KOG

Which stands for, Kokomo Opalesceant Glass. Here's their website;

http://www.kog.com/

It's pretty cool. I know because Mom and I took a tour of the factory yesterday. They only do one tour a day, 4 times a week. I'm not a glass artisan, I don't own any glass art - aside from a couple little tiny things - and I don't seek out glass art. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating tour. The factory itself was built in 1888 and has never been "updated". There is no climate control in the factory. So the winter months are probably ideal to work in. During the summer, the workers come in in the middle of the night and finish up their days work by morning.

Our first stop was the furnace room;

Each one of those costs about a million dollars to replace and they are on 24/7. It's 2600 degrees in there! To the left of this picture they are pouring molten glass into forms;

And to the left of this picture is where they plop down big clumps of molten glass that goes through rollers to create sheets of glass;

Next, we got to watch a couple craftsmen make a floppy bowl, hand blown and twirled;

There is a lot storage for the glass. This a picture of where they put the sheets of glass - about the size of 1/2 of your sliding glass door;

And there are lots and lots of little isles like this one;

And here's a bit of fun trivia ~ every person who has ever worked at KOG, has the signed a wall somewhere in the factory;



Chances are, if you're ever in an old church or building with stained glass windows, that glass was made here at KOG.

I highly recommend the tour next time you have a couple hours to kill.