@JamesAkers@expressional.social

James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 1w ago

Replying to

It is happening again! This weekend I have the color furnace rented- and everything was in place to pull tubes- but all of the metal oxides I ordered to tint the glass were still in the mail. Mike could help with all the metal oxides I needed except for the silver nitrate. I called around- got in touch with some wet plate photographers before I paid about double what I already paid to get the silver nitrate- but I was able to avoid shipping entirely by taking the train. We will be mixing a silver and tin and zinc color that I think will be strange, reactive, and beige, and a smaller, 10 pound amount of a manganese, cobalt purple that could potentially go brownish if kept at annealing temperatures too long. So far, the furnace is heading up to temperature so that by tomorrow, Mike and I can meet in the morning, and we can send it up, so that by the time the colors are mixed, the furnace is at charging temp. I plan to charge all day tomorrow. #residency #glass #color #furnace #nyc

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 3w ago

Replying to

Wowza! The nickel, sulfur #brown color pot was amazing! I believe Mike nailed the density I was looking for even with just one dip of #glass sandwiched between two clear dips of glass, its dense enough where the tube looks black without a phosphor backing or light shining through it. The personal dark color pot is also amazing for recycling- I could throw my bits of color in the crack off bin (shedding off the cooling blowpipes) back in the furnace before dinner to have fully melted, streaky swirly glass after dinner! I saved most of the dense brown glass cleaning out the pot at the end of the night as color bars- the typical way we buy it I have another 50 pounds of #color base- and well over a hundred, 5 foot tubes. The lighter tan color tubes have silver in them. Mike mentioned silver nitrate may be needed for those. I wonder how much I would need for 50 pounds and if it would be safe to melt? I pulled a flawless 50 footer today! #residency #neon #tube #Brooklyn #art #sculpture

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 3w ago

Replying to

Things are heating up for my dreams of a color furnace! My color base batch (raw glass batch without the usual decolorants) arrived and we found a time that Mike could stop by and offer his sage color melting wisdom while I have both of the workstations rented for the weekend. The furnace is getting dialed in and this will be the first time it is getting used! I mixed the color base really well and we split it in half for two melts. I added black nickel oxide, sulfur, pine rosin, Barium Nitrate and red iron oxide to *hopefully turn my color base into a dark amber Sunday my tube puller in Philly, (and myself) have to work- but Monday we will pull tubes out of the color furnace! Soon I will get all the glass out of the existing crucible, flush it with compatible glass, then take that out and begin charging the brown batch! So exciting! #neon #light #residency #art #sculpture #color #brown #glass #NYC #Brooklyn #science #craft #chemistry #DIY #Urbanglass #notes #sketchbook #dreams

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 3w ago

Replying to

This #residency has reminded me how much I love emptying furnaces. To remove every last bit of glass out of a #furnace pot, we make these glass mops, pushing the glass around on the floor and quenching it into buckets of water to get more. The mop gets bigger an bigger until you can't lift it without bending the rod its on, or you cannot fit it into the furnace door. Then you start another mop. The water buckets meanwhile furiously boil as they get filled with mops of once molten glass. In its first melt, the furnace isn't fully tuned, so my charge schedule was cold and fast. We wanted 2300F but the furnace could only muster 1970F. This makes the glass take longer between charges. I was adding 7.5 pound brown paper bags full of batch at about an hour interval between charges. While the glass didn't fully melt between charges like it is supposed to, even partially melted it was a gorgeous brown. Sean is arriving now- hopefully tomorrow we have a full pot of #glass #residency #nyc

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 1w ago

Replying to

@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to a few ideas come to mind- When the wood is sustainably sourced, woodworking may be one of the most sustainable craft hobbies around- especially if using hand or solar powered tools. There are a few glassblowing places experimenting with fluxing out and altering the chemistry of float and other recycled glasses as a main source of glass rather than the usual mined silica and other chemical sources. Combined with bio-gas (and/ or lots of solar) these can make glassblowing much more sustainable. While the furnace I am currently using happens to be gas, I dream of charging at high noon with an all solar fed electric furnace

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 1w ago

Replying to

@phooky@hexa.club So I am not the only one who enjoys a good empty lot. I like seeing the nature that develops in the endangered empty spaces. And sometimes the junk that collects in those spaces.

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Some shots of student work, Liesl Schubel, has a show coming up at OSU and has been working on a series of buckets, co showing with an artist making work about water. Liesl and some of the other students wanted to see some circle demos and they quickly developed a knack for making them. The orange is from the old green pumped neon- a nice orange with and Ar+Hg handle. Another student, Corinne stayed more free form with this 3D #neon and mercury scribbly doodle. #ohio #students #bucket #class

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 4mo ago

Urbanglass has a lil' fundraiser party coming up next Tuesday. I am making some battery powered neon wands for their photo booth... or just for walking around the party and luminously enchanting things :)

Yesterday I picked up the glass and started at about 1:30 with what I thought was the most difficult parts, (Sun and rainbow), but I actually cruised through both of them and bent both of them in about 2 hours.
Then I proceeded to spend the next two hours messing up the G and U and using pretty much the rest of the expensive 8mm ruby argon. -whoops

Since I am not allowed to pump tubes at Urbanglass, I took them on the train to my own studio, where I could pump them and dip them in my giant paint tank- connections painted out in seconds :)

Really excited for these- I made a star wand years ago, but now my skills and ideas have improved.

#neon #glass #brooklyn #event #wand #magic #light #sun #rainbow #handmade #battery #nonprofit #community #nyc #sculpture #accessory #glow

expressional.social

Mastodon server hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Clearing roadblocks in the way of firing up a color furnace. I am consulting with Mike, who melts color at a big public glass studio in Brooklyn in Gowanus, and for another factory in West Virginia. I know I want a dark, ambery brown. We are going to get 100 pounds of Sprucr Pine "color base" - all the raw ingredients for the HotShop glass- minus the decolorants. We plan on using some of sulfur, black charcoal, and sugar along with a touch of black nickel to darken it up along with a few other things to tint it. I CNDd a thick scrap of MDF to make a lid for the cement mixer- which Mike mentioned is one of the best ways to mix it up- essential for proper glass. I also cleaned it from refractory cement with hammer, chisel and power washer. The furnace burner still needs to get its gas/air ratio set with a test firing, and I gotta find a time to rent 2 workstations (it's in the corner between them) #color #glass #residency #mixing #colorpot #neon #CNC #nonprofit #sculpture

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

bread update- My baking has slowed down since I have been busy, with many breads not getting the optimum gluten network build up from me missing the prime kneading / stretching times. I am however mastering fermentation times and predicting my starter behavior. Bread 58 I split into two doughs, and after forgetting to salt the first one (Florence style) I salted the second, folded butter into it and coated the outside in wheat bran. The resulting rosemary sourdough bread came out pre buttered and SO tasty! Now I am watching videos of people making croissants and folding butter into their dough many many times. I am wondering what would happen if I actually stretched the dough when I was supposed to, and kneaded a fine layer of cold butter into the bread before it got to its super intense bread flour rise? Perhaps by bread 60 I will finally get the tight gluten networks I see the bread influencers getting. #bread #baking #nyc #breadlog #sourdough #butter #gluten #bacteria #yum

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

I have been pretty busy in Columbus. We are nearing the end of the second #class - using the neon shop and have almost completely set it up. The cheaper electricians take their time. The students are learning to bend nicely. Picking up where this post l left off before, I had the bombarder wired, but when I went to test it on the last day of the first class it had a loose connection- inside the grounded bombarder box, the coil was disconnected from the ceramic bushing above it. We wanted a safety light for when the bombarder was active, so I made one (the first tube pumped) and then when it broke made another, much nicer one. That is one of my favorite #neon reds- Corning Oxblood Ruby. I want to get a residency somewhere and batch a pot of it- a tricky thing to do because its a cadmium selenium glass and those spew heavy metals into the air (expensive hot air scrubber needed). Bullseye glass has one in Portland Oregon. #bombarder #red #ruby #light #favorite #color #

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

https://makertube.net/w/uHvQRcAJkzHGTKweGwMfvQ Excited to do a little artist talk at Urbanglass at 6:00 pm tonight as a part of my residency there this summer and officially debut this drawing submission box sculpture. Hooray NEA funding and public engagement- I will choose my one lucky drawing from this box or website will be chosen to be be made in new colors of neon. In this way we can collaborate and have both co own the outcome. The acrylic box is made from scraps of acrylic that were once used in a Manhattan ad campaign and were slated for the trash. You can also submit digital drawings here (line drawings preferred) https://color.cccfl.co/ I will choose the drawing to make on August 20th. #public #artisttalk #idea #drawing #neon #opportunity #NYC #brooklyn #submission #fabrication #light #color #NEA #Urbanglass #glass #art #handmade #makertube

MakerTube

UG_NewColorsOfLight Gallery Video

A public engagement video explaining my process in making new colors of light and inviting the public to submit drawings for me to make with the new colors of neon tubing made during the residency....

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

Today was mainly a work day for the students- and for me- I got the bombarder table in place, and the bombarder coil wired into the tiny, very short trolley line system. I do hope they are able to lengthen it one day by suspending the aluminum frame from the roof. Check the image captions alt text to see details on each photo. The turquoise tube is for Tommy's Diner. I am gonna ride my bike to the studio, grab the neon and walk over to the diner to meet my students for breakfast, coffee and a neon install demo at the diner. FUN! Tomorrow the students will bombard- everyone has done it once or twice now, some students are amassing a few tubes to be bombarded and filled. I hope they get to make more tomorrow and am really excited about some of their designs. I taught the students #inkscape and we have been getting them printed to scale as blueprints at copy shops. #teaching #traveling #columbus #alttext #class #neon #bombarding #training #craft #ohio #glass #art #diner #repair

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@ninawillburger@social.anoxinon.de those black and white concentric rings are known today among flameworkers as "dot stack" - made from stacking dots of glass atop one another and melting them in on each layer. Neat to see it done so long ago

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

I have been helping some artist friends stopping by the studio make new work. They come for a day or two with loose ideas and we work on them turning them into neon ideas.

These ones are from my friend Kels Mayo who has a new studio with three highly visible windows in Utica, NY. They wanted them to be Yes, Maybe, No windows and be made entirely of scraps to their handwriting. I suggested the blue "blockout glass" tubing to go where the connections are so you can still see them and read the words.
I am excited to see them get installed soon.

I think of myself like a music recording studio. My studio time is expensive yes... But when I look at all we make, it seems to be a good value. It's really fun- I can make anything- so when Artists come with a bunch of ideas to make and a tight deadline, I enjoy making their ideas.

#fabrication #neon #artist #Brooklyn #job #work #scraps #color #decisions #teamwork #idea

expressional.social

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@North@chaos.social interesting. I have seen a video of one of those scroll pumps, they sound neat. The idea of never needing to change the oil is interesting, but then I feel like I wouldn't do the regular maintenance and upkeep that I do when changing the oil. I do love the dual stage Alcatel I use, but the Welch 1402s are nice. Certainly old ones that leak oil do sound like kind of a pain. I have heard good things about these guys... If you ever wanted to fix up one of the 1402 pumps so it wouldn't leak, they may not be a bad option - https://vacuumpumprebuilders.com/

Vacuum Pump Rebuilders

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@MLE_online@social.afront.org perhaps some kind of fungus? I would think the squash would still probably be ok, but I would be slightly worried about the plant.

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

The open source lover in me is most excited about an AGPL project I forked and stripped down to a handful of functions while adding a bunch more. Despite ie being built to be easy to set up, I believe a large percentage of my target demographic may not own a computer (using their phone instead). I think the business model there is selling them a little cluster of mini computers they can self host that back each other up in case one of them is compromised. They could use the same cluster to host other phone accessible little webapp tools. #selfhost #opensource #AGPL #copyright #advice

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@joyousjoyness@mastodon.social your critter drawings look so joyful

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cibomahto@social.v.st yeah, ultimately it's nice as it forces you to go through the steps to make it harder to have a bad board, but I get so into designing the shape and layout of the PCBs I design.

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cibomahto@social.v.st not really, I haven't played around with too many of them yet other than Eagle years ago and Kicad. I do like Kicad though

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cibomahto@social.v.st the contrast between schematic and PCB layout reminds me why I find myself often working backwards from PCB view when I use Kicad

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cibomahto@social.v.st @phooky@hexa.club AC going through USB C sounds kinda scary. I suppose if it's just power transfer though, impressive wattages are possible

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cibomahto@social.v.st one connector to rule them all!

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cdarwin@c.im maybe Corning started producing borosilicate in 1915, but it was actually invented by Schott before the 1900s https://www.schott.com/en-us/expertise/materials/borosilicate-glass

schott.com

SCHOTT Borosilicate Glass

Find out more about SCHOTT Borosilicate Glass and its supreme strength and high thermal and chemical resistance

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@jerry@infosec.exchange certainly this would never malfunction and "accidentally" put a 3 mile wide ray of sunshine across a big arc of the planet in the middle of the night now would it? As fascinating as a thing this would be to experience, the whole thing just seems wasteful for how disruptive and potential to go wrong it has. Seems like a big mirror to just leave up there too

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@palomakop@merveilles.town wiggly stripe field is my favorite! It looks fun to dance around in that video effect

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@peter I do hope those cool new euro phone batteries trickle down to the USA at some point

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@MLE_online@social.afront.org neat material origins AND a neat shape! Way cool. Also that Sunset underglaze cylinder is gorgeous

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ranjit perhaps Sarasota or Naples could be the one beach to Old em :)

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@btuttle how fun! The back slanted is a neat and interesting look. Im no type expert, but I would consider those lil spikes points on the "t" an "a" to be serifs. I find the abundance of rounded rectangles in the font pleasing to look at.

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Lydie ooo exciting! That's a lot of panels!

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@ancientjames@mastodon.social This is SO neat!. Those spinny effect early persistence of vision tricks always amazed me, I have never seen one used with PWM ing LEDs before, very impressive.

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@settinger@indieweb.social interesting I wonder what the color range is in comparison to RGB? Print colors in light😃

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2w ago

Replying to

@dmandl@mastodon.social I suppose you don't really have to mind the nice dogs, but keep away from the bad ones

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@MLE_online@social.afront.org is the sun found at the bottom of this cylinder with blue sky around its interior or is that the moon at night and the sun is underneath it?

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cibomahto@social.v.st Woah, that sounds really neat!

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

a singing dog

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@MLE_online@social.afront.org I love it when vessel makers put things that are revealed when you look to the bottom of the vessel. Or under the foot of the vessel so you have to pick it up

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org the US president inadvertently pushed the Green New Deal onto the rest of the world, leaving America behind.

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@gigabecquerel@chaos.social its "painterly" an "rustic" Uranium glass batches can be weird. I have seen them go all opalescent an white in certainly flame environments. Also heard about weird processing with the uranium glass before it becomes the nice transparent, green bars of uranium glass that many glassmakers prefer.

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@oldrawgabbit@mastodon.world app store- nah.... Web app- hmmmm maybe?

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ranjit spring snow :)

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cibomahto@social.v.st I gotta try your Circuit painter! It looks neat! I shall give some feedback

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@North@chaos.social interesting, curious whay the diting of the rotary vane over the scroll pump and not using a cold trap?

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 5mo ago

@dirtwizard666@cyberpunk.lol I really love this drawing robot.

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James Akers @JamesAkers@expressional.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

a singing dog again

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