Bo444 Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 From their home page, they are shutting down. Turning off the furnaces. Really sad news for the glass world. Blenko glass website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feelnmarbleous Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 I always wondered what Blenko Glass was, i went to an auction last week and they sold a Blenko Vase, went for 60$ it had a wild pattern and colors... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 Wow.... a sad day indeed. Unfortunately we are seeing a piece of rich American history passing away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triker Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 Theres a great show on pbs about Blenko, if you get achance you should see it. Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldmarblenut Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 We work very closely with Blenko, currently they are at a stand still with production, gallery is open and they will fire a furnace to fill an order if needed, they sell our glass in the gallery and recently placed a decent order. As is stands, they have a huge gas bill to pay, no plans on closing indefinately, they just need to catch up on their bills. So much for Obama's "save America" plan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouisCamp Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 I was reading on the craftweb board, many posters pointed out that they did not update any of the gas using equipment they have. Wasting gas like it was cheap in the old days. Need to update the gas fired equipment to be competitive today. Lou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldmarblenut Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 I was reading on the craftweb board, many posters pointed out that they did not update any of the gas using equipment they have. Wasting gas like it was cheap in the old days. Need to update the gas fired equipment to be competitive today.Lou Their furnaces are quite crude and yes, gas guzzlers, one problem with building new equipment is the massive costs, they have run using the same type of equipment for so long that it would talk a big sack of $$ to update everything, not to mention the annealing lear (gas also) we have talked with them about updating their furnaces, adding recuperators etc., the cost is just too much right now, one 600lb furnace could cost as much as $50,000, they have about 6 main colors so thats about $300,000 just to replace the furnaces, they use a large central glory hole with many ports, it too is a gas hog, removing that and adding a glory hole to each shop would cost additional $$, the biggest cost would be replacing the annealing lear, it has run for many many years and is a workhorse, cost to replace it would be outrageous. Give them time to catch up, look what happened to Fenton, they cryed wolf saying they were going to close, sales skyrocketed and they recovered well enough to stay open, not to mention a big tax credit to cut their debt. they have also done a little research on using other manufacturers to cut their costs of production, we now make 4 items for Fenton and are we are working on other products, apparently it's cheaper to pay us to make the items than it is to do it themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 If someone is planning to visit the showroom soon - please PM me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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