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.

Flameworked Beads
Video

Flameworking (sometimes called "lampworking") is the process of directing a flame onto a piece of glass in order to create form or decoration. Beads were likely among the first glass objects to be made by flameworking.

Life on a String: 35 Centuries of the Glass Bead
Article

An understanding of the history of glass would not be complete without acknowledging the importance of glass beads both as a products of early manufacture in the medium and as artistic representations of diverse cultures and societies. Glass beads have been found at the earliest glass manufacturing

Master Class 7: Beadmaking with Kristina Logan (excerpt)
Video

Kristina Logan is internationally recognized for her precisely patterned, delicate glass beads, which she combines with metalwork to create jewelry and functional objects. In the Master Class video, Logan demonstrates her process of beadmaking at the torch, finishing the glass by cold-working, and

Studio Demonstrations: Kristina Logan
Video

Watch as Kristina Logan demonstrates beadmaking during her Beadmaking: Expanding Your Skills class at The Studio. Logan's week-long course focuses on a broad spectrum of techniques: surface decorations, dots galore, clear casing, working large beads, and troubleshooting common mistakes and

Studio Demonstrations: Heather Trimlett
Video

Watch Heather Trimlett demonstrate for her Beadmaking with an Introduction to Glass Buttons class at The Studio. Students of this class learned to work smarter and more efficiently in order to gain the maximum return on torch time. The class took the mystery out of clear casing, stringer work,

Life on a String: Beadmaking
Video

Beads can be wound, drawn, molded, or blown. There are many variations of these techniques. Explore glass beadmaking in Life on a String: 35 Centuries of the of the Glass Bead, May 18, 2013 through Jan 5, 2014 at The Corning Museum of Glass. Symbolizing power, enabling ornamentation, and

Kate Fowle Meleney at 2300°: GlassFest Bead Extravaganza (May 2013)
Video

2300°: GlassFest Bead Extravaganza featured artist Kate Fowle Meleney, who demonstrated beadmaking in celebration of the opening of the 2013 exhibition, Life on a String: 35 Centuries of the Glass Bead.

Seminar Demonstration: Creation of Chevron Beads, from Bubble to Bead
Video

Watch artists Ralph Mossman and Mary Mullaney of Heron Glass demonstrate at The Studio during the Annual Seminar on Glass. This demonstration shows the various stages of creating a Chevron bead, from the hot, blown glass component, through the lapidary steps required to finish.