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The Art Of Glass Blowing
Glass Blowing
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The first man-made glass was created about 5,500 years ago in the form of beads.
About 3,500 years ago a technique was developed that permitted glass to be formed
into the shapes of vases and bowls. That technique, called "core formed," was very
laborious and only royalty could afford to own such pieces. It is not used today,
and there are many questions as to the details of that technique. About 2,000 years
ago the technique of "glass blowing" was invented. There are actually a few techniques
known as glassblowing. The technique Jeff uses is the oldest of them and has changed
very little in the 2,000 years since its invention. This technique consists of dipping
a pipe (the blowpipe) into a pot of molten glass which is inside a high-temperature
furnace (at about 2200ºF). Glass is gathered onto the blowpipe. Pipe and glass are
removed from the furnace, and by blowing thru the pipe the ball of molten glass
is expanded into a thick bubble. Additional glass is then gathered onto that bubble
and colors are added. The bubble of hot glass is then worked, that is, formed by
using practically anything that will not be too badly burned by the hot glass: wet
sticks, wooden molds, pliers, scissors, wire, and so forth. During the shaping process
the piece must be frequently returned to a furnace in order to keep it soft enough
to work. From time to time additional glass may be gathered up. Halfway thru the
shaping process, the piece is transferred from the blow pipe to an iron rod (called
a punty). This permits the part of the glass that was in contact with the blow pipe
to be opened up to form the mouth of a vase or bowl, for instance. When the piece
has the desired look, it is carefully broken off the punty and placed into a temperature-controlled
oven (the annealer), where it is slowly cooled down to room temperature. Depending
upon the thickness of the glass this cool down may take from 12 to 48 hours. This
style of glass blowing is often called furnace or off-hand blowing. If you would
like to see a sequence of photos of Jeff making a large plate, just
click here.
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Studio Glass
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Jeff Price is a studio-glass blower. Briefly, that means that he does everything
by himself: melting the glass, forming it, coloring it, annealing it, etc. Although
when glassblowing was invented 2,000 years ago pieces may have been made by individual
artisans, for the past several hundred years (until the 1960s) it has been made
only by teams of people working together in a factory. A typical factory team consists
of about five workers, each doing a specific part of the manufacture of every piece.
Glassblowing is considered to be the first craft to have been ``industrialized.''
In the early 1960s it was realized that an individual craftsman, working alone,
could blow glass. And this realization gave birth to what is called the Studio Glass
Movement. There are now hundreds of individuals around the world blowing glass.
In many cases the individuals have hired assistants and now produce their glass
in a mini-factory-like situation. But Jeff chooses to work entirely alone, which
enables him to have complete control over the design and execution of his works.
In recent years studio-blown glass has become a favorite item to give for all sorts
of occasions: weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, or any other time that
one needs something unique.
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Crackle Glass
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Crackle glass was invented in the 16th century by the master glassblowers of Venice.
The crackle effect is produced by briefly submerging the very hot glass into cold
water during the glass-forming process. This causes the outer layer of glass to
crack. When the glass is then reheated and expanded (by blowing into the blowpipe)
the cracks grow larger. Crackle glass (often spelled "craquelle") did not become
popular until the late 1800s. From about 1920 to 1960 many glass houses produced
it. But very little crackle glass has been produced since then. During the past
ten years collecting crackle glass has become a very important specialty among many
glass collectors. Until recently almost all crackle pieces were made exclusively
of transparent glass (thus it is often referred to as "ice glass"). Although Jeff
often makes pieces in that classic technique, he more frequently employs opaque
glasses in his designs. He says he likes the rich, fascinating contrasts that appear
when the opaque glasses form their many random crack lines. But whether one uses
transparent or opaque (or both), the crackle effect yields an exciting piece of
glass -- which by its very nature is totally unique. If you would like to see pictures
of Jeff blowing a crackle piece, just click here.
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Dichroic Glass
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The word "dichroic" means two colors. This refers to the fact that the glass shows
different colors depending upon the angle from which it is viewed. For instance,
one type is red when you look thru it and green when you see light reflected off
its surface. Dichroic glass was probably first made in the late 1800s in Germany
by Arthur Pfeiffer. However, it was not until NASA developed the modern process
for making it in the 1960s that it became inexpensive enough that it could be employed
in glassblowing. (It is still not cheap: $100 to $200 a square foot.) The manufacturing
process consists of depositing many very thin (typically one atom thick) layers
of special materials on the surface of a piece of glass. This must be done in an
ultra clean environment in a special high-vacuum chamber. The materials to be deposited
are placed in a cup in the bottom of the vacuum chamber and bombarded by an intense
electron beam. This beam vaporizes some of the material which then coats on the
sheet of glass. The result is a uniquely interesting glass.
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Hanging