Making glass paperweights using the steel plate, or marver, to make the molten glass circular
As a novel glass forming technique created in the middle of the last century BC, glassblowing exploited a working property of glass which was previously unknown to the glassworkers: inflation. During blowing, thinner layers of glass cool faster than thicker ones and become more viscous than the thicker layers. This effect allows production of blown glass with uniform thickness, instead of causing blow-through of the thinned layers. The bench is a glassblower's workstation, with a place for the glassblower to sit, a place for handheld tools, and two rails that the pipe or punty rides on while the blower works with the piece. Blocks are ladle-like tools made from water-soaked fruitwood, and are used similarly to the marver to shape and cool a piece in the early steps of creation. Jacks are tools shaped somewhat like large tweezers with two blades, used for forming shape later in the creation of a piece. Paddles are flat pieces of wood or graphite used for creating flat spots a bottom. Tweezers are used to pick out details or to pull on the glass. There are two types of shears, straight and diamond Straight shears are essentially bulky scissors, used for making linear cuts. Diamond shears have blades that form a diamond shape when partially open. These are used for cutting off masses of glass. There are many ways to apply patterns and color to blown glass, including rolling molten glass in powdered colour or larger pieces of colored glass called frit. Complex patterns with great detail can be created through the use of cane (rods of colored glass) and murrine (rods cut in cross-sections to reveal patterns). These pieces of color can be arranged in a pattern on a flat surface, and then "picked up" by rolling a bubble of molten glass over them. One of the most exacting and complicated caneworking techniques is "reticello", which involves creating two bubbles from cane, each twisted in a different direction and then combining them and blowing out the final piece
Size: 3600px × 4500px
Location: Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland
Photo credit: © Niall Ferguson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: glass, glassblowing, marver, molten, paperweight
