It's Getting Haute in Here
John Ferrando is the artist behind the amazing glass collectible geocoins for the New Discoveries GeoTour!
Welcome to the Middletown OHIO New Discoveries GeoTour
We are excited for you to discover all of the things we love about our All American City! The New Discoveries GeoTour has 25 caches to find, all located in publicly accessible areas.
Cache Background
Like in other industries, art glass folks have their own terminology. You may hear an artist’s technique called “Cold”, “Warm” or “Hot”. These terms help divide the types of glasswork into understandable groupings.
Cold Glass is what most of us call Stained Glass. It’s “cold” in that stained glass artists do not typically use heat to melt the glass itself, though they may solder the lead came or copper foil that holds stained glass pieces together.
Hot Glass refers to blown glass. Hot glass artists actively work to shape the glass while it is at temperatures above 1000 °F. That’s HOT! Glass blowing requires the same or similar materials, but these artists have a completely different set of skills in the construction of their work.
Warm Glass techniques are also called “kiln forming,” that is, using the high temperatures in a kiln to shape the glass. It’s “warm” in that the artist heats the glass, but does not typically have to interact with the glass while it is hot. The two main types of kiln forming are casting and fusing.
Fused glass, as the name implies, does not normally require heating the glass all the way to the liquid state. In a basic fusing process, the object will start as multiple pieces of glass heated enough that they bond together. This is typically done on a flat surface in the kiln, producing a fused “blank”. This blank may then be put back into the kiln on top of a mold and heated just enough for the material to sag into the shape of the mold. This process is called slumping or draping.
Cache Description
A typical traditional hide that require you to solve a puzzle. Make sure to have a buddy available to help and perhaps a bottle of water or two. Requires multiple hands.
Make sure you grab the code word for your passport!