Joyce, those pictures are so interesting. Thank you. Do the people you contacted speak English? Would you please explain what the white glass is that he is blowing and what it will become? Also how is it that the glass stays clean when there is so much loose dirt on the floor? and did you check out the chair he is sitting on? It's incredible that he can keep his balance while he is working. Those pictures tell many stories, they're great

Actually Sunny contacted us, explaining that a friend found our site and recognized that many Chinese chevron beads shown here on bcn were produced by their factory.

For me, it appears that the big white optic-molded gather at the end of the pipe is the third white layer, and the fifth layer in a 6-layer sequence (innermost to outermost) that will be drawn into star rosetta cane.

I don't know whether a work in progress such as this would survive contact with the floor.

I hope that Sunny will tell us more. Thanks again, Sunny.

These are great pictures. Very interesting!

A visit to the hot shops at Corning, The Tacoma Museum of Glass or any large scale hot glass worker will shed some light on these pictures. Aside from the stark nature of the shop shown here and the sparse equipment it is very similar to other hot shops.

The floor is often littered with small shards of glass. The chair does have a wood seat under the worker, but only on one side of the chair. the board protrudes from the right side with a space for tools. The floor is clean in the picture where the cane is pulled.

Some additional pictures I'd love to see include
- the optic molds that gives the glass gathers the chevron star shape.
- the furnace holding the various colors of glass.
= a series of pictures following the production of one cane as each color is added, the gather is molded and each additional layer is added.

I don't think the brick based object behind the glass worker is the "glory hole" where the gather is heated and re heated to keep it workable. Looking closely at the stack of canes it appears that some have a hole in the center and some do not. As some of you know, the first samples of this cane I shot in Guangzhou did NOT have a hole.

I guess I have to find time to travel to Shandong province....

This is Sunny from the factory.The white glass he is blowing is the material to make the beads and it will be a whole in it after blowing.The thing on the groud won't stay on the bead so it will keep clean.If you want to know more,you can contact me directly:optimistic_@qc@126.com.
Thank you!
kind regards and best wishes
Sunny

Dear Joyce,thank you for your attention to my pics and put them on the website.

Thank you for contacting us. We are very interested in the China chapter of the evolution of the glass chevron bead.

If you have the time to post any more images, I am sure they would be appreciated. The forum software accepts images less than 162k. This is not too difficult when you size your image to 72 dpi, and at 800 pixels wide, the image is nice and large. This is how I resized your images for posting.

Best wishes,
Joyce

Dear Joyce,
Thank you again for you attention to the pics.
I will send you more in a few days.
Best regards
Sunny

In terms of volume, what kind of production are you currently experiencing. I am assuming that most of the cane and bead production is for orders that have already been placed by wholesalers or dealers.
The photos of canes shows us what??? Would this be a weeks production? A months?
Do you also do the grinding and finishing and if so, could we see photos of that part of your operation?
How did you manage to figure out the process for making the canes? Was the manufacturing technique brought to you from Murano or Venice?
Sorry for all my questions, but this is very interesting to many of the people on this forum and you are the first direct contact with an actual manufacturer from China!
Thank you for your time! Thomas

PS judging from the photo, how many beads would this pile of cane produce?
谢谢

Dear Thomas,
Thank you for your questions,I'm new in the factory and I will consult the senior in our factory and get back to you later.Thank you for you understanding.
Best regards
Sunny

Dear Thomas,we can produce a lot of beads,many of the products on the website are from my factory and many wholesalers and dealer place the products in my factory.The period the producing the items will be about ten days.Yes,We can also do the grinding and finishing canes.The process for making the canes is searched by our people.The manufacturing technique is searched by our people but the style is similar to that of Venice's.
If the answer can meet your demand, you can contact me directly.Email to me or call me.

Hello Sunny, Do you have any finished beads you could show us? thank you, Judy

Hello Sunny,

Since your company apparently makes both solid and perforated canes, can you tell us precisely when the perforated canes were first made? And, was there a particular reason (such as not wanting to drill the beads; or to make the beads seem more like traditional European beads)?

Thanks.

Jamey