Clearby Glass
Hand-blown glass lighting, Toledo, Ohio
01 · Gather
Wound on like honey.
The pipe dips and turns, and the glass winds on.
01 · Gather
It starts clear.
Clear offcuts from our own bench go back into the pot at night and melt into one pool, held near 2,100 °F (1,150 °C).
02 · Marver
A skin from cold steel.
Rolled on the steel marver, the gather takes a cooler skin and the shape of a cone. Then the first breath goes in.
03 · Optic
Eighteen ribs, then a quarter turn.
Blown into a fluted mould, the bubble comes out ribbed.
04 · Open
Opened while it turns.
Back into the glory hole, onto the punty, then opened with the jacks, a little at a time.
05 · Cool
The rim lets go first.
Thin glass gives up its heat before thick. The ribs hold their glow; the crown holds it longest.
05 · Cool
Overnight in the annealer.
Into the annealer near 900 °F (480 °C), cooled slowly through the night.
Clear by morning.
Checked cold against a black flag, rib by rib.
06 · Lit
Light, a second time.
Ground and drilled at the crown, fitted and hung. The fire it came from is still burning at the back of the shop.
The shades
Pendant shades in five colors, clear and four tints, ribbed or plain, each blown to order in the hot shop. Three forms:
Bell
10 in across the rim, 9 in tall
A wide skirt over a low crown. Our house shade is a bell with a twisted rib.
Example price: from $540, shade only
Dome
12 in across, 7 in tall
Low and broad, for a long table or a run over a counter.
Example price: from $620, shade only
Drop
6 in across, 12 in tall
Narrow and tall, hung in a row or alone over a stair.
Example price: from $460, shade only
Each comes plain, ribbed, or ribbed with a quarter twist, in clear, smoke, amber, sea green or cobalt, fire-polished or acid-etched. We do not make the drop with a twisted rib.
Who we make for
Houses, restaurants and hotels: one shade over a kitchen table, or a run of them down a bar.
We sell direct and through interior designers. A designer can send us a drawing and we will blow to it.
How a commission works
Draw it
Choose the form, the rib, the color, the finish and the drop.
See the sheet
Your choice on one sheet, with an example price and lead time.
Send the enquiry
Tell us where it will hang and how many you need.
We blow it
Gathered, ribbed, opened and cooled overnight, then ground, fitted and sent.
Example lead time: about 5 to 6 weeks for a clear shade, a week more for a color, a week more for an etched finish.
How a shade is made
Our own clear offcuts go back into the pot at night with the batch. By morning they are one pool.
The pipe takes a gather from the pot, and the gather is rolled on the steel marver and given its first breath.
It is blown into an eighteen-flute mould and given a quarter twist, reheated in the glory hole, moved to the punty and opened with the jacks.
Off the punty it goes into the annealer, near 900 °F, and cools slowly through the night. In the morning it is checked against a black flag, ground and drilled at the crown, and fitted.
The hot shop is in a former brick warehouse by the Maumee River, Toledo, Ohio. The address, like the studio, is invented.