Glassmia | Designer Glass Art for the home, office and other spacious areas

Glass Facts

STAINED GLASS

Glass can be categorized in three main ways

1. CATHEDRAL-Transparent, thickness is uniformed about 1/8"
2. OPALESCENT-Nontransparent glass, color is seen by reflective light These first two are made much the same way, using a heated table a small portion of molten glass is poured onto the table and rolled into a sheet. Both are machine made.
3. ANTIQUE Name because it is made using an old process. A glassblower blows a cylinder shape of glass and lets it cool. After removing the ends the cylinder is cut down on one side. Then the cut cylinder is placed to unroll in a flattening oven.

Then all 3 types are placed into another over referred to as an annealing oven or lehr for gradual cooling

MAKING GLASS

Modern glass is made of basically simple ingredients, silica sand, lime stone and soda ash. These ingredients are put together and then placed in a glass furnace that is set at 3000 F and heated until all the ingredients are melted together into one liquid to be formed into glass sheets.

HOW THE GLASS IS COLORED

When the raw material that make the glass put together metal oxides are added. There are different oxides use to achieve different colors:

Selenium- for red, gold, yellow and pink also orange
Copper oxides- for blues and the additoin of cobalt for stronger blues
Sugar and Sulphur- for amber
Dichrimate-for green

The cost of these oxides at the time the glass is made will influence the cost of the glass. The cost can really be noticed with the purchase of red, yellow, pink and gold and orange all glass containing selenium which gold and selenium are the most expensive ingredients.