All About Glass

All About Glass

This is your resource for exploring various topics in glass: delve deeper with this collection of articles, multimedia, and virtual books all about glass. Content is frequently added to the area, so check back for new items. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, send us your suggestion. If you have a specific question, Ask a Glass Question at our Rakow Research Library.

Vasenpokal | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows the vessel being made in a sequence of steps, one of which includes the use of a full-size blow-mold. The manufacturing process for the lid is then shown. Learn more about this object in The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking by William Gudenrath. Between about

Turquoise Pot | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video begins with the making of the different canes and bands required. After these elements are rolled up on the end of a blowpipe, the open-ended cylinder is lined with colorless glass using the sbruffo method. Glassblowing is then employed to make the vessel. The handle is fashioned from

Swedish Covered Goblet | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows, first, the four elements of the goblet and a fifth element for the finial of the lid being made and placed in an oven. Next, the assembly process begins. After the foot element has been attached to a pontil, the other parts are added and adhered together using small amounts of

Verzelini Goblet | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows the three parts—bowl, stem, and foot—attached directly from above without the use of mereses, which are more conventionally employed. Learn more about this object in The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking by William Gudenrath Between about 1500 and 1725, Venice

Openwork Goblet | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

In this video, first the bowl or cup is blown of colorless glass. Next, a series of solid and hollow elements are stacked, interrupted by three straps that create an open-work structure. Tiny raspberry prunts are added, and then a blown foot is attached. Finally, the rim is created while the vessel

Beaker | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows first the two types of required canes being made and arranged in a pattern on a ceramic plate. After the canes are fused together, a thick, cylindrical bubble of glass is rolled over the canes so that they become attached. After reheating, glassblowing is used to make the beaker.

Winged Glass | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

A partly hollow combination merese/avolio construction is added to the tip of a bubble of glass that eventually becomes the bowl (or cup). A complex, multi-part stem and foot are then attached. The vessel is completed while it is held by a pontil. Learn more about this object in The Techniques of

Stangenglas | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows retortoli canes being made and cut, then placed on a ceramic place-holding plate and then pre-heated. Next, a thick cylindrical bubble of glass is rolled over the canes, thus embedding them in its surface. Glassblowing is then used to make the vessel and its foot. Learn more about

Swiss Goblet | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows white canes of a small diameter being made. Next, the pre-heated canes are rolled up on the exterior of a thick-walled, cylindrical bubble of glass. This is then formed into a preliminary stem and foot construction, to be used later in the manufacturing process. The bowl is blown

Ferdinand II Beaker | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows the making of the vessel body and a small blown-foot with a folded edge. At the end of the glassblowing processes, a fin-mold is used to transform the upper-half of the vessel and the rim from a round to hexagonal shape. Learn more about this object in The Techniques of Renaissance

Bill Gudenrath Live-streamed Studio Demonstration (January 2019)
Video

An expert on Venetian glass, William Gudenrath taught students in his January 2019 class how to create well-formed and thinly-blown vessel bodies, excellent necks, delicate mereses, and blown feet and stems. In this demo from January 16, Gudenrath shares his knowledge of reticello —a type of blown

Ewer with Lion Mask
Video

Listen as curator Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk describes this Venetian ewer, made with milk glass canes and decorated with applied lion-mask prunts (small ornaments that are like medallions stuck to the outside of a vessel). Differently patterned milk glass canes were and are used to make glass

Three Citrus Fruits (Family App)
Video

The Venetians were clever glassmakers. They could make bowls, goblets, and decorative objects such as these citrus fruits, which were meant to be suspended as ornaments.

Later Goblet-Building Process
Video

In this video, a goblet is made using a technique that was employed in the 19th century and later. The stem and foot are made first, then set aside. Eventually, they are added to the cup with glue bits. Learn more in The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian Glassworking by William Gudenrath. The

Master Class 2: Introduction to Venetian Techniques with William Gudenrath
Video

William Gudenrath, resident advisor of The Studio, provides instruction in the basics of Venetian glassblowing and creates his own Venetian-inspired glass pieces. The portrait of the artist focuses on his passion for glassblowing, teaching and music. Master Class Series, Vol. II: Introduction to

Analyses of Some Finds from the Gnalić Wreck
Article

Fragments of eight types of objects excavated from the Gnalić shipwreck were submitted to The Corning Museum of Glass for examination and chemical analysis. 1 The specimens, which are from the collections of the Narodni Museum in Zadar, consisted of fragments of six glass objects and two pigment