NMEGW Recycled glass tile project proposal
Prepared on November 3, 2010 by Stacey Neff
Executive Director, New Mexico Experimental Glass Workshop
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”
--Berthold Brecht
The vision of New Mexico Experimental Glass Workshop is to explore and expand the application of hot glass as a contemporary art media by making it accessible to established artists through progressive programming. We successfully serve regional artists to facilitate professional quality glass works within their individual artistic vernacular. Our output-based model continually develops new applications for the versatile media of glass.
To further New Mexico Experimental Glass Workshop’s vision of expanded use of the material and our mission of supporting regional artists, I propose an organizational partnership between New Mexico Experimental Glass Workshop and the NM Recycling Coalition to pursue NMEGW’s recycled-glass tile project proposal. The task: to develop and produce a regionally available, useful, beautiful and affordable product made from post consumer glass waste. The project would use artistic input paired with intermediate technology to realize a socially responsible and beneficial application for recycled glass material.
New Mexico’s unique art market is a primary tourist attraction, which inarguably solidifies artist as intrinsically important members of our community’s economic structure. Yet studies, like the Urban Institute’s 2003 Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structures for U.S. Artists, sadly reveal that while 96% of Americans appreciate the arts, only 27% believe that artists contribute to the good of society; the median annual income for artists from their artistic work is well below the poverty level; and that more than half of America’s two million artists provide their own health insurance. New Mexico is not immune to this disturbing undervaluation although our extraordinary regional quantity of artists of demonstrated artistic excellence offers opportunity for the growth of a new cross-sector art market system to bridge commercial and public art sectors in a way that creates jobs for New Mexicans and is of direct benefit to the public.
Intermediate technology, defined by EF Schumacher in his book Small is Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered as “vastly superior to the primitive technology of bygone ages but at the same time much simpler, cheaper and freer than the super technology of the rich. . . a technology to which everybody can gain admittance. . .” is already embraced by studio glass artists as low/high tech production solutions. Focused research and development could yield hot glass kiln technology that can be set up for low costs, under variable conditions and be operated simply for continuous production. Different energy technologies to consider for the new model of kiln would include solar, electric and methane conversion. The first research objectives for this project include optimal kiln design, accessible and clean energy systems and optimal reusable mold construction. This research and development will be undertaken by New Mexico Experimental Glass Workshop’s Creative Advisory Panel along with regional facilitators and artists.
The product would be a modular tile unit, made as mold cast multiples from individual artists design templates. Tiles are versatile and useful for indoor or outdoor building applications. Due to the variance in the materials used in the production of tiles, they often have an inherent regional flavor and identity as evidenced in the famous Catalina Tile Company in CA, Mexican glass tile companies, or Turkish bath house style tiles. I have previously used post consumer waste recycled glass in my glass production company, Glass Improvement, gathering the glass, cleaning it in a cement mixer and melting it in my furnace to make blown glass products. My simple techniques were designed to provide a tolerance for the material’s decreased clarity and reduced elastic memory. I had success in creating commercial products with post consumer recycled glass and intermediate technology with the validation of our products inclusion in a touring museum exhibition of innovative recycled product titled “Hello Again”.
Tile forms would vary by product applications, from square tiles for standard tiling, to tiles designed to integrate into a framework for freestanding architectural use. All of the molds will be open face, the bottom taking the impression of the artist’s surface treatment, the sides a standard size and the top self-leveling in the heat of the firing. The basic production would be four steps:
1. to gather and clean the recycled glass
2. to load the kiln with shelves of interlocking, reusable, molds of a standard size incorporating individual artist’s reusable front facing surface mold.
3. to fill molds with recycled glass and fire kiln to 1600 degrees Fahrenheit with prescribed annealing schedule
4. to divest glass from molds in kiln and package for delivery
NMEGW’s proposed kiln construction for this project has the interior dimensions of 12’ long x 2.5’ wide x .5” high. The bottom of kiln detaches downward, to accommodate new mold designs and the top opens upwards for loading the recycled glass. The heat source is an electric heat coil on the kiln top powered by a green fuel conversion to electric energy. The kiln housing, built of light weight sheet metal over a steel frame would be simply lined with a refractory wool over fire brick, and the kiln bottom would inherently incorporate the tile molds as refractory treatment. Each kiln will hold (20) 1’x1’x1’tiles per firing; firings will run 5 days each and using conventional electric, cost about $20 per day for each kiln. Compellingly, a modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose but only 6 days between collection and reincorporation into a tile for NMEGW’s recycled-glass tile project.
The partnership responsibilities for this project would be for NM Recycling Coalition to provide support to NMEGW for locating available glass around New Mexico, and to provide contact information of revelent parties in communities that NMEGW wants to begin glass tile production, and for NMEGW to provide arts know how for equipment building through product design and fabrication plus guidance for project planning and administration. It would be important to jointly pursue first a research grant and then the commitment of a public work project or commission to provide necessary financial stimulus to mitigate the start up cost of this system and build community awareness of the product. After start up, there would be a mass relational fee for each tile to be taken for administration and fabrication of the tiles, and a commission paid to NMEGW for programming support, per unit sold. The artist receives the remainder of the order amount as their commission. All tiles would be made by special order and priced by the artist with advisement from the project director. The product will be brought to market by catalogue, local vendors and special order and most importantly, through regional, specific arts and architecture projects.
The physical operations for this project could be most easily conducted on the recycling site in a simple building structure. This could be a good community project in an area that does not already recycle, and has some agricultural industry and needs additional employment opportunities for low tech or artistic labor.
NMEGW’s recycled-glass tile project offers a creative approach to reclaiming recycled material employing intermediate technology with hands on artistic input would pattern a positive model of community involvement, benefit and responsibility for other recycling programs and industries. In observance of EF Schumacher’s ideal of “health, beauty and permanence”, the realization of this project would produce jobs for artist, glass workers, and recyclers, while finding a useful purpose for mankind’s waste and enhancing the beauty and richness of our community.
NMEGW Tile Project R&D - Proposed Budget
Item | Memo | Category | Estimate | Total Estimate |
electric kiln model | specialized electric kiln design | equipment | $400.00 | $400.00 |
electric slumping kiln materials | interior dimensions of 12Ì long x 2.5Ì wide x .5Ó high | equipment | $1,000.00 | $1,400.00 |
cement mixer | for cleaning recycled glass | equipment | $400.00 | $1,800.00 |
mold materials | high refractory cast in place artist tile molds | materials | $2,000.00 | $3,800.00 |
installation labor | to build and install equipment | NMEGW facilitator labor | $1,000.00 | $4,800.00 |
technical labor | to create molds | NMEGW facilitator labor | $500.00 | $5,300.00 |
operational labor | to clean glass, load molds and test fire kiln x 2 | NMEGW facilitator labor | $500.00 | $5,800.00 |
administration | to organize resource, material, and labor | NMEGW facilitator labor | $200.00 | $6,000.00 |
NMEGW Tile Project - Operational Proposed Budget
Item | Memo | Category | Estimate | Total Estimate |
regular electric kiln model | electricity | utilities | $600.00 | $600.00 |
utilities | water and electric for glass cleaning | utilities | $200.00 | $800.00 |
operational labor | to clean glass, load molds and fire kiln x 4 | NMEGW facilitator labor | $800.00 | $1,400.00 |
administration | to organize resource, material, and labor | NMEGW facilitator labor | $200.00 | $1,600.00 |
The New Mexico Recycling Coalition approved of this project. They made the introductions for NMEGW to began acquiring glass from New Mexico State Solid Waste Management. They have MOUNTAINS of glass! We will be posting research and development notes as the project progresses. Reader feedback, especially with ideas for “Green” connections for clean energy to run the kilns, is greatly appreciated!
Three wax templates for tile molds, they are constructed on standard 6" x 6" tiles for uniformity.
