Horizon Glassworks

Ron Seivertson spent 20 years building fine homes both as carpenter and general contractor. He also spent several years developing as a painter and sculptor prior to finding hot glass as his ultimate medium. Ron took to glassblowing and sculpting quickly and has studied intensely in Seattle, Wash./USA and Melbourne, Australia. He has attended The Pilchuck Glass School twice. Ron's talent for glassblowing also has ancestral ties as his great grandfather was a glassblower from Norway.

At Horizon Glassworks we use traditional “off hand” techniques handed down through the years by European master craftsmen. This is the most common style of glass blowing in the world today. “Off hand” or “hand blown” glass work should not be confused with mold blown, kiln formed or machine made glass. In our process we have a pot furnace filled with molten glass that runs 24 hours a day at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. To start we dip iron blow pipes into the furnace to gather the glass. Successive gathers are taken until we have the desired size for the work. We use clear glass as the base medium.

Color is added during the gathering process in a variety of techniques. The piece is re-heated in the “glory hole” furnace until the work is completed. The hot glass is manipulated and expanded using hand tools and blowing techniques by the “gaffer” (aka glass blower) and his team of assistance. Once the piece is to the desired shape and size it is transferred to a punty iron using a break off method. Thus the piece is turned around so the neck and lip of the piece can be finished. The piece is then tapped off the punty and placed into an annealing oven to cool slowly,  usually over a twelve hour period.

Solid hot sculpted work is made in very much the same way less the blowing part. We do not mold make or cast our sculptural works. Each piece is hand made at the bench while the glass is hot and moving.

We import raw materials (glass batch) from Australia and color from the US and New Zealand. Batch is primarily pure silica and fluxing agents such as borax or soda ash. Each batch maker has their own special recipe formulated specifically for the intended use. Colors are similarly specific to the use and makers formula. We use Gaffer batch formulated in New Zealand and sold to us under there licensee from Australia. Currently we have in stock colors from Kugler, Reichenbach, Gaffer, and Ornela. Colors come in solid bars and an assortment of crushed frit sizes.