Glass Natural

Glass Natural

Glass Vocabulary: glassmaking techniques and other vocabulary A to Z – Part 1

Air bubbles: these appear particularly on early soda glass vessels and stained glass windows. But today they are sometimes used for decorative purposes.

Abrasion: using wheels to cut shallow decorative areas in glass. Process of using hard particles and stones to cut or mat the surface of glass, or to shape glass objects.

Annealing: process of slowly cooling a completed object in a separate part of the glass furnace or in a separate furnace.

Applied decoration: A form of relief ornamentation, by adding to the vessel's surface glass threads, trails, blobs, prunts, and other motifs.

Art glass: a term used very loosely to describe much of the ornamental glass produced in the latter part of the 19th century.

Baluster: Early English drinking glass, which rests on a stem of baluster (slender above, swelling below) or inverted baluster form, often with knops. Balustroids are lighter and taller.

Batch: Mixture of prepared and measured glassmaking ingredients, used for melting.

Battuto: (Italian: beating) A style of wheel-cutting, in which the surface is cut to produce innumerable small irregular markings running in the same direction.

Blank: A plain-surfeced object, before subsequent adornment.

Bloom: The dulling of the glass surface when it is affected by smoke or fume.

Blowing: The process of introducing air into glass to form hollow ware.

Blowpipe (or blow iron): The length of thin tubing made of hollow iron used by a lampworker for working glass. The thick end is used to gather a blob of molten glass. The other end is used for blowing.

Borosilicate: This type of glass has heat- and shock-resistant properties. It was developed by Schott in Germany and Corning in the USA in the 20th century.

Bottle glass: unrefined glass, naturally dark green or brown, used for 17th century English bottles and early Nailsea domestic wares.

Cameo glass: Glass layered or cased, and the outer layer then removed in part, for designs in relief against a background of contrasting color.

Carrot: Rods of glass, mostly containing twists of various kinds, for forming the stems of goblets.

Casing/cased: Glass made up of different colored layers. These are used for cameo decoration.

Cast: Work which has been produced by forming the glass in a mold.

Cold painting: painting on glass with lacquer or oil based pigments, with no subsequent firing.

Combed decoration: glass threads applied to an object's surface, pulled with a pointed tool to form wavy, zig-zag and other patterns, and marvered flat. This method was used in ancient Egyptian glass.

Cristallo: Venetian soda glass, colorless.

Crizzling: Degeneration of glass, usually due to inaccurate mixing of ingredients. Also called ‘diseased' glass.

Crystal: general term for high quality clear glass. They contain a minimum amount of lead oxide.

Cullet: Broken pieces of glass added to the batch; they melt readily, saving fuel and material costs.

 

(To see the entire list of glass vocabulary, visit the Glass Art Encyclopedia.)

About the Author

Interested in art glass?
Visit Mirakkul Glassware for exquisite hand blown glass vases, bowls, and paperweights that combine beauty and functionality.

what kind of glass is the glass they call blue obsidian?

There are many sites selling items made up of what they call man man obsidian. Since obsidian is a natural glass formed from volcanic ash, that must mean man made blue obsidian is glass. Is there any actual quality that makes "man made blue obsidian" a different or better type of glass than others?

There is a natural glass that is blue - the original blue obsidian.
Man made blue obsidian is just a fancy name for glass and another way to rip people off.

NATURAL WEAPON / GLASS CLASH