Glassblowing

Glassblowing is a craft in which artisans create glass objects by shaping molten, semi-liquid glass using various manipulations with the hands and special tools of the trade. Through this process a glassblower can create any number of useful and ornamental objects.

Availability
Glassblowing has become a widespread craft. However the trade requires access to sand as a raw material thus making glassblowing a relatively unpracticed art in provinces with no coastland. One exception to this remains New Coldmoon. With a lead mine at their disposal, New Coldmoon produces high quality crystal pieces praised throughout the empire.

Prominent centers of the trade remain Aelyria Prime, Arakmat, Demios, Eunesia, and New Coldmoon.

Background
It is rumored among glassblowers that their craft originated when Elvish Elementalist Breannriel Del'Moré, whose expertise was fire spells, practiced her spells on a sandy beach of Ieffreon. As the fire dissipated in front of her, a glint in the sand caught her attention. The young woman was surprised to find a smooth, if somewhat lumpish, piece of crystal now known as glass. Others argue that Del'Moré merely honed the craft of glassblowing and that origins of the craft are lost in the depths of time.

Regardless of its origins, Breannriel Del'Moré became a fore-runner in the field of glassblowing. She first practiced in the Eunesian Isles before gradually spreading the craft throughout the empire. With centuries before her, the elvish woman had many eras to explore different techniques and developed a good deal of the current tools used in the present.

Presently, glassblowing is viewed as a mix of art and business with a focus on creating glass for functional usage, such as dining ware or as windows, while also offering more decorative pieces to their customers. Given that glass is not readily available in most locations, the products produced by these artisans are often highly sought after both for their functionality and as a sign of wealth. This is not to say that all glass products are expensive. Locations that share a considerable glassblowing community enjoy lower, more affordable prices.


Tools of the Trade

• Bench: Two armed bench where the blower sits and works the piece with hand tools. The pipe is rolled horizontally on the two iron arms of the bench.
• Blocks: Wood molds that fit in the palm of the hand and can be used to shape the glass in the early phases of the process.
• Blowpipe: A hollow iron rod with a mouthpiece on one end through which the artist can create and expand a bubble in the molten glass.
• Cane: Long, thin rods of glass that are used for color treatments and decoration.
• Diamond Shears: These shears have blades that form a diamond shape when partially open. They are used for cutting off masses of glass.
• Flat Paddles: Paddles of varying widths and lengths can be used to form flat bottoms on pieces.
• Furnaces: There are three furnaces used in glassblowing, all of which are built into one elaborate structure.
  - The Furnace: Holds the crucible carrying the molten glass and the first section of the furnace the glassblower utilizes
  - The Glory Hole: The opening of the furnace used to keep the glass hot and workable. Several different sizes may be attached to a large furnace or you might have only one size on a small one that rotate open and closed depending on where the glass project is at.
  - The Annealer: The final furnace which is used to slowly cool the glass over a period of a few hours to a few days. The amount of time spent in the annealer depending on the size of the pieces.
• Garage: A garage is where partially finished glass pieces are placed so that the glassblower can work on a second part. This is used, for example, with goblet making, when a stem and a cup are pieced together.
• Glass Cast: A glass cast is a mold of varying sizes usually utilized to create flat-paneled, texturized glass pieces such as windows or door panels.
• Jacks: Large tongs that are used in order to create score lines in the neck of a piece. It is the main tool used by glassblowers and can be used to perform a variety of tasks.
• Latticino: Cane that is used to decorate outside of glass. The inside of the cane usually has intricate designs which add to the overall design of the piece.
• Lip Wrap: A Lip Wrap is a thin contrasting stripe (circle) of color added to the lip of a glass piece. It is typically one of the very last steps when working on a piece as the lip wrap is added after the piece is transferred to the punty.
• Marver: A steel (or marble) table that is used to shape the glass. The artist can roll the glass on this table to achieve a variety of goals, most of which have to do with shape.
• Optic Mold: An iron or bronze mold that puts ridges or other shapes into the vessel. These molds are used early on in the process.
• Punty: The receiving pipe for transferring the glasswork that is currently connected to the blowpipe; usually tipped with a wad of hot glass, then applied to the base of a vessel to hold it during manufacture. It often leaves an irregular or ring-shaped scar on the base when removed.
• Reticello: The most time consuming and technical of color techniques. To create the reticello pattern, two twisted canes are fused together. The cups must be twisted in opposite directions, and the low spots between the canes act to trap air, creating the little air bubbles inside each diamond.
• Soffieta: A cone on the end of a small pipe that is used to inflate a vessel after its been transferred to the punty.
• Thread: A thin wrap or spiral of glass that goes around a vessel, creating a spiral design.
• Tweezers: To be used to pinch and pull glass.

Terms of the Trade

• Check: Check refers to cracks in the glass that appear after being placed in the annealer. The basic purpose of the annealer is to gradually remove the stress inside the glass, but if the stresses are too large the glass cracks.
• Draining/Dumping: As a piece gets larger, the gathering process may result in getting too much glass or an uneven amount of glass. Leaving the pipe in the furnace will result in the work being cooked and the subsequent gathers becoming soft and sloppy. Therefore the piece is pulled out and placed over a bucket of water and turned to even the layer of glass and drain off the excess. This works best when the glass is hotter (and thinner) and the worker wants thin, even layers.
• Gather: A "gather" is the glass that is collected from the furnace with the blowpipe. Predictably, the "first gather" is the first time at the furnace, followed by the "second gather", etc.
• Glass Casting: The act of pouring molten glass into a cast. Often used for glass door panels and windows.
• Swinging: Swinging is the process of hanging the blowpipe vertical to the glassblower's body and then swinging it back and forth, much like a pendulum. This is meant to elongate the shape of the molten glass and produce a larger piece.
• Fine Out: The process of allowing the bubbles to rise out of the newly heated, raw glass.

Glass Ingredients

• Sand or Sand Quartz: Regular beach sand can be used to craft grass, but the impurities often make the glass foggy. This is the main ingredient found in glass. Sand Quartz is the preferred ingredient of glassblowers. When combining the ingredients, sand should make up 71-75% of the mixture.
• Potash or Pearlash: Potash is the impure potassium carbonate obtained by leaching wood ashes as a strong solution (lye). Because potash often carries a good many impurities, the potash can be baked in a kiln, producing a fine white powder known as pearlash, or refined potash. When combining the ingredients, potash should make up 12-16% of the mixture.
• Lime or Quicklime: Lime is made by heating shells or limestone at high temperatures to produce quicklime. When combining the ingredients, lime should make up 10-15% of the mixture.
• Color Ingredients: : There are a wide variety of methods and substances that can be utilized to create pigmentation in glass. Powdered minerals are a prime source of coloration. For example: copper could be used to create red, magnetite used for purple, wood charcoal and chalk for yellow, and natural quartz for green. These are but a small example of what can be added for color purposes. When combining the ingredients, coloration tints make up a small percentage (under 10%) of the mixture.

The Process

• Pre-Glassworking Step: The raw materials necessary to create the glass are heated to high temperatures within the furnace. Once it has coalesced into a burnt orange, molten substance, the glass is left to fine out so that any bubbles within the mass can rise out.
• Step One: The glassworker begins by preheating the tip of the blowpipe and dipping the end of the blowpipe into the molten glass to gather some workable material. The worker must keep the pipe rotating as they gather so the viscous material is spread evenly along the end of the pipe.
• Step Two: The glass is then rolled on the marver to both cool the glass and begin to give it shape. Often the glassworker needs to go back and forth between the marver and the furnace in order to keep the glass warm enough to be malleable.
• Step Three: From here the glassworker can use other shaping tools while returning to the furnace to ensure that the molten glass remains hot enough to mold.
• Step Four: At this point in the creation, color is added to the piece through whatever method the glassblower has chosen to utilize (ie: latticino, cane, etc.).
• Step Five: When the glassworker has reached the basic shape and has added color, they then blow into their end of the pipe to bubble up the glass at the other end. After the bubble has been created, glassworkers of a more advanced stage can begin gathering more glass onto the blowpipe to make a larger piece.
• Step Six: Continuing to move between the furnace and the shaping tools, the glassworker rolls the glass along a thick sheet of paper or papyrus to continue to shape and cool the piece. During this step, the glass should continue to be inflated by blowing into the blowpipe.
• Step Seven: At this point the glassworker should think about moving the glass piece off of the blowpipe and onto the punty. In order to do this, the worker uses the jacks to create a neckline where the mouth of the piece meets the end of the blowpipe. The glassworker then continues to heat, cool, and inflate the piece into the desired shape.
• Step Eight: The transfer of the piece from the blowpipe to the punty should be done by attaching the tip of the punty to the base of the glass piece (the opposite end from where the blowpipe connects to the glass). Water is then dripped along the neckline created in the previous step and a light tap on the blowpipe will release the glass piece so that it is attached only to the punty.
• Step Nine: The separation of the glass from the blowpipe has left an opening in the piece. The glassworker can now fully open the hole as wide as they wish by setting the outside of the jacks against the glass lip and rotating the punty. The glassworker can also use the soffieta to further inflate the piece at this stage. While this is being done, the glassworker must continue to pause occasionally and bring the piece to the furnace to reheat the glass.
• Step Ten: After the piece has been opened sufficiently, the glassworker has now completed the piece. To separate the glass from the punty, a drop of water is added at the joint between the tool and the piece to pop them apart. The glass is then placed in a kiln where it cools for anywhere from several candlemarks to a brightening depending on how the size of the piece.

Skill Tree

(see Glassblowing Supplemental for additional techniques)

• Novice: A glassblower at this level has only the basic knowledge of their craft. They usually work as an assistant to another glassworker. An example of their duties is helping to maintain the furnace and combine the glass ingredients. The Apprentice is also taught how to create simple glass pieces such as bowls and vases, but will usually need assistance throughout the procedure.
  - Ratios of Ingredients
  - How to work the furnace and other basic tools
  - Create glass objects of a simple shape
  - Addition of color to the piece
  - Work side-by-side with transferring pieces from blowpipe to punty with an experienced glassblower
  *Tools Learned: Bench, Blowpipe, Diamond Shears, Flat Paddles, Furnaces, Jacks, Marver, Punty, Soffieta
  *Pieces that can be created at this level would be objects such as vases, plates, glasses (without stems) and any other piece that is simple in shape.

• Apprentice: An Apprentice glassblower has more freedom and flexibility and no longer needs assistance while creating pieces. They can now combine blown pieces and create stemmed glassware. Their pieces are now larger and taking on more interesting shapes with the addition of elaborate colorations and the use of molds.
  - Swinging the molten glass
  - Combining blown objects and stemware
  - More elaborate use of color (latticino, lip wrap, cane, and thread)
  - Use of more advanced tools such as tweezers, wood molds, and optic molds
  - Ability to work without the aid of a second individual
  *Tools Learned: Blocks, Cane, Garage, Latticino, Lip Wraps, Optic Mold, Thread, Tweezers
  *Pieces that can be created at this level would be objects such as glasses with stemware and larger glass pieces constructed by the combination of two or more blown objects

• Journeyman: Journeyman glassblowers have moved on from the more mundane aspects of their craft to the creation of beautiful and artistic pieces. They have also begun experimenting with different variations of their color pigmentations to create their own palettes.
  - Creation of decorative glass art
  - Ability to purify glass to create crystal
  - Creation of personal color pigments
  - Use of casts to create decorative panoramas (glass casting)
  *Tools Learned: Glass Cast, Reticello
  *Pieces that can be created at this level would be objects such as glass figurines, stained glass, and other artistic glass pieces.

• Master: Building on gained artistic knowledge, the Sage glassblower works on a grand scale, able to create pieces both very small and very large while still capable of maintaining exquisite detail.
  - Creation of large sculptures
  - Ability to construct glass orbs with elaborate designs in their centers
  - Ability to work previously learnt pieces on a very small or very large scale

• Grandmaster: Glassblowers of Authority level freely experiment with the physical properties of glass and find new and interesting ways to craft and present their pieces. Those of Authority level explore depths of their craft that others have little comprehension of and as a result they produce pieces often beyond the imagination.
  - Ability to manipulate the physical properties of glass in incredible ways (ie: flexible glass, sturdy glass, etc...)
  - Ability to manipulate color pigmentations to cause the colors to change continually in finished glass pieces (ie: orange deepens to red and back again)