Peter,
Back to 3010
Elf. Take a look at Jackson, C20 Factory Glass, p.163, bottom right, UGB
Ripple pattern. Imagine a tall, slim Hi-ball glass in this pattern with a slightly protruding foot. That's what came out of the 3010
Elf mould.
Now, while still plastic, turn it upside down and push it on to a cone-shaped former. Three things would happen:
1. The mouth of the vessel would flare out, most where the glass was thinnest and had least resilience nearest the rim.
2. The vessel would be compressed vertically, again most where the glass was thinnest and had least resilience nearest the rim, compressing the original evenly-spaced ripple pattern lines together.
Outcome? Your 3010
Elf vase. Keep going? A 3010
Elf mushroom posy.
3. Now for the drawback. Using such formers is inherently an unstable process. As the glass is being stretched, any weakness or lop-sidedness in the vessel will naturally be magnified, as the resilience is least at that point. Holding the vessel centrally on the former will correct this to a certain extent, but, even so, the glass will naturally twist to distort most at the weakest point. Hence most examples of Davidson cloud and plain glass shapes made using formers are more or less lop-sided. The more extreme the shape, the more lop-sided. It is inherent in the manufacturing process. Look at extreme examples like Davidson 700D and all Bagley and Davidson mushroom posies. Perfect symmetry is rarely found in such shapes.
Finally, it is not always obvious whether the glass was pushed on to a former, or slumped, i.e. allowed to flow and conform to the new shape under its own weight. A good example of a slumped shape is the Bagley butterfly bowl, made from the butterfly lampshade by slumping over a more flared former. As this pattern has thick ribs, pressing down on the former would force the thicker ribs to protrude from the rim. The opposite is the case, proving that the slumping technique was used. It is unfortunate that the best example is such a rarity. Does anyone know of a more readily accessible example?
Bernard C.
ps Look at the lovely 700VG vase on page 27 of Miller's '20s & '30s, made from the same mould as the 700D bowl. If you ignore the waist just under the rim, this is how 700 emerged from the mould, with the plunger moulding all of it down to the top of the panels at the equator. This 700VG was first cupped using one former, and then flared using another. As you will read, the editorial describes this as "mould-blown". Quite obviously the author had not properly thought about it. Find a 700VG in green cloud and you have a day to remember. Only 114 were made, according to the records consulted and published by Chris & Val Stewart. None at all were made in orange cloud or jade.
pps Reading p.163 in Jackson, I have found my first error. What a relief. I can't cope with perfection in publications. My 2B pencil positively leapt to my hand, and I joyfully inscribed a small marginal note. Jackson intimates that the UGB kingfisher bowl was made in amber. Not so. "Dark amber" perhaps, but more correctly "bottle brown". Thanks Peter.