UMich circa ~2012.
        
       | beng-nl wrote:
       | I loved this video. Highlight at the end "kids these days...
       | they're gonna save the world."
       | 
       | A while ago I watched a longer, more in depth video on the same
       | topic (spoiler for video title) by Angela Collier. Can recommend,
       | she has a pleasant style and goes really in depth.
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/1eUI38MpiYo?si=6DAme9STHi6f6NDk
        
       | dtgriscom wrote:
       | I visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History once, and saw
       | their collection of glass plant models. I wasn't very impressed,
       | until I realized I was understanding them as a dusty collection
       | of plants. Once I really got into my head that they were actually
       | glass, it was amazing. Totally realistic.
       | 
       | https://hmnh.harvard.edu/glass-flowers
        
       | mrbluecoat wrote:
       | > They grab a stool at a tabletop he calls his "altar of ideas."
       | 
       | That's beautiful.
        
         | fuzzfactor wrote:
         | So true.
         | 
         | If you're going to do science like art it's good to have a
         | blank canvas standing by at all times in addition to whatever
         | pieces may already be present in the studio, whether unfinished
         | or undergoing restoration.
         | 
         | The more unique and diverse the pallette of materials you have
         | at your fingertips, and the more you sharpen your skills at
         | utilizing them, the more likely the outcome will be something
         | worthwhile never seen before.
         | 
         | So any time you get a wild idea, you have a place to at least
         | give it a little try, or when others who are needy declare an
         | art emergency, you've got a place where you can step right up
         | to the plate and hit it out of the park.
         | 
         | In the chemical instrumentation lab, some invention needs to be
         | done from time to time anyway, might as well make it easier on
         | yourself by having an "invention bench" standing by. Eventually
         | when you have experienced the occasional cool thing coming off
         | the bench, you don't even need an idea. Just belly up to that
         | bench, and you come up with more ideas than you could ever
         | execute in a lifetime. Mostly beyond your immediate pallette of
         | resources or single-handed ability, but it really can only take
         | seconds to mentally go down that list until you hit the things
         | that don't tick those two boxes.
         | 
         | Then something interesting starts to appear on that blank
         | canvas.
         | 
         | Go ahead and make it look easy, Bob Ross would be proud :)
        
       | devilbunny wrote:
       | My chairman in undergrad did scientific glassblowing as a hobby.
       | He offered it my senior year as an elective. It filled within
       | seconds.
        
         | dhosek wrote:
         | When I was last at alumni weekend at Harvey Mudd, there was a
         | corner of one chem lab filled with broken glass. One of the
         | students was doing an independent study learning scientific
         | glassblowing.
        
       | rinzxc wrote:
       | Idelvan santos pinhero
        
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       (page generated 2024-06-02 23:01 UTC)