Walden's Antique And Collectible Art Glass

Walden's Art Glass Technique Index

• Abrasion, the technique of grinding shallow decoration with a wheel or some other device. The decorated areas are left unpolished.
• Acid Cutback: A design produced by acid etching (rather than carving) on the outer layer of two layers (usually) of cased glass.
• Acid Etching: The process of etching the surface of the glass with hydrofluoric acid. The acid-etched decoration is produced by covering the glass with an acid-resistant substance such as wax, through which the design is scratched. A mixture of dilute hydrofluoric acid and potassium fluoride is then applied to etch the exposed areas of glass. Acid etching was first developed on a commercial scale by Richardson's of Stourbridge, England, who registered a patent in 1857. An effect superficially similar to weathering may be obtained by exposing glass to fumes of hydrofluoric acid to make an all-over matte surface.
• Acid Polishing: The process of making a glossy, polished surface by dipping the object, usually of cut glass, into a mixture of hydrofluoric and sulphuric acids. The technique was developed in the late 19th century.
• Ale glass, a type of English drinking glass for ale or beer. Ale glasses, first made in the 17th century, have a tall and conical cup, a stem, and a foot. They may be enameled, engraved, or gilded with representations of hops or barley.
• At-the-fire, the process of reheating a blown glass object at the glory hole during manufacture, to permit further inflation, manipulation with tools, or fire polishing.
• Annealing, The process of slowly cooling a blown or cast object to prevent the stresses of rapid cooling from cracking or damaging the object.
• Battledore, a glassworker�s tool in the form of a square wooden paddle with a handle. Battledores are used to smooth the bottoms of vessels and other objects.
• Blank, any cooled glass object that requires further forming or decoration to be finished.
• Blowpipe, a hollow steel rod, with a mouthpiece on one end which the artist blows through to expand a bubble through the hot glass
• Cane, rods of glass with color, either single or multiple (see also zanfirico/twisted cane)
• Casting, Any of several methods of forming glass in a mold, including the pouring of molten glass into a sand mold (sand casting) and the melting of glass cullet in a mold placed in a kiln (kiln casting).
• Cullet, broken chunks of glass or waste glass suitable for melting or remelting.
• Cut glass, cold decoration by cutting with an abrasive wheel.
• Flameworking, alternate name lampworking, the technique of forming glass, from rods and tubes, using a benchtop or handheld heat source, formerly lamps, more often today a bench-mounted oxy/propane torch, to shape and form the glass by glassblowing and with the use of tongs, forceps, knives, and other small tools. Borosilicate glass is the most common form of glass to be manipulated using this technique.
• Frit, crushed glass often melted onto other glass to produce patterns and color
• Incalmo, the grafting or joining together, while still hot, of two separately blown glass [bubbles] to produce a single [bubble].
• Knitted glass, incorporates the techniques of knitting, lost wax casting, mold-making, and kiln-casting.
• Latticino, Italian decorative glassblowing technique. Latticino refers to any glass piece created using colored glass canes.
• Latticello A decorative glassblowing technique. A latticello is a complicated design where the glass artist uses a latticino to create a reticello like a pattern. Although the latticino and the reticello are both classic Italian techniques, the latticello is a modern-day twist on a classic design.
• Lehr, a specialized, temperature-controlled kiln for annealing glass.
• Mandrel, a metal rod used to construct a glass bead around. When cooled and removed, the space occupied by the mandrel creates the hole through the bead.
• Marver, a tool used in glassblowing A marver is a large flat table. The glass piece is rolled across its surface. It is used to not only shape the glass but to remove heat as well. The rapid absorption of heat by the marver creates a stronger skin (surface tension) than the use of a wooden tool. Marver is derived from the word "marble." Marble was originally used in the construction of this specialized table. Modern marvers are made of steel, typically stainless steel. Lampworkers use small graphite marvers mounted on or near their torches.
• Millefiori, an Italian term (a thousand flowers) describing a style of murrine defined by internal patterns made by layering a number of colors and shaping each with an optic mold while molten. This style of murrine results in designs that are often flower-like.
• Murrine, an Italian term for patterns or images made in a glass cane (long rods of glass) that are revealed when cut or chopped in cross-sections.
• Pate de Verre, a paste of ground or crushed glass, and the technique of casting this material into a mold; also applied to a more general range of cast-glass objects.
• Prunt, a small blob of glass fused to a piece of glass, often impressed with a pattern or stamp
• Punty, occasionally pontil, a solid metal rod, around 5 feet long, is used to hold an object being blown or hot-worked after it is removed from the blowpipe.
• Reticello, Italian decorative glassblowing technique. This involves the merging of two cane bubbles (one inside the other) in which the straight canes were twisted in opposite directions. Once merged, the opposingly twisted canes cross each other creating a net-like pattern. If done the traditional way, small air bubbles will be trapped in a grid pattern between the crossing canes.
• Rod, a rod of glass used as a raw material in forming and fusing glass
• Twisty cane, a cane formed out of different colored glass twisted together - also known as zanfirico cane
• Vitreography (art form), a style of contained 3-dimensional scenes displayed in a shadow box frame.
• Vitreography (printing technique), use of a 3/8-inch-thick (9.5 mm) float glass matrix instead of the traditional matrices of metal, wood, or stone.
• Vitrigraph pulling, pulling molten glass strings from a wall-mounted kiln�called a vitrigraph kiln� usually into shapes such as spirals.
• Zanfirico, an Italian decorative glassblowing technique involving intricate patterns of colored glass canes arranged and twisted to comprise a pattern within a new single glass cane. These new patterned canes are then used to create glasswork. A synonym for zanfirico is vetro a retorti.