Products offered :
Biography
With a DEC in plastic arts from the CEGEP of Sherbrooke in 1983, Guy Fortier broadens his curiosity and completes a DEP in woodworking in 1984 in Sherbrooke. He discovers that he is attracted to working with materials and he adds to his formation a BAC in visual arts at UQAC in Chicoutimi in 1988.
Along the way, his passion leads him to invest as a snow sculptor as achieves close to 50 different sculptures. He participates at many provincial and national contests where he wins many awards. He becomes co-founder of a shop in Chicoutimi which specialized in moulding plaster and fibreglass. Many local artists take advantage of this multidisciplinary workshop to expose their own work.
Different employments bring him to work with and develop different techniques: from earth mould to plaster and fibreglass mould; lettering commercial buildings, to publicity vehicles; from mould creator to bronze and aluminium melting. Then he finds his way as a glass engraver. For eleven years, he works at a renowned commercial shop in Chicoutimi where he is in charge of the design and production of stairs ramps, separating walls, engraved glass tables and mirrors. He supervises different workshop tasks and personalised sales to the clients at the shop. From 1999 to 2000, he helps a few commercial businesses where he design and realize decorative glass pieces using sand blasting.
In 2005, he receives the necessary municipal authorizations to operate his own shop. An important step to his goals and ambitions is being achieved: the opening of VERREGLAS.
Known and renown in the Saguenay region, Guy Fortier passes to the next step. He wants to reach outside the region and invite the world to challenge him to new creations. His art is highly and warmly appreciated by individuals as well as by enterprises who are looking for ways to distinguish and demark themselves to achieve desires, fantasies through practical and original articles for inside and outside decoration and this to the visual contentment and satisfaction of Guy Fortier's creations.
Glass composition
To appreciate and well understand the glass material, there is nothing better than knowing its composition and fabrication through a didactical approach.
There exists many glass types and their chemical components vary depending upon use and wanted attributes. This is why we find four principal kinds of glass on the market :
1. Silico-Sodo-Calcareous glass:
- building windows
- transportation: car, plane, boat
- decoration
2. Borosilicate glass: (low dilatation coefficient)
- laboratory glassware
- culinary glassware
3. Ceramic glass: (no dilatation)
- cooking surface
- fireplace glass
4. Lead glass: (high dilatation coefficient and high light diffusion)
- cristal (verrerie et décoration)
- protection rayon X
Consequently we can see that most of the main glass components are natural. They each have their own specific function in making a glass ribbon :
1. Glass former:
- oxide glass former
- sand (98% of SiO2)
2. Flux:
- oxide lowering the fusion temperature
- sodium carbonate (Na2O)
3. Stabilizer:
- chemical durability
- calcium oxide (CaO)
- magnesium (MgO)
- alumine (Al2O3)
4. Incrustration:
- lowering of the fusion temperature
- recycled glass
- additives : metallic oxides (colouring agents)
Glass production
These days, glass production factories use the FLOAT PROCESS, developed by Mr Pilkington (England) around 1960. It is in fact a chain of steps resulting in a quality finished product :
First, the glass is melted and cleared of gas bubbles and homogenized in the REFINING ZONE at 1350 degree Celsius then cooled slowly to 1000 degrees Celsius.
The liquid glass then obtained flows in an OVEN containing very pure tin in fusion. The oven atmosphere is then lowered to avoid that the metal oxidises the tin. The glass which is less dense than the tin literally floats over it and makes a ribbon of which the natural thickness is 6mn. Some mechanical related devices enable to reduce or accelerate the spreading of this glass ribbon in order to control the thickness and parallelism of the surfaces. The polishing is done, for the top face with the action of fire and for the inferior face with the tin in fusion.
At the exit of the tin bath, the glass is at 620 degree Celsius temperature. It is then sufficiently solid to be transported over rolls introduced in continuity in to a re-cooking tunnel, the annealing lehr, inside which the temperature lowers progressively at 250 Celsius degree. During the slow cooling, the glass is relieved of all the internal stresses.
The glass ribbon, which cools slowly at room temperature, is automatically cut in tiles 6m. X 3.2m. These tiles are then handled with the use of suction cups towards the storage and dispatching area, to then be loaded onto transport.
Glass engraving
Production steps:
- 1. Meet with the client to define his needs
- 2. Production of a full size product pattern
- 3. Approval of the pattern by the client
- 4. Cutting and shaping of the glass :
- cutting to the desire size
- polishing and/or bevelling of the glass
- 5. Preparation of the glass for engraving :
- fixing of a vinyl glass protector
- marking out the pattern on vinyl
- cutting the pattern with utility knife
- 6. Sand blast engraving: always starting with the most frosted spots (completely white) or carved, followed by three shade intensity
- 7. Preparation of the glue to flake the glass
- 8. Installation of the warm glue fixing with a syringe, on the glass
- 9. Cutting, with a utility knife, the edge of the glued zone so that flaking under stress does not occur
- 10. The water in the glue is left to evaporate completely, with the help of a dehumidifier or a source of heat and a fan (air circulation) for 4 to 6 hours
- 11. Once the glue is well dried, the glass is put into an oven for 8 hours
- 12. Once the flaking is finished, the glass is washed in warm water to dissolve the lasts glue residues which are left behind
- 13. Installation of the product at the client's sight
- 14. Picture taking of the finished product in its environment
Equipment
Here are a few pictures of some of my equipment :
