Another one bites the dust.

[Jay Holden]

I knew they couldn't go on without me.
Jay.

http://www.stargazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/UPDATE/303050011/1192/update

I had to edit this because I don't want everyone to think I don't care about Steuben closing. After all I spent 28 years of my life creating glass for Steuben and I do love it so and the wonderful people I worked beside for all those years. Truth of the matter is Steuben has been grossly mismanaged for the last ten years. Corning used it as a test bed for every kind of collage graduate business major in the company. They would cut their teeth at Steuben and after screwing things up they would leave and we would have to clean up the mess. The last five years have been the worst. Steuben has been totally run by women from the production manager to the plant manager,personal manager, finishing dept manager and so on. Every Woman executive with an axe to grind ended up at Steuben. The only male department head was the blowing room manager and he hated women. We glassblowers couldn't get a word in edge wise in a meeting if we wanted too. Ask them a question and they just look at you as if to say "your a man you should already know that". Or give you some kind of double talk. We saw it coming long ago no matter what the union says.
Jay.

[Pete VanderLaan]

Man that is one big tree falling in the forest. I think it's absolutely ironic that that chief financial officer's last name is "Flaws."

[John Van Koningsveld]

I wonder if his father was a Major in the military?

[Pete VanderLaan]

Management and labor have not pulled in the same direction for a long time in the Steuben division.

[Franklin Sankar]

Anyone knows what will happen to GAS at Corning next year?
Franklin

[R. Scott Johnson]

Originally posted by Franklin Sankar
Anyone knows what will happen to GAS at Corning next year?
Franklin excellent question!

[Steve Stadelman]

I honestly think it won't affect it too much. Corning is subdivided into so many separate business interests. Cmog and the Stuben shop are different things alltogether.

[Bruce Harris]

I though CMOG was a Corning family charitable activity and has no ties to the Corporation. (Other than Stuben has their facilities with the Museum building ,presumably leased from CMOG).

[Jay Holden]

No, It would have happened if they were all men because they didn't know what they were doing. They had no glass expeirance at all and they were from non glass parts of the company. No, It wasn't because of gender it just happened that the company used Steuben as a dumping ground for them to get their feet wet. No slam against women here. Tart would have me boiled in Poly Unsaturated oil. I probably need to word things better. Spell better too.
Jay.








Originally posted by George Bergantz
I am at a bit of a loss as to what to make of the emphasis on "Women" executives and so on. There are successful women in management in about every part of life, so maybe that isn’t a robust generality? Can you clarify if you think the problem was simply related to gender or if the business plan/model was more likely the cause?

[Jay Holden]

Originally posted by Franklin Sankar
Anyone knows what will happen to GAS at Corning next year?
Franklin

It will still go on Franklin. Steuben is only a small part of the glass community in Corning now. The Museum is the Big attraction here.
Jay.

[Jay Holden]

Originally posted by Bruce Harris
I though CMOG was a Corning family charitable activity and has no ties to the Corporation. (Other than Stuben has their facilities with the Museum building ,presumably leased from CMOG).

Steuben does lease the space for the Steuben Factory. Steuben and CMoG have nothing to do with each other any more because CMoG is non profit and Steuben is not. But ironicly Steuben doesn't make a profit anyway but you get the picture.
Jay.

[Bruce Harris]

Does the Museum have anything to do with the publicly traded company - Corning?

[Dave Hilty]

Originally posted by Bruce Harris
Does the Museum have anything to do with the publicly traded company - Corning?

According to the museum's web site, Corning and the museum have no direct connection. The museum is a private, non-profit organization and the studio is its teaching facility. They acknowledge generous contributions from Corning, however.

The museum's annual report (2006) indicates that Corning contributed 67% of their total revenue of $34,444 Million or about $23 Million.

[Bruce Harris]

That is a lot of involvent.

[Pete VanderLaan]

Originally posted by Bruce Harris
involvent.

***************
Great word. Not unlike Reciplocate.

[Jay Holden]

No Corning Inc. No CMoG. Corning invests about $3,000,000.00 a year to keep Steuben afloat but they are getting tired of it I guess. You can't melt glass the way Steuben does and keep the boat afloat. 90% of our glass goes down the tube and into the Bio Hazard waste site. Now if they'd go electric Moly, Steve I tried to sell you to them but they decided to go Gas again. They are building a new tank in April. Wright off you know.

3 Million for Steuben and 23 some million for CMoG. They are a fortune 500 company. Corning not CMoG.
Jay.

[Bruce Cobb]

This is so sad to hear about. "90% of our glass goes down the tube and into the Bio Hazard waste site." Jay, can you explain that? Why so much waste? If they do find a new owner it seems they'd have to make some very big changes.

[Dave Hilty]

Originally posted by Bruce Cobb
This is so sad to hear about. "90% of our glass goes down the tube and into the Bio Hazard waste site." Jay, can you explain that? Why so much waste? If they do find a new owner it seems they'd have to make some very big changes.

I hesitate to jump in to answer this question but the whole Steuben situation has me fascinated.

If you go to Steuben.com and survey the array of glass in the entire line, you begin to see how a glassworks can generate better than $20 Million a year. An incredible line of glass.

My understanding is that nothing but perfect pieces find it all the way through blowing, coldworking, engraving etc. Such is the nature of crystal in the old, classic style. No flaws, no bubbles, nothing but perfection. This means a very high percentage of scrap since only perfection flies.

Since its lead in the glass, and the volume of scrap is high, I imagine that the public eye forced the scrap to be treated as biohazard since lead can leach out, however slowly. Makes for a costly disposal budget for an enormous amount of scrap.

Of course the shifting taste of glass buyers is another issue. One of the news articles covering the sale spoke about demand dropping for clear crystal work. Must be all of us going crazy with color, luring the buyers away from that colorless Steuben stuff :)

[Pete VanderLaan]

QC rejects a lot of stuff. I think it's actually more like five million , not three. Maybe they should sell their scrap....

[Jay Holden]

Originally posted by Bruce Cobb
This is so sad to hear about. "90% of our glass goes down the tube and into the Bio Hazard waste site." Jay, can you explain that? Why so much waste? If they do find a new owner it seems they'd have to make some very big changes.

It's not only what is rejected through the inspection process it's the way we deliver the glass. It comes down a platnum tube in a steady stream. Molds are filled then the glass is "plugged" out by sticking the blowpipe in it then lifting it out of the mold. There's a timer that is used and the stream is cut at the specified time. 1:00min 1:30sec and so on depending what piece your making. The stream runs 24/7. Even when we're not at the studio. Steuben waists a lot of batch. I can't see anyone wanting to make glass that way any more. If someone was to buy the product line and the process there would deffinetly be a lot of changes as to how it is made. You can't just gather and cover it over. You'd get the worst looking glass you've evry seen.
Jay.

[Jay Holden]

Originally posted by Pete VanderLaan
QC rejects a lot of stuff. I think it's actually more like five million , not three. Maybe they should sell their scrap....

The company claims 3 but who knows for sure Pete. There's a big meeting on Tuesday. I won't be attending but I have my moles in place. The crew thinks the company may have a buyer. I'll get back to you.
Here is what the locals are saying about the sale/closing.

http://www.stargazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080309/COLUMNIST29/803090326/1124/COLUMNIST

[Allan Gott]

Couple of things I'm confused about Jay.

Darby said that the cullet stream was mixed with the raw batch and remelted............That wasn't happening???

The other thing was gathering crystal. I spent a day blowing at an English studio that was remelting Dartington crystal cullet. I had a good look at lots of finished product that looked OK.

It was like working with hot silly putty but I got the hang of it by the third piece or so.

Their process was quite different. They'd put all the crystal, colour etc on the pipe and then start the blowout. I got a lot of odd looks when I popped in a starter bubble.

[Pete VanderLaan]

Lemme see... At three mil it would be 250K per month or a mere 20K per day lost. No wonder they don't want to cop to 5 million. That would be serious chump change.

[Jay Holden]

Couple of things I'm confused about Jay.

Darby said that the cullet stream was mixed with the raw batch and remelted............That wasn't happening???

The other thing was gathering crystal. I spent a day blowing at an English studio that was remelting Dartington crystal cullet. I had a good look at lots of finished product that looked OK.

It was like working with hot silly putty but I got the hang of it by the third piece or so.

Their process was quite different. They'd put all the crystal, colour etc on the pipe and then start the blowout. I got a lot of odd looks when I popped in a starter bubble.


Some of the cullet IS put back into the tank with the batch but no wheres near what is scrapped. And believe me Allan, Dartington's quality and purity doesn't even come close to Steuben's. Our glass is PERFECT or it doesn't go out the door. It's a very stressful way to make glass because everything falls back on the blowers. Absolutly no seeds, stones, cord, dirt. No iimpurities of any kind. Our customer returns are like 7 pcs a year mostly broken by the consumer.
Jay.

[Franklin Sankar]

I bet the blowers are perfect also. I am glad I know one of them.:evil: I can understand your stress now.
Franklin

[Allan Gott]

Dartington's quality and purity doesn't even come close to Steuben's..

No doubt..........just relating to the possibility of gathering leaded crystal as opposed to working strictly from billets.......

[Jay Holden]

No doubt..........just relating to the possibility of gathering leaded crystal as opposed to working strictly from billets.......


The glass is so soft you can't gather with grace. It's like trying to gather paint on a stick. Most of it falls back into the tank or on the floor. If you look at the floor at Steuben you can see especialy around the tank and forebay area the burn marks where we have dropped glass. Cover overs are sloppy and you trap air between the gathers which is absolutly no good. Glass designer Beth Lipman worked with me on and off for a week and she wanted every piece gathered from the tank because she wanted the blisters and seeds and cord in her organic designs. Working with Beth was the most fun I have ever had at work.

Some of her pieces here I made.
Jay.

http://www.bethlipman.com/