In the backroom of Oak Brothers Antiques on North Pearl Street, master craftsman Mike Malovich works at a trade few would even attempt, much less try to make a living at.
Malovich bends glass. And as far as he knows, the only other business like his on the West Coast is in California.
A modest man in overalls and an old shirt, he never dreamed he’d end up doing custom work for Bill Gates’ home or all the light fixtures for the Rialto Theater’s restoration.
In 1981, Malovich worked in antique refinishing, including china closets. He also loved lamps with bent glass shades, but knew of no one who could repair them. Then a three-page magazine article changed his life.
“It was on doing lampshades,” Malovich said. “It gave me a formula for a mixture I used to cast the molds, basic information plus a few photographs. Just enough to get started.”
PERSEVERANCE
And so he experimented.
But when replacing the curved glass in china closets with mass-produced panels, a discrepancy in radius appeared when he cut pieces to length.
“Bending glass is like baking a cake,” Malovich said. “It gets done in the center last. They would come in with one radius on one end and a flatter radius on the other, because it hadn’t gotten done.”
He was not ready to accept defeat. “I said to my wife, Wendy, ‘There must be a better way to do this.’”
Determined, Malovich designed and built his own kilns, doing the cutting and welding himself, but he still needed molds. Lampshade glass is molded in pottery plaster and vermiculite, but clear glass requires stainless steel. He had Schneider Simpson Sheet Metal Co. make the molds and then began bending panels.
They kept breaking.
“I had to learn how fast to heat them up, and how hot,” Malovich said. “If I got them too hot they would get blemishes or stick to the mold.” It took experimenting until he found just the right temperature.
Thanks to his “better way,” china closet glass now accounts for 80 percent of his business. Malovich ships to all the Western states, including Alaska, where customers’ orders are barged in. He also produces up to 300 lampshades a month for a company called Flux. Owner Bradley Sweek, says: “The signature focus is Mike’s glass, and we build the rest behind it.”
Michael Klebeck and his brother, Mark, founders of Seattle’s Top Pot Doughnuts, used Malovich’s work in three of their retail spaces. Klebeck spoke with enthusiasm: “His boutique style, specialized detail and willingness to experiment are what made our final build-outs so special.”
Tacoma homeowners, Cal and Joanne Bamford, needed to replace a curved casement window that had cracked in their 1905 house. Malovich bent the glass and also copied the wavy “rolled glass” look.
“He did a wonderful job,” said Mrs. Bamford. “We were trying to maintain the integrity of our home’s style, and he matched it so well.”
STILL LEARNING
“I’m still learning,” Malovich said. “After 28 years there are still times when I think, ‘Now, how am I going to do this?’” He’s found the solution to every dilemma, except one: Who will take over when he retires?
“Coincidentally,” he said, smiling, “just today a young man came in asking me to teach him. We’ll see.”
Glass in your house
Uses for Malovich’s custom glass in your home or business:
China closets: Replace broken curved glass in antique or reproduction china closets.
Light fixtures: Replace broken glass in antique, modern or custom fixtures.
Florescent Lighting: Consider custom covers for florescent tubes.
Convex picture frame glass: Many antique picture frames, often oval, used convex glass.
Kitchen cabinets: Give your cabinets a custom look with curved glass doors.
Display cases: Show off your collections in a curved glass case or use them in retail settings, as Top Pot has done.
Glass cabinet doors: Replace broken glass that needs to have polished edges and drilled hinge holes.
Vintage window glass: Vintage “rolled glass,” even curved, can be replicated.
No go: Sorry, no shower doors or anything involving tempered glass.
