David Palmer

 http://vimeo.com/hotart/hotart

Glass blowing has traditionaly been the most secretive of artforms, from the begining, Alchemy, mystery & magic, & now difficulty, danger & expense, have been & are the things that maintain it's exclusivity.

One of the great "Glass" men of our time Harvey Littelton, changed that & brought hot glass to universities & the masses, & is considered to be the Father of modern Studio Glass.    A STUDIO:- Workplace or building.

This Hot Art "Studio" may be the next evolution for glass blowing, now ANYONE can do it ANYWHERE.

More than 15 years ago I took up a self made challenge, to build a complete glassblowing studio that I could use from home. I succeeded, 6 pieces of gear from 1 burner & 1 x 20 & 10amp power outlets, since then I have been experimenting (having fun blowing) with the unit & refining it to the point of building a production prototype (6 will fit in a 20Ft container). ( kitchen stoves run at 20 amps)

 I now find myself with an amazing opportunity, I have been invited to take my studio to the National Glass Conference in 2013 & be the Hot Shop for the conference. With the economy & my employment in it's current state I am looking for financial assistance to complete the prototype & transport it to the conference. This invention could change studio glass blowing globally & bring it to anyone, I have reduced the running costs dramatically & made it safer & more environmentaly friendly, it's also mobile, & can be used for bronze casting. The finalised plans are available online here & now, so anyone can build their own.

Or buy the mark 1 prototype after the Glass conference, see rewards --->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUlRgnD9QZU

The frame for this unit can be put together by a competent welder for around $1000, DIY a lot less.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1524391950

I'm a 58 year old toolmaker, & live in Sth Brisbane, I have spent most of my working life designing & building specialist equipment for production processes. I love a good challenge & that's why I ended up with my studio, a friend showed me how to blow glass, & 1 day I suggested to him that it could be done more efficently by incorporating pieces of gear together to run from each others waste heat. He told me glass blowers have been trying to do that for 2500 years, & if I thought I could do it, I should *#*# go & do it, so I did.

This happened about 15 years ago, for the last 10 years I've been blowing glass AS A HOBBY, from wherever I happened to be living. I don't consider myself to be a glass blower, but I love doing it & showing others how, the gift of creativity is a wonderfull thing, & I am gratefull to be able to share this possibility with the world.

  I now have a patent on the unit, mostly to get my name in the history books, in some small fashion, share it with everyone, & help build a small retirement fund. I have a very adventurous nature, I've been a marine engineer on prawn trawlers in the Gulf of Carpentaria, & worked on resort islands in the off season, worked in mines,helped build some amazing things while traveling around Australia over 20 years, & done things most people only dream of. I started Scuba diving (in it's infancy) at 18, have held an ultra-lite pilots licence, & had some great adventures. The best life goal I've heard so far is Happy,Happy,Happy,dead.

 Why I need assistance, is time & cash, I'm short of both. I need to finalise building the production prototype, & have the plans drawn up on CAD so I can share them around, build the control system & have it electricialy certified, make a new burner , & CAD draft them, then have the whole thing gas certified. After all that, I then have to test fire the new unit to make sure the insulation factors are correct. I have made allowances for adding or removing refractories, so I have complete confidence in it's functionality, I did build it to be better than the first one. The studio then needs be transported to & be used as the hot shop for the National Glass blowing Conference, & returned home, I've discovered that interstate transport costs are quite prohibitive.

 As for rewards, besides the complete set of plans,with materials  &  cutting lists, build video, patent doc & manual, I have little to offer. I used to make glass beads, before the new prototype was started, so the rewards will have to be along those lines. Most of my blown glass is too difficult/bulky to mail, so I've limited it to tumblers.

If you look at my pics on F.B. click 'show all' if there is anything of particular interest to you, please let me know, EG; homemade surface mix burner, 12volt variable speed blown burner, this info is free, but donations are gratefully accepted.
$10,500 is a large amount, but after the tax department & Pozibles take their cut, I will be left with the $7,000 that is needed to finish the studio & fullfill the commitments I have made on here.

Thank you for getting this far, please network this & tell your friends how you're helping to bring creativity & change to the world.

Warmest regards Dave P.