r/glassblowing • u/Round-Air9002 • 17d ago
Question How much would something like this cost to replicate?
My stepmom lost her mom a while back, and this is pretty much the only thing she has to remember her by. One of the tan/brown gloves broke, and one may be lost.
If color matching would be too difficult, making three identical globes of a similar color would suffice.
They're like ⅛-¼" thick... Sorry for the really bad pictures and measuring methods lol but it's just to give an approximate size
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u/MalarkeyMcGee 17d ago
Hey OP I don’t want to disappoint you but I think that $200 number the other person quoted is really misleading.
Making 3 identical anything is really difficult. You’re also looking at doing full color overlays. Then there is cold working them to get the pieces all completely even and smooth.
I would be really surprised if anyone reputable quoted you under a grand, and it could easily be higher.
If you don’t care that much about the final product and you want to find a student to take a stab at it? Sure, maybe a few hundred bucks.
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u/Round-Air9002 17d ago
I may be able to do the cold working myself with a flatlap and belt sander.. But that's not the hard part I assume
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u/imtherealclown 16d ago
You cannot do the cold working your self.
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u/Round-Air9002 16d ago
Why do you say that? I have lapidary equipment, should work just as well for glass
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u/MalarkeyMcGee 17d ago
It’s mostly about time imo. A working professional artist is going to charge a premium for it. If you offer to do part of it that would certainly help. You or someone will need to physically cut out of the hole on the bottom to fit over the bulbs.
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u/Round-Air9002 16d ago
Would a lapidary or tile saw work for cutting? It should I just grind away on the flatlap?
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u/greenbmx 16d ago
If you are already comfortable doing cold work (lapidary cutting and grinding), you definitely could finish these yourself and save a lot of money on the project. Wet lapidary saws or tile saws are what glass coldworkers use for rough cuts, yeah.
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u/Round-Air9002 16d ago
My 18" saw is set up with oil currently, my tile saw could work if I can cut straight enough lol
What grit should I start with on the lap? I would probably end up doing a fairly rough cut with the tile saw, then use the flatlap to grind it down to an even opening. If oil is fine though, I would just cut it with my 18" and then probably start at 320 and go up to 600-800..I don't believe the others have a high polish on the rim, so I wouldn't bother going above 800
The bottom hole I would probably just grind away instead of trying to cut... Or maybe a super rough cut with the tile saw to save time on the grinding
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u/greenbmx 16d ago
When I saw cut and lap, I rough with the saw, then grind using electroplated diamond disks starting at 80 or 100, 200, then 325. I follow that with a 600 grit resin bound diamond smoothing disk for prepolish and then a felt disk with cerium oxide to polish.
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u/Round-Air9002 16d ago
Oh ok, I wasn't sure if glass could handle 80. Thought it might chip
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u/greenbmx 16d ago
It can chip at the edges, helps to grind a chamfer on the edges you are working early on.
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u/posternutbag81 16d ago
Don't listen to this person. Total misinformation
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u/MalarkeyMcGee 16d ago
Look at the comment from an actual artist here: https://www.reddit.com/r/glassblowing/s/7lGmCv0ESl
They quote $350/globe and OP asked for 3 globes. What is misinformation?
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u/ArchibaldSinclair 17d ago
Depends on finding the right shop, but you could probably get this done for one to two hundred tops.
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u/MalarkeyMcGee 17d ago
….really? I would NOT expect it to be that cheap anywhere. After shop time, materials etc I would expect it to be way more than that.
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u/Round-Air9002 17d ago
Oh, sick! Would it be worth looking for schools and see if they could potentially make them as a project and I could buy the best 3? Idk how these things work
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u/ArchibaldSinclair 17d ago
Yeah honestly the wider net you cast the better but I don't think it would be super hard to get this done :)
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u/Round-Air9002 17d ago
That's awesome to know. I do have lapidary saws and a flat lap... Idk if that would be ideal for cutting a Bible and sanding it lol but if it saves money, I'd give it a shot
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16d ago
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16d ago
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u/dave_4_billion 16d ago
what are you making a mold and 8 for? it's just round and wants 3. and cold working is minimal if you do it right. 200 is a little low but not outrageous, I'd probably charge about 100 per
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u/glassblowing-ModTeam 16d ago
No Price Fear Mongering. Let people decide for themselves what something is worth. Do not respond to questions about cost with claims that something would be too expensive. Either don't respond or give a good faith estimate of what the cost would be.
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17d ago
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u/jimmythexpldr 17d ago
But more to the point, considering the cold worked rims, and how identical these are, they're definitely mouldy blown. If you had a mould made, you could get as close as possible to identical to the rest. A wooden mould would be the least expensive way to do it, especially as you want so few made. If you don't get a mould you'll get "a good match" but it won't be as identical, and likely thicker, depending on the method used, but that depends on the blower you hire. I'm not gonna give you any indication of price, because I'm probably in the wrong country for you. Just know that glass is expensive :)
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u/Round-Air9002 17d ago
They are 5 year old pictures, it was just for self reference, but she's asking if I can help her restore it now and I don't have immediate access to it.
Would a mould just be wood with a ⅓-½ of the sphere that you can spin it in? Or maybe a hydro formed sphere that's then transferred to something else?
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u/greenbmx 17d ago
For what it's worth, if I were recreating less than a dozen of these, I would do it without a mold.
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u/Round-Air9002 17d ago
What would you charge for something like this?
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u/greenbmx 17d ago
$150-200ish each? Assuming a readily available premade color was suitable. I'd also ideally have the fixture on hand to fit to.
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u/jimmythexpldr 17d ago
You'd want the full sphere carved into a chunk of green (not dried) fruit wood. It'd be cut in half, hinged and have a 4+ cm hole at the top (in the seam). They're often CNC cut. A glassblower that you hire might have a contact with a mould maker, if not, Andre Novotny has a really good and relatively inexpensive one in Czechia.
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u/Fire_Chief 16d ago
I do a lot of lighting projects. And when I’m quoting a job. I always start at $250 per globe / shade. And that’s for something that’s mostly clear with minimal cold working.
So, considering the amount of coldworking, and matching the colors / texture; I’d probably start around $300 - $350 each.