Corning Museum of Glass

A term frequently used to mean all pre-Roman and ancient Roman glass.

The technique of forming objects from rods and tubes of glass that, when heated in a flame, become soft and can be manipulated into the desired shape. Formerly, the source of the flame was an oil or paraffin lamp used in conjunction with foot-powered bellows; today, gas-fueled torches are used.

Objects made from preformed elements placed in a mold and heated until they fuse. The term “mosaic glass” is preferable to “millefiori,” except in the case of Venetian or façon de Venise glass.

A bead decorated with applied or embedded circular elements that resemble eyes.

A surface decorated with many small, adjoining pieces of varicolored materials, such as stone or glass.

A form used for shaping and/ or decorating molten glass. Some molds (e.g., dip molds) impart a pattern to the parison, which is then withdrawn, and blown and tooled to the desired shape and size; other molds (sometimes known as full-size molds) are used to give the object its final form, with or without decoration. Dip molds consist of a single part and are usually shaped like beakers. Full-size molds usually have two or more parts and can be opened to extract the object. Nowadays, most molds are made of metal, but stone, wood, plaster, and earthenware molds were used in the past and are still occasionally employed today.

The process of cutting into the surface of an annealed glass object either by holding it against a rotating copper wheel fed with an abrasive or by scratching it, usually with a diamond.

The technique of removing the surface of an object with a rotating wheel fed with an abrasive, or by some other means.

A drinking vessel with a bowl that rests on a stemmed foot.

An ornamental plate or tablet intended to be hung up as a wall decoration or inserted in a piece of furniture.

A piece of flat sheet glass used for glazing windows.

The technique whereby glass is removed from the surface of an object by grinding it with rotating wheels made of stone, wood, and cork. The first stage of the process employs a stone wheel under a continuous stream of water. Later, wheels of fine-grained stone and wood, fed with various abrasives, are used to grind and polish the surface.