Decorative Glass

    Decorative glass comes in many different forms - bowls, windows, bottle stoppers, chandeliers - and different types of decorative glass are made using different processes and different types of glass. To discover how my favorite types of decorative glassware made, I visited Louisville Glassworks, and Marilee Burnside, the director of tours and events, taught me about the three main types of decorative glass.

Glass Blowing

    Glass blowing produces beautiful bowls, vases and glasses among other decorative glass vessels and objects, and is the most intense to watch.
    "[Glass blowing artists] make their glass from the raw materials down in the hot shop," Marilee said. "They take a gritty, sandy mixture, put it in the furnace, melt it down to clear molten glass and then take action on the glass to create their art."
    To melt the glass, glass blowing artists must set the furnace to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit. It may seem hot, but compared to the melting temperature of some other types glass blowing glass has a relatively low melting point.
    "The glass that is used down in the hot shop is a very soft soda lime glass that has a very low melting point and has to be slowly cooled in order to confirm the shape and to get the result," Marilee said.
    To shape the glass, glass blowing artists use a blowpipe to gather the molten glass from the furnace. Then they use a variety of tools, gravity and heat to shape the molten glass into the form they want. Among other tools, glass blowing artists use a wet newspaper to act as their hand. The only thing between their hand and the molten glass is the newspaper and a protective layer of water. Watching glass blowing artists in action is incredibly impressive.

Flameworking

    Flameworking could be described as drawing with glass, but it's not a very good description. After all, flameworking artists don't use pencils; they use incredibly hot flames to shape the decorative glass into bottle stoppers, sculptures, ornaments and other decorative items.
    "[Flameworking] artists use the heat from a very hot torch that's fueled with propane and oxygen, and they melt those rods of glass into sculpted shapes using their hands as tools, the rods of glass and gravity," Marilee said.
And if you think the tools flameworking artists use are impressive, then the strength of the glass they manipulate should also impress you.
    "[Flameworking glass] is made from a very special type of glass that the artists buy in either tubes or rods," Marilee said. "It's called Borosilicate. Folks might know it otherwise as Pyrex. It's a very sturdy, very hard type of glass. It requires a much higher melting temperature - about 5,500 degrees Fahrenheit."
    While flameworking artists don't use a process quite as dramatic as that of glass blowing artists, the art of flameworking is no less impressive. Sitting inches from the flame, flameworking artists create unbelievable details and shapes in their decorative glass in a matter of minutes.

Architectural Glass

    Of all decorative glass, architectural glass might be the most impressive. Ranging from countertops to shower enclosures to giant chandeliers, architectural decorative glass challenges our preconceived notions of glass by using it in ways we never imagined possible. To manipulate the glass in such ways takes immense planning and the right type of glass.
    "[Architectural Glass artists] buy glass from manufacturers in flat shapes, different textures and colors and sizes," Marilee said. "They may cut the glass into specific patterns to make the stained glass art or they can use warmworking techniques, using a hot kiln to melt texture design patterns into the glass or to change the overall shape of the glass."
    Watching an architectural decorative glass artist create a masterpiece would take days. So the process is no quite as entertaining as that of glass blowing or flameworking; however, when you see the end result, it is simply stunning.