Anneal:
When glass has been heated to
a high enough temperature, it must be cooled by a controlled
schedule of time and temperature or it will crack simply
because of the strain inside the glass from the outside
cooling faster than the inside. The thicker the glass,
the longer the cooling time must be.
Cased:
A thick layer (or layers) of
glass on the outside of a piece created by blowing a cup of
colored glass and keeping it hot, then blowing inside the
cup with another color or clear.
Coldworking:
This is what is done to glass
after it has been annealed. Coldworking as a skill is
completely different from hot glass furnace work. All
of the operations that involve grinding, blasting, carving,
etching, cutting, or polishing are considered coldworking.
Combing or Combed:
Lines of color are
threaded or otherwise laid down on a piece and then are
pulled perpendicular to the lines with a sharp pointed tool.
If the tool has a single point, the pattern runs together at
the point. With a multipoint tool, the pattern stays
more evenly spaced.
Etching:
Forming a frosted surface on
the glass for the purpose of defining all or part of the
design or for changing the texture of the surface.
This may be done by abrasive blasting, application of acid,
by a copper wheel, or stone engraving or by diamond point
scratching the surface.
Floor
Model:
When a piece
ends up smashed on the floor, it is called a floor model.
Gaffer:
This is an old
term for grandfather. In the glass business, it is
used to describe the person with the most experience working
glass. It is this person who performs the most
critical steps of the working and coordinates the rest of
the team.
Glassblowing:
This process
involves collecting molten glass melted in a high
temperature furnace and shaping it on the end of pipes and
punties using tools that range from newspaper to high tech
metals.
Glory Hole:
A place for
reheating glass. This may be inside of a large
multi-pot furnace. It is usually hotter than the
holding temperature of the glass furnace and is shut off
overnight while the furnace continues to cook.
Grinding:
This leaves a
frosted white surface. If a clear polished surface is
required, several additional steps are normally needed to
remove the large scratches, then the finer scratches and
then finally all of the haze.
Hot Shop:
The
physical area within a glass factory where the melting and
working of furnace glass occurs.
Lampwork:
The
process of manipulating glass with a gas burner to create
flowers or other objects included in a paperweight.
Latticinio:
Swirl or
spiral arrangement of threads of glass.
Millefiori:
Italian
for "a thousand flowers"; describes the flower-like
composite glass cross sections used in many antique weights.
Punty:
Most often a solid tipped rod
with a hollow or solid shaft that is used to take the glass
from the pipe so the lip can be formed.
Sulphide:
A three-dimensional ceramic
medallion or portrait enclosed in a glass paperweight.
Threading or Threaded:
A thin
line of glass wound around the body. It is created by
touching to the piece the tip of a cone of molten glass on a
punty and then turning the piece. Application is
easier with threading rollers which are two sets of wheels
on which the punty or pipe is placed. Because the
wheels are set at an angle, each rotation moves the piece
the same distance along the axis of rotation and the thread
forms a spiral up the piece.