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.

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Elizabeth Fortunato: Celebrity Cruises Glassmaking Scholarship Recipient
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Elizabeth Fortunato began studying glassblowing at the Pittsburgh Glass Center through a high school program. She continued working with glass through college, exploring kiln working at Kent State. In 2012, she was awarded a Celebrity Cruises Glassmaking Scholarship to take Erica Rosenfeld and Leo

Paul Stankard's Demo at 2011 GlassFest
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Paul Stankard's demo at the 2011 GlassFest in Corning, N.Y.

Elements Glass at 2300°: Holiday Groove
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At 2300° in December 2013, the master minds behind Elements Glass of Portland, Ore., created a colorful Caribbean sculpture live on the Hot Glass Show stage.

Cory Dunnington: Celebrity Cruise Scholarship Recipient
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Along with stained glass, Cory Dunnington makes fused and cast glass art. Color inspires much of Cory's work, and Heike Brachlow's kilnworking class, Shaping Color: From Raw Materials to Finished Sculpture at The Studio, gave her the unique opportunity to create the colors she wanted to

2300°: Fire and Wine (January 19, 2012)
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The Corning Museum of Glass presents its popular 2300° series of art happenings each year, featuring live music, hot glassmaking, and great food and drink. This video gives you an inside look at the festivities at 2300°: Fire and Wine (Jan. 19, 2012), including music by The Weber Brothers,

2300°: Mardi Gras Snow Day (February 16, 2012)
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The Corning Museum of Glass presents its popular 2300° series of art happenings each year, featuring live music, hot glassmaking, and great food and drink. This video gives you an inside look at the festivities at 2300°: Mardi Gras Snow Day (Feb. 16, 2012), including music by Curley Taylor &

(No sound) Medieval Glass: Making a 14th/15th century bottle
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This video shows the technique of making a 14th/15th century bottle, an object in the exhibition Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants, on view at The Corning Museum of Glass from May 15, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

(No sound) Medieval Glass: Making a cage foot
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This video shows the technique of making a cage foot, an object in the exhibition Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants, on view at The Corning Museum of Glass from May 15, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

(No sound) Medieval Glass: Making a stangenglas
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This video shows the technique of making a stangenglas, an object in the exhibition Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants, on view at The Corning Museum of Glass from May 15, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

Gold Leaf
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Gold decoration has been popular since Egyptian times. Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic workshops also used it frequently. Beginning in the Renaissance, gold decoration became an indispensable part of the Venetian style.

(No sound) Medieval Glass: Making prunts
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This video shows the technique of making prunts, seen on objects in the exhibition Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants, on view at The Corning Museum of Glass from May 15, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

Cutting Glass with a Diamond Saw
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Throughout glass history, workers have needed to saw pieces of glass cleanly. Using string and gritty mud-like slurry, ancient Egyptians and Greeks, for example, spent days accomplishing what the modern electric diamond saw does in seconds.

Grinding Glass
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Grinding is a process of removal by abrasion. People were grinding stone tools long before the discovery of glassmaking.

Spiral Thread and Handle on Roman Bottle
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Decoration in glassblowing at the furnace doesn't get more basic than this. Although it looks easy, glassblowing students struggle for weeks with every step forward!

(No Sound) Medieval Glass: Making a multi-sided beaker
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This video shows the technique of making a multi-sided beaker, an object in the exhibition Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants, on view at The Corning Museum of Glass from May 15, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

Ice Glass
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A spectacular demonstration unique to glassblowing, ice glass was widely popular in Low Country cities like Amsterdam during the 17th century. Did the abundant canals of Amsterdam and of Venice, where the process was invented, inspire this watery idea?

(No sound) Medieval Glass: Making a prunted beaker
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This video shows the technique of making a prunted beaker, an object in the exhibition Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants, on view at The Corning Museum of Glass from May 15, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

Hand Sanding Glass
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Everyone knows that wood can be sanded to change its finish; surprisingly, so can glass. Specialized grinding blocks coated with industrial diamonds are best, but regular sandpaper works too.

Dremel Tool
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The next time you're in the dentist's chair, know that the grinding you hear—and feel—could also be taking place on a piece of glass! The very same tool can be used by artists to create beautiful engraved effects.

Raw Materials of Glass
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See and understand the magical process of making glass from simple materials, by using great heat. Until the most recent times, glassmaking was a closely guarded secret passed on within workshops or even families from one generation to the next, often over hundreds of years.

Prince Rupert's Drop
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Don't try this at home! A classic demonstration involving exploding glass: it spectacularly shows both the great strength and vulnerability of glass that has been rapidly cooled from the molten state.

Jobs in a 19th-Century Glass Factory
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In a typical glass factory in earlier times, most workers would work as unskilled laborers. An unskilled laborer was usually called "boy," a term which did not refer to the age of the individual. Although girls were known to perform other work, they often worked as inspectors and packers

60 Years- The Studio
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The Studio, which opened in 1996, is an internationally renowned teaching facility that offers classes in a variety of glassmaking techniques to students of all ages and skill levels. Artists and students come from all over the world to teach, to learn, and to create their own work in glass. The

Emilio Santini- Artist's Choice Tour
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Emilio Santini speaks about his favorite Livio Seguso pieces within the Voices of Contemporary Glass exhibit at The Corning Museum of Glass.

Coloring Glass
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Learn about how glass is colored with Corning Museum of Glass experts. Colored glass is made by adding small amounts of metal oxides to the batch.

East Meets West: Cross-Cultural Influences in Glassmaking in the 18th & 19th Centuries
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East Meets West: Cross-Cultural Influences in Glassmaking in the 18th & 19th Centuries at The Corning Museum of Glass November 18, 2010- October 30, 2011, explored the cultural exchanges of glassmaking between the East and West and documents stylistic developments in Western Europe and East

Making a Goblet from Parts
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It doesn't get more complicated than this! Here is the Renaissance Venetian way of making an ornate dragon-stemmed goblet. Pre-made parts are attached using small bits of molten glass as "glue."

Heat Sensitive Glass
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Glass that gradually shades from one color to another has ingredients such as uranium and gold, which are sensitive to heat. When part of the object is reheated, it "strikes" or changes color. Heat-sensitive glass became very popular in the late 19th century. Many companies used heat

Twist Glass
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In the 1930s, the Pairpoint Glass Corporation introduced a bold new design called "twist glass," consisting of swirled stripes of ruby or deep blue glass and clear crystal. The complicated technique, already used in Sweden, required many stages including cold working. Watch as William

Sicilian Glass
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In the second half of the 19th century, many glass firms used experimental techniques to create decorative art glass. In 1878, the Mt. Washington glass company introduced Sicilian glass. As part of their marketing, the company claimed to have used lava, that is, molten rock spewed out by volcanoes,

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