Diamond Isle Sculptured Glass

FURNACE:
The furnace funs on natural gas and I designed it to be very efficient. It is insulated with the most up to date materials and powered by a modern burner designed and supplied by MRJ Furnaces .
 Unlike most glassworks I generally use the furnace and not a glory hole to reheat the piece. This saves a great deal of energy and stops the studio from cooking! The furnace is on all the time, day and night – to turn it off at the end of the day and then fire it up in the morning would not only waste large amounts of gas, it would also stress the structure of the furnace through all the sudden shrinking /expanding. Every night I turn the furnace down a little and between me and two  assistants we aim to use it every day of the week.
In the Summer of 2008 I will be having a stainless steel heat exchanger fitted to the flue to preheat the air before it goes into the burner. This should make the furnace use about 20% less gass.

With the help of my father in law we built a heat exchanger off the main flue and this recycles the waste heat from the furnace to power a large six foot radiator which we sourced from a scrap yard. This helps to keep the gallery good and hot during the winter!  I am presently having  a new heat exchanger designed to preheat the air before it goes into the burner. This should help reduce gas use by up to 25%.

I have also installed a very simple system to provide us with free hot water for washing up and to warm water when cleaning the glass. The stainless steel bucket is situated in the hood of the furnace above the iron warmer.

GLASS - Type
The glass I use is a soda based and does not contain any lead. I am therefore not releasing any lead into the air during melting and into the water system during the grinding processes.

GLASS - Recycling
I also recycle all the left over glass called cullet. Many glassworks throw their coloured cullet away. We carefully separate all the colours, tub them up and once a year I will melt all green bits left over, then all the blue etc. These mixes create unique colours that are perfect for pieces such as the fossils.

PACKAGING
Luckily working on a large site like this, some packaging materials can be recycled. This includes boxes, bubble wrap, flowpack and polystyrene sheets. The gift boxes I buy are made from a cardboard which is made from sustainable forests that are replanted to replace trees that are cut down.   We are now placing the majority of purchases in paper bags and only using plastic for heavier items.

Supporting Charities
Instead of a demonstration fee, we suggest people make a small donation to one of two charities:  
Over £600 has been donated to Gift To Nature which helps  Island conservation projects. Visit their website to see what work they do - gifttonature.org.uk
More recently, we have added the Kids Ark Foundation donation box. Money will help this international charity help orphaned young children from Tailand.  So far we have raised over £100 for this charity.   Visit their website at: kidsarkfoundation.org 

Lighting:
We have changed nearly all of our bulbs to energy efficient ones and run most of our spot lights off transformers. Our evening display lights and cabinets are also on timers.   It is my intention to move over to LED lighting in 2008. This will significantly reduce energy use.