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.

Vasenpokal | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows the vessel being made in a sequence of steps, one of which includes the use of a full-size blow-mold. The manufacturing process for the lid is then shown. Learn more about this object in The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking by William Gudenrath. Between about

Turquoise Pot | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video begins with the making of the different canes and bands required. After these elements are rolled up on the end of a blowpipe, the open-ended cylinder is lined with colorless glass using the sbruffo method. Glassblowing is then employed to make the vessel. The handle is fashioned from

Swedish Covered Goblet | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows, first, the four elements of the goblet and a fifth element for the finial of the lid being made and placed in an oven. Next, the assembly process begins. After the foot element has been attached to a pontil, the other parts are added and adhered together using small amounts of

Verzelini Goblet | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows the three parts—bowl, stem, and foot—attached directly from above without the use of mereses, which are more conventionally employed. Learn more about this object in The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking by William Gudenrath Between about 1500 and 1725, Venice

Openwork Goblet | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

In this video, first the bowl or cup is blown of colorless glass. Next, a series of solid and hollow elements are stacked, interrupted by three straps that create an open-work structure. Tiny raspberry prunts are added, and then a blown foot is attached. Finally, the rim is created while the vessel

Beaker | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows first the two types of required canes being made and arranged in a pattern on a ceramic plate. After the canes are fused together, a thick, cylindrical bubble of glass is rolled over the canes so that they become attached. After reheating, glassblowing is used to make the beaker.

Winged Glass | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

A partly hollow combination merese/avolio construction is added to the tip of a bubble of glass that eventually becomes the bowl (or cup). A complex, multi-part stem and foot are then attached. The vessel is completed while it is held by a pontil. Learn more about this object in The Techniques of

Stangenglas | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows retortoli canes being made and cut, then placed on a ceramic place-holding plate and then pre-heated. Next, a thick cylindrical bubble of glass is rolled over the canes, thus embedding them in its surface. Glassblowing is then used to make the vessel and its foot. Learn more about

Swiss Goblet | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows white canes of a small diameter being made. Next, the pre-heated canes are rolled up on the exterior of a thick-walled, cylindrical bubble of glass. This is then formed into a preliminary stem and foot construction, to be used later in the manufacturing process. The bowl is blown

Ferdinand II Beaker | Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking
Video

This video shows the making of the vessel body and a small blown-foot with a folded edge. At the end of the glassblowing processes, a fin-mold is used to transform the upper-half of the vessel and the rim from a round to hexagonal shape. Learn more about this object in The Techniques of Renaissance