Luisa’s Scrapbooking IdeasCapture Family Memories With Fun Scrapbooking Ideas

Glass is one of those everyday materials that we use everywhere and it is taken for granted a lot of the time. We use it in our cars, buildings, light bulbs and wine glasses, but few people know exactly how glass transforms from raw materials into the functional molded end products. Here is a breakdown of the steps required in glass making.

1.) The raw materials of glass are sand and some additional elements. Not any old sand will do and most often Silica is used, in combination with certain amounts of soda ash and also limestone. The amount of each component used has quite a big impact on how the glass turns out, and additional elements are often used to alter density and colour etc. For example, a glass blower might add a small amount of red dye to the mix to make pink champagne glasses.

2.) Around 1700oC is the temperature that the mixture is heated to. At this temperature the minerals in the mixture all become liquid and blend together. In order to achieve this heat, huge furnaces are needed. Electric powered furnaces are on the increase, although traditional glass blowers still prefer to use classic coal fires. In its molted form, glass can be manipulated very easily and can be blown or moulded into pretty much any shape desired. The skills involved in manual glass making takes years to learn and are often passed on through generations.

3.) After the glassblower has shaped the piece, it is then allowed to cool down. This is a very important step as the rate at which the glass cools has a large influence on the refractive index of the glass and the density of the glass. For example, whisky glasses are often cooled slowly as this makes them less susceptible to scratches, although the refractive index is slightly lower than other types of glass