Sculpting hot blown glass, glowing due to blackbody radiation.

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Glass Blowing (116642)

Glassblowing is the process of forming glass into useful shapes while the glass is in a molten, semi-liquid state. A person who blows glass is called a glassblower, glasssmith, or gaffer. more...

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History

While the first evidence of man-made glass occurs in Mesopotamia in the Late-Third/Early-Second Millennium B.C., the actual "blowing" of glass using a tube did not occur until sometime in the First century BC in Roman Syria. Glassblowing is a form of art that requires extreme training and an intense level of aptitude. This advancement transformed the material's usefulness from a time-consuming process in which the medium was hot-formed around rough cores of mud and dung into a mass-producible material which could be quickly inflated into large, transparent, and leak-proof vessels. Glassblowing techniques spread throughout the Roman world. Venice, particularly the island of Murano, became a centre for high quality glass manufacture in the late medieval period.

The relatively recent "studio glass movement" began in 1962 when Harvey Littleton, a ceramics professor, and Dominick Labino, a chemist and engineer, held two workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art, during which they began experimenting with melting glass in a small furnace and creating blown glass art. Thus Littleton and Labino are credited with being the first to make molten glass available to artists working in private studios. This approach to glassblowing blossomed into a worldwide movement, producing such flamboyant and prolific artists as Dale Chihuly, Dante Marioni, Fritz Driesbach and Marvin Lipofsky. Lino Tagliapietra was the first Murano-trained artist to leave and spread his knowledge in the United States. In 1971, Dale Chihuly began the Pilchuck Glass School near Stanwood, Washington. The Pilchuck School of Glass became the source of a great deal of the current American Studio Glass movement, and continues as such today.

In addition to glassblowing as an art, many individuals pursue glassblowing as a hobby. In fact, it is one of the fastest growing hobbies in North America.

Process

Traditionally, the glass was melted in furnaces from the raw ingredients of sand, limestone, soda ash, potash and other compounds. The transformation of raw materials into glass takes place well above 2000°F (1100°C); the glass turns into a burnt orange color, the glass is then left to "fine out" (allowing the bubbles to rise out of the mass), and then the working temperature is reduced in the furnace to around 2000°F (1100°C). "Soda-lime" glass remains somewhat plastic and workable, however, as low as 1000°F (550°C).

Glassblowing involves three furnaces. The first, which contains a crucible of molten glass, is simply referred to as "the furnace." The second is called the "Glory Hole", and is used to reheat a piece in between steps of working with it. The final furnace is called the "lehr" or "annealer", and is used to slowly cool the glass, over a period of a few hours to a few days, depending on the size of the pieces. This keeps the glass from cracking due to thermal stress. Historically, all three furnaces were contained in one, with a set of progressively cooler chamber for each of the three purposes. Many glassblowing studios in Mexico and South America still employ this method.