Corn Chronicle - Notes on the Making of a Giant Lit Glass Cob!

I’ve had four boxes of blown glass corn kernels in deep storage for over 15 years. On August 29, 2017 less than 2 months to go before the Autumn Lights Festival at the Gardens of Lake Merritt (and our 25th wedding anniversary), I decide it’s time to bring this corn cob idea out in the open. I ask my husband Barry for help because I have only the slightest idea of how to proceed and to go-it-alone would be impossible given the time-frame. Barry, always up for a challenge, agrees to partner-up!

Originally, I wanted just to make an oversized corn cob. I drew my idea onto a pane of glass for my studio window which Barry built for me in 2001. I couldn’t figure out an internal structure to hold the glass, so I left it alone. And now I wanted to add another layer of complexity… the lights!

But structure comes first, so Barry and I began experiments... would wire mesh soldered around the kernels work? No. Copper foil? Nope. How can we stack the kernels and still leave openings for the lights???

Last year, for a glass Pride of Madeira, I discovered a product called Magic Sculpt at Douglas and Sturgess – it is a two-part resin that can be worked by hand, cures in 4-6 hours and can be drilled, sawn and better yet, added-to after it cures. I surround some cracked kernels and an odd-shaped one in Magic Sculpt to see if it will stick to the glass but won’t shrink to cause breakage. The test goes extremely well…
 

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I knew about Cool Neon’s 5v strings of lights that could fit into the backs of the kernels, so we make a trip to see Gio and Benjamin to purchase about 100 lights, a bunch of connectors and shrink tubing.

Sept 7, 2017: I go to work on the 100-plus glass parts with the diamond saw, cutting back the “necks” until the openings were big enough for the lights to fit. Then I beveled the edges on my lathe and cleaned-out the residue so the lights won't reveal glass “saw dust” stuck inside the kernels. 

After scratching our heads and many kitchen table drawings, we decide on a few things:

1. The piece needs to come apart for ease of storage and transport;
2. We need room to get the wiring into the glass. Layers of glass kernel stacked together might work;
3. We need a structure to hold the glass and the external leaves which we’ll make out of copper. and
4. We’ll try and have fun and not stress (note to self!)

​Next, despite my nervousness about the possibility of wasting precious (if old) finished glass pieces, I attach 7 kernels together in a ring. The result is good: sturdy and solid enough to proceed. But alas, 7 kernels around isn’t visually good enough. You can see only one kernel head-on and the rest obliquely.

Sept 23, 2017: a watershed moment -  Barry uses a special Bosch vibrating saw to cut the 7 kernels apart and we decide to go with rings of 8.  Barry begins soldering the wires so we can wire up each layer separately.

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