All About Glass

All About Glass

This is your resource for exploring various topics in glass: delve deeper with this collection of articles, multimedia, and virtual books all about glass. Content is frequently added to the area, so check back for new items. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, send us your suggestion. If you have a specific question, Ask a Glass Question at our Rakow Research Library.

Studio Demonstration: Davide Fuin
Video

Watch Davide Fuin as he demonstrates for his class, Advanced Venetian Glassblowing, where he shares his vast knowledge and considerable Venetian-style glassblowing skills.

Josh Ries Live Streamed Studio Demonstration
Video

Applying contemporary styles to traditional glassblowing techniques, artist Josh Ries taught students in his class how to add colors and decorative techniques to add interest to their glass. Watch this January 30 live stream from the class Next Steps: Building On & Refining Your Foundation. See

Studio Demonstrations: Davide Salvadore
Video

Watch Davide Salvadore demonstrate for his Studio course, Creating and Using Murrine, the Muranese technique called tociar piere —the roll-up technique. It consists of putting a composition of canes, murrine, tesserae, etc., on an iron plate, fusing them together in the glory hole, then rolling the

Studio Demonstrations: Gianni Toso & Matthew Urban
Video

Watch Gianni Toso & Matthew Urban demonstrate for their Studio course, Reinterpreting Italian Techniques, which will focus on reinterpreting the glassblowing techniques that defined Italian glass in the modern era, between 1930 and 1960. A broad survey of hot-working techniques, including

Studio Demonstrations: Michael Schunke
Video

Watch as Michael Schunke demonstrated goblet-making skills for his Studio course, Goblet Thinking for the Modern World. Students detached from expectations and remained open to the unexpected, enabling both success and—more importantly—failure. Students learned the skills to manage these opposite

Studio Demonstrations: Boyd Sugiki & Lisa Zerkowitz
Video

Watch Boyd Sugiki and Lisa Zerkowitz demonstrate for their Studio course, A Step-by-Step Approach, in which focus was on refining skills of basic forms such as the tumbler, cylinder, bowl, and bottle. Moving logically from one shape to the next helped students build a solid foundation for the

Studio Demonstrations: Karina Guévin & Cédric Ginart
Video

Watch Karina Guévin & Cédric Ginart demonstrate for their Studio course, Flameworking Cocktail, in which the focus was on providing beginners with a solid foundation in basic technical skills. Students were introduced to various techniques using both soft (soda lime) and hard (borosilicate)

Studio Demonstrations: Martin Janecky
Video

Watch Martin Janecky demonstrate for his class, Blowing and Sculpting Inside the Bubble, which will focus on unique techniques and approaches to solid and blown sculpting, emphasizing the freedom to explore process, as well as the potential of the material.

Studio Demonstrations: Emilio Santini
Video

Watch Emilio Santini demonstrate various sculpting and glassblowing techniques using borosilicate and soda lime glass for his 2012 Studio course, Sculptural Flameworking.

Studio Demonstrations: Ethan Stern
Video

Watch Ethan Stern demonstrate for his Studio course, Form and Surface: An Anatomy Lesson, glassblowing through a sculptural lens, focusing on form, scale, layering, and color application techniques.

Studio Demonstrations: Loren Stump
Video

Watch Loren Stump demonstrate for his Studio course, Flameworking Using Ultimate Details, advanced murrine techniques including color blending, design analysis, shaded components, and assembling and pulling cane to produce Franchini-style shaded faces. Students examined methods for creating human

Studio Demonstrations: Jordana Korsen
Video

Watch Jordana Korsen demonstrate for her class, Next Steps in Glassblowing. This class focused on the common problems that arise for students when they have been blowing glass for about a year. The class discussed and worked through examples of glassmaking process that present challenges. Heat and

Studio Demonstrations: Heather Trimlett
Video

Watch Heather Trimlett demonstrate for her Beadmaking with an Introduction to Glass Buttons class at The Studio. Students of this class learned to work smarter and more efficiently in order to gain the maximum return on torch time. The class took the mystery out of clear casing, stringer work,

Studio Demonstration: John Kobuki
Video

Watch John Kobuki demonstrate for his Studio course, Flower Marbles, the compression technique used to make flowers and  and other deeply encased designs in borosilicate glass. John Kobuki has been working with glass since 1995. He is known for making marbles with the compression technique. Kobuki

Studio Demonstration: Stephanie Sersich
Video

Watch as Stephanie Sersich demonstrates for her 2013 class, Beadmaking: Jewelry Components, Pendants, Buttons and Beyond, the many different kinds of jewelry components—pendants, buttons, focal, and accent beads—using traditional and nontraditional flameworking techniques.

Studio Demonstration: Ross Richmond
Video

Watch as Ross Richmond demonstrated for his class, Hot Glass Sculpting, the unique techniques and approaches to solid and blown sculpting, emphasizing a freedom to explore process, and the potential of the material.

Studio Demonstration: William Gudenrath
Video

Watch as William Gudenrath demonstrates for his class, Refining and Solidifying Your Technique, in which students who have previously studied with Gudenrath are invited to review and refresh their Venetian techniques: well-formed and thinly blown vessel bodies, excellent necks, delicate mereses,

Studio Demonstration: David Willis
Video

Watch David Willis demonstrate for his flameworking class, Make What You Like, to help students fabricate in glass anything they can conceive.

Studio Demonstration: Martin Janecky
Video

Watch Martin Janecky demonstrate for his class, Blowing and Sculpting Inside the Bubble, on August 21, 2013.

Studio Demonstration: Cesare Toffolo
Video

Watch as Cesare Toffolo demonstrates for his class, Flameworking in the Venetian Style, the traditional approaches for creating Venetian-style goblets using borosilicate glass and a variety of techniques, including color application, filigree, gold leaf, incalmo, air trapped bubbles, and hot

Live-streamed Studio Demonstration: Janusz Poźniak
Video

Watch Janusz Poźniak strengthen students' understanding of glassblowing fundamentals for his 2014 class, Blowing Your Mind.

Live-streamed Studio Demonstration: Emilio Santini
Video

Watch as Emilio Santini demonstratesd for his 2014 class, Flameworking for Everybody, various sculpting and glassblowing techniques using borosilicate and soft glass.

Live-streamed Studio Demonstration: Giles Bettison
Video

Watch as Giles Bettison demonstrated for his class, Looking at Patterns and Murrine, how to build patterns using sheet glass to make murrine cane that can be used in vessels, panels and other objects.

Live-streamed Studio Demonstration: Suellen Fowler and Hugh Salkind
Video

Watch as Suellen Fowler and Hugh Salkind demonstrate for their class, Flamework Glass Sculpting: Solid and Blown Forms, how to create sculptures and vessels in colored borosilicate glass.

Studio Demonstrations: Jiří Harcuba
Video

Watch Jiří Harcuba demonstrate for his Studio course, Glass Carving, Engraving, and Cold Construction, how to engrave glass blocks and vessels with stone, diamond, silicon carbide, and copper wheels. Students learned various cutting methods and investigated the optical effects of reflections in

Wayne Strattman Live-Streamed Studio Demo
Video

Watch as Wayne Strattman demonstrates for his class, Glass and Lighting Techniques, which focuses on making flameworked sculptures with neon, plasma sculpture, incandescent bulbs, glow discharge sculptures, “crackle” devices, “lightning” displays, electroluminescent displays, kinetic displays

Martin Janecky Live-Streamed Studio Demo
Video

Watch as Martin Janecky creates a skull out of glass using his signature sculpting techniques.

Loren Stump Live-Streamed Studio Demo
Video

Watch as Loren Stump demonstrates for his class, Flameworking Using Ultimate Details, advanced murrine techniques, including color blending, design analysis, shaded components, and assembling and pulling cane to produce Franchini-style shaded faces.