where did glassblowing FIRST begin???

[burnoutboy]

found this:
www.co.orange.nc.us/aging/articles/032702.htm

[ I found out some interesting history about glass.
"Glass is as old as man's presence on the earth. In the beginning, glass occurred naturally as volcanic melt down, and people carved pieces out of it," Fuchs told me. About 2,000 years ago, the Romans discovered a way to blow glass, and people have been doing it ever since."]


Romans???? were they the first??? I thought it was egypt.

??????????????????????

[Destructo]

I think you're right, however, she may be referring to the romans as the first to actually mass produce glass objects. If I find the time maybe ill look it up further...............

[Mr. Wonka]

According to Bandhu's book, the oldest man made piece of glass found was in a Mesopotamian burial ground, and the piece dated back to 3,000 or 4,000 BC.

[somberbear]

but the form of glass working we refer to glass blowing... was a roman invention as far as i can remeber..., while glass has beenw ithus a long long time... the process of blowing is fairly new compared to many other techiques. eyption work i have seen so far has been core formed or cast... well

theres alot of history in this... but also think of how much engry is involved in any process of forming... from napping of valcanic to fiber optic draw... in all its form it takes alot of energy to work glass... forming of metal and wood is alot simpler amount of energy in for product out. so a culture or area would have to have vast resorces to work glass... and with traid it could happen like vinice...


just thinking about it.... there seams to be alot of gaps i have in the history of glass.. it would be great if we can find out more of a history and havea time line set up for glass... know where we come from to see where we are going kinda thing....


thanks
rob

[rustyglass]

Try this one out.

http://www.glass.co.nz/lampwork.html

[Swampy]

Great topic, one of my favourites and what makes the medium so fascinating for me.

Rob you can view some of the timeline here;
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/igls/hd_igls.htm

Some of that stuff must be interesting to see in real life and see what kind of condition it's in. Some of the bigger pieces in the British Museum in London are checked and crazed with time. Must be a curators' nightmare.

In the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford there is some Roman zwischen glass (sandwich glass), that must have been the cream of the craftsmen that made that kind of piece. It is a small tumbler about 2 inches high. The inner tumbler was made first, then gilded on the outside. Then a second tumbler was made and fitted perfectly to the outside. The two pieces were then fused together. Sometimes the gilding is engraved.

Just thinking about the heat energy to do that is an amazing feat, not just for the fusing technique but the annealing as well. Apparently they put the finished pieces in the hot sand and kept the fire going on top, gradually reducing the heat with time.

In Egyptian times glass cullet was a trading commodity. Keith Cummings has some good write-up on it in his book 'Kilnformed glass techniques' I think the title is.

Paul



snip>>>>>
but the form of glass working we refer to glass blowing... was a roman invention as far as i can remeber..., while glass has beenw ithus a long long time... the process of blowing is fairly new compared to many other techiques. eyption work i have seen so far has been core formed or cast... well
<<<<<snap

[burnoutboy]

Wow. Once again I'm blown away!
Thanks Destructo, Tom, Rob, Rusty, and Paul.
thank alot!

peace and glass

[Julian]

You should check out the museum at Corning. It's quite grand.
They have all of these items on display - core formed Egyptian vessels, blown Roman bottles, and more!

[prairieson]

If you're in the area, the Toledo Museum of Art's new Pavilion is opening on August 27th. While certainly not the largest, most certainly one of the most comprehensive glass collections in the world. And now housed in one of the most unique settings I've ever seen. Imagine if you will, having an unobstructed view of thousands of years worth of glass history from the hotshop and studio.

44,000 sq feet of gallery and studio space!

Not that I'm stoked about it or anything, lol.

[Greymatter Glass]

Another thing to consider is that most of the deforestation of much of Europe was due to melting glass and metal...common sources of warmth and cooking were peat or dung, wood was for building or melting things. Think how many trees you would have to burn to run a commercial furnace at high enough temps to melt glass.....that's a LOT of energy, thousands of acres a year no doubt.

And now we have some quasi-moral imperative to make other parts of the world stop cutting down their trees.... heh.

[chad]

I was in D.C. at the one of those museums at the mall ,in 2003 and there were sculptured peices dating back to 3500 B.C.

[burnoutboy]

:0

[BigTeasel]

EDIT: oops

[BigTeasel]

I second Prarie's comment. you should all stop down to the Toledo Museum Glass Pavillion!! it will be open to the public as of the 26th of august. this week features demos by quite a few outstanding glass artists such as Fritz Dreisbach, Tom Mclaughlin, Mark Mathews, Shawn Messenger, and many others. While the majority of the demo are for the press and the wealthy, saturday and sunday are guaranteed to be a super time!!

Remember, while glass may be ancient, the american studio glass movement started right across the street from this new building!! One of the worlds top collections mere feet from where Littleton and Labino first lit the fire!!! i'm not too excited either tho.....

a quick rundown for you all:

a world class glass collection ranging from the ancient to the contemporary.
2 hot shops with 3 benches apiece
a 10 station flameworking studio
a coldworking studio with all the trimmings
several large boxes for slumping and fusing
facilities for mold making and glass casting
and a stained glass studio

classes start in two weeks for all but glass casting, and hopefully a more extensive program of visiting artist classes and more advanced specialty classes are to follow.

nope, not excited at all.

[prairieson]

Okay Teasel, now you've got me curious... we *must* know each other. You know way too much about the Pavilion for us not to. Tink and I will be in the flameworking studio Tuesday evening doing a demo, and around during the week for other stuff as well. Drop by and give me a clue, lol.

Edited to ask: Are you "G"?