After 22 years at Blue Heron Glass I have decided to retire and expand my horizons. It’s been a wild ride with three moves, a couple of economic downturns, a global pandemic and major shifts with the supply side of glass, both the manufacturing and procurement areas.

The major processes haven’t changed. They have been the same for hundreds of years. The major advances in studio glass have been in kiln working and some amazing work has been produced. Unfortunately, as with any discipline, there is a tremendous quantity of very bad information on the internet. The good news is there is also some very good information. I can recommend sites and forums hosted by both Brad Walker and Paul Tarlow.

Equipment for kiln working is still your basic glass working toolbox: cutters, nippers , grinders, and the like. Advances in kiln design are primarily on the controller front. You can get neat things like solid state relays and touch screens. Personally I’m not a big fan of touch screens, I still have problems getting my cell phone to talk to my hearing aids when I need it to. But solid state relays are the way to fly. Changing out broken relays is not difficult if you are reasonably flexible. I am not.

The real issue with a new kiln is lead time. Olympic is six months out. Last time I checked with Ed Hoy’s Evenheat was about the same. There are good used kilns out there, but be aware of deteriorating firebrick and broken elements. If you can wait, a new kiln is well worth the investment.