glass blowing or glass studio
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Glass and glassblowing
Glass is what you get if you mix quarts(silica), potash, chalk and a lot of temperature.
Today there is glass all over, just look at your computer screen or your beer glass.
Glass was first invented in the area around Persian. In the start the basic glass was made by rolling an iron bar into a nice mix of horse dung and clay (nice job !) dry the hole thing for a while and then dip it into molten glass. When the glass was cold you could scrape out the horse dung/clay mix and then you could have your first cup or perfume bottle.
Today most glass is made on big machines and produced by the thousands. Window glass is made by putting and iron bar vertical into the molten glass and then lift it up to about 20 meters or more. After that you just cut it into suitable pieces.
You can in most countries se sweating (stinking !) people making glass a way that was invented by the Romans around Year 0 . They normally have some small studios whit a bit of mess lying in the back of the workshop. It can be very interesting to watch how it is done so if you have the time they would normally be happy to show you how this very persistent material can be shaped into a vine glass, vase, bowl or simply a very difficult piece of art. If you want to talk to these sweating people there are some things you should not ask them for a beginning;
"Not to ask"
How hot is the glass
Do you burn your self often
Can you keep warm
Apart from that they are friendly people. The answers (not that answer) to the questions is;
the glass is around 1100 degrees centigrade.
No you do not burn yourself when you work whit glass – its very hot and you stay away.
Try working in 30 degrees and be cool.
Blowing glass
To blow glass is not what you should try to do at home. It is very hot and a bit more difficult than it look.
First you take a hollow piece of steel and rotate it in the molten glass until you have gathered the amount of glass that you need. Then you go to you glass bench (or you glass stand if you are from east Europe) you cool the surface and blow the thing into the shape that you want. During that you use some very simple tools as newspaper a forge sheepshearer, a little modified, and maybe some wet wood( factory glass stops here) . When you have the right shape (or the best you can do) you transfer the piece to a punty, which is a steel rod whit some hot glass in the end which you use as a glue. Whit the piece on the punty, you warm the thing up in the furnace and using the same tools as before you can finish the piece to your desire (some times it drops to the floor – then you keep quiet).
To avoid the thing to crack, explode or worse you have to cool the glass very slowly in the annealing oven. Usually about 12 hours later you can touch the piece.
Some good places to watch glassblowing (which i know of)
Seattel USA.New york USA. London England. Ebeltoft Denmark. Smaaland Sweden. Murano Italy. Basicly all over the world just go and look.
Glass is what you get if you mix quarts(silica), potash, chalk and a lot of temperature.
Today there is glass all over, just look at your computer screen or your beer glass.
Glass was first invented in the area around Persian. In the start the basic glass was made by rolling an iron bar into a nice mix of horse dung and clay (nice job !) dry the hole thing for a while and then dip it into molten glass. When the glass was cold you could scrape out the horse dung/clay mix and then you could have your first cup or perfume bottle.
Today most glass is made on big machines and produced by the thousands. Window glass is made by putting and iron bar vertical into the molten glass and then lift it up to about 20 meters or more. After that you just cut it into suitable pieces.
You can in most countries se sweating (stinking !) people making glass a way that was invented by the Romans around Year 0 . They normally have some small studios whit a bit of mess lying in the back of the workshop. It can be very interesting to watch how it is done so if you have the time they would normally be happy to show you how this very persistent material can be shaped into a vine glass, vase, bowl or simply a very difficult piece of art. If you want to talk to these sweating people there are some things you should not ask them for a beginning;
"Not to ask"
How hot is the glass
Do you burn your self often
Can you keep warm
Apart from that they are friendly people. The answers (not that answer) to the questions is;
the glass is around 1100 degrees centigrade.
No you do not burn yourself when you work whit glass – its very hot and you stay away.
Try working in 30 degrees and be cool.
Blowing glass
To blow glass is not what you should try to do at home. It is very hot and a bit more difficult than it look.
First you take a hollow piece of steel and rotate it in the molten glass until you have gathered the amount of glass that you need. Then you go to you glass bench (or you glass stand if you are from east Europe) you cool the surface and blow the thing into the shape that you want. During that you use some very simple tools as newspaper a forge sheepshearer, a little modified, and maybe some wet wood( factory glass stops here) . When you have the right shape (or the best you can do) you transfer the piece to a punty, which is a steel rod whit some hot glass in the end which you use as a glue. Whit the piece on the punty, you warm the thing up in the furnace and using the same tools as before you can finish the piece to your desire (some times it drops to the floor – then you keep quiet).
To avoid the thing to crack, explode or worse you have to cool the glass very slowly in the annealing oven. Usually about 12 hours later you can touch the piece.
Some good places to watch glassblowing (which i know of)
Seattel USA.New york USA. London England. Ebeltoft Denmark. Smaaland Sweden. Murano Italy. Basicly all over the world just go and look.
