What Is Hand-Blown Glass?

Artificial glass blowing is an ancient craft, which was invented by Syrian artisans about 2,000 years ago.

The process of hand-blowing glass is as follows:

1 picking

After the quartz sand and various coloring auxiliary materials are heated to a liquid state, the blowing craftsman uses a picking rod to pick out a small piece of the material in the material pool.

2 Blowing small bubbles

The blower will pick out the glass frit and blow a small ball (like a small light bulb) through the pick rod

3 Blow the cannon

Another blowing craftsman puts the blown bubbles into the material pool, dips some material liquid, puts them into the opened mold, and blows out the shape required by the mold. (This process requires blowers to have many years of blowing foundation before they can start work)

4 heating temperature control

After the blown mold is formed, there is only a cup body, and the bottom of the cup body needs to be processed continuously, so its temperature cannot be lowered, so this part should be heated and controlled.

5 Stretch

After the sticky material under the cup is baked at high temperature, it is made into a cup and the size is controlled as required. Instead of using rulers, craftsmen rely entirely on "visual inspection" experience to make the visual error within the required range. This process is the biggest difference between hand-blown glass and machine-made glass.

6 make the bottom

After pulling it up, it is time to make the base of the cup. First pick a little material and stick it to the tail, cut off the excess after sticking the material, and then use the splint tool to make the bottom of the cup.

7 Annealing

After pinching the bottom, the cup is basically formed, and then placed in an annealing kiln for annealing treatment. This step is to reduce the stress of the cup

8 bursts

After the stress is removed, wait for the cup to cool down. There is excess waste at the mouth of the cup. After measuring with a ruler, cut the upper part according to the required size. First, use a glass knife to pull the cup around and then bake it with fire.

9 grinding mouth

After stepping up, the mouth of the cup is easy to cut people, so the mouth of the cup must be smoothed evenly on the electric terrazzo board.

10 baked mouth

The mouth of each cup is roasted at high temperature to soften the edges and smooth them.

11 Inspection Package

The inspector inspects each molded cup and selects it according to the quality requirements. After the inspection, the cups are scrubbed by packing workers, packed, and put into storage.

In the process of artificial glass blowing, due to the slow flow of hot glass paste, the air between the glass blocks cannot float out of the surface and naturally form bubbles. This is a normal existence, and it is also the reason for the naked eye to distinguish artificial blown glassware from machine-made glassware. an important feature. And artists also use bubbles to express the life texture of glass, and bubbles have become a part of appreciating handmade glass art!

Reminder:

Handmade glass products have air bubbles within 2mm, internal feather lines, and slight cup external rotation lines, which are normal process phenomena and not workmanship defects or quality problems.