A new type of glass furnace.: A sustainable future for a threatened creative industry.

Abstract

In 1995 I attended a talk given by Dan Kline , a renowned glass expert, in which he stated that the studio glass movement was becoming unworkable as a business model.

As a 2nd year student studying glass I was devastated and decided that I would be a glassblower anyway. Whether or not he was right at the time is debatable, but as the years have passed and it has got harder to make a living as a glassmaker, his words have taken on increasingly prophetic meaning.

Since then the British glass industry has been decimated with cheaper and, more importantly, increasingly good quality imports from abroad. I have spent 4 years as a manager of a glassworks and I can state with confidence that whatever picture society has of the economic standing of British manufacturing, the reality is in fact, far worse.

It is vitally important for businesses to put a 'rosy spin' on their financial position. Any unfavorable information or rumors can fatally undermine a business with banks refusing to support what they perceive as a failing business, and just as damaging, suppliers and vital services refusing to do business because of a fear of non - payment.

I am contracted as a freelance designer for 2 of the last British glassworks still manufacturing tableware. The 2 companies combined employ about 20 glassmakers. As a business they are about the size of a large garage. 15 years ago they employed about 700 people.

As energy costs have increased over the years, small glassmaking businesses are now struggling to survive.

Almost 15 years since I went to Dan Klines' lecture, I have to concede that it is no longer financially viable for a glassblower to start a viable business with the current technology and processes available.

In this talk, I'd like to look at cutting edge technology with my research links at Imperial College of Science and take us on a journey into the past, looking specifically how the industrial revolution changed the way we think about industry as a society. As environmental concerns and sustainability have become more and more important, indeed, essential recently, we must find innovative ways of coping with ever increasing energy costs and dealing with local, national and international environmental concerns. We must of course look to technological advances, but I hope to show that it is just as important that we look at technical and reflective innovation from before the Industrial revolution too.