…operating something that looks like a cross between a howitzer and a speculum.

It’s called a screw charger. It’s used to feed the batch into the furnace. It takes about 90 seconds to charge the contents of a single barrel (350 lbs) into a furnace. We used to shovel the batch in by hand. The screw charger reduces dust and back aches.

Each furnace will get charged 6-10 times during its 16-hour melt cycle. You won’t get to watch. We have to keep moving. Remember, there are 349 other people behind you on this tour.

Maybe I’ll use the next few blogs to practice The Routine.

We mix the raw materials, called “batch”, in 55-gallon drums - about 120 of them each day.

Looks pretty crude on one level.

On another level, the degree of precision required is staggering. In measuring out the batch, a miscalculation as small as 50 parts per million can result in off-color glass. An error of 1/4 of one percent of sand or soda can result in incompatibility. Often there are as many as 18 ingredients in a single barrel.

I think that equates to over 1000 opportunities to muck up every day.

But I’ve already started to depress myself.

What if YOU tell ME what you’d like to know about making glass? It might help us know what to say to the 350 tourists hitting our doorstep on June 18.

Why are dozens of well-dressed women hanging out in a parking lot in Southeast Portland?

After seeing glass batched, melted and formed, listening to a presentation on Moje, history and process, and finally seeing the operations of the fabrication studios, they left – wiser, we hope, and perhaps more curious about an art-making material that had been pretty foreign to most of them only a few hours earlier.

I’m always fascinated by the observations of first-time visitors to the factory. I liked these two especially:

“You sure have a lot of attractive young men working here.”

(Thank you, HR)

“Wow, it’s amazing to see a place where people actually MAKE something. I didn’t think we did that in this country anymore.”

(Come to think of it, it is a little un-American)

E-merge (May 5 – July 25) has been installed and enjoyed its quiet launch yesterday. Live jurying and the awards reception (May 17) are still ahead, but it’s up, looks great and was visited yesterday by almost 100 docents from the Portland Art Museum, many voting for the Popular Prize.

The exhibition, on view at the Resource Center Mezzanine Gallery, will be up with extended hours throughout the GAS conference and easily accessible by FREE BE shuttle buses from the Hilton and during the Friday night Gallery Hop from the Pearl District.

Meanwhile over at the gallery the avalanche of Fed Ex notices, UPS deliveries, customs brokerage calls, installs and de-installs, tour organizing, and the general prep-athon is keeping the crew bouncing higher than Caithness bunnies.

No, this isn’t OUR crew - it’s a sinister team of guys on the other side of the world terrorizing our guys with hints of what is coming their way. Hey, Whiteley, you forgot to mention “Weight train for a year” in your unpacking instructions.

For the reasons given in my last post - and more - I truly believe that what Nau tried to do is critical in our world today – maybe even more so in the economic climate we are all living.

I am hugely grateful that he’s agreed to continue the dialogue – with us – at GAS.