Make a preparation. Blow into the tube and close it with your thumb. The heat will expand the air trapped in the tube and a bubble will form. This first set and bubble is called a blank.

• As soon as you get a vial with uniform walls, you can again use the gurney table and collect more glass. Remember that you need to constantly rotate the rod, moving it from the rolling table to the furnace and furnace opening.

Pick up glass again. Gather a drop of more glass melt. Required amount sets of glass melt depends on the desired size of the product - the larger the product, the more they are needed.

• If you want to add some color, now is a good time to apply it to the cooler "post" (cylindrical blank).

Shape the bullet. When you have finished collecting the glass mass, moisten the newspaper and use it to form your blank into a bullet. Then heat it again in the oven opening. Don't forget to rotate the rod all the time!

Decide on a form. Shape the product by rolling it on a gurney table while an assistant blows air through a tube into the glass.

• way down on glass, roll out the walls, not the bottom. If the sides are colder, then when air is blown in, the bubble will push the bottom out.
• If you want the bubble to move from glass, that is, to expand the walls, roll out the bottom. If the bottom is colder, then when air is blown in, the bubble will push out the walls.

Make cuts. Having formed the product, use special tongs to make cut lines on the neck. The diameter of the neck must be equal to or less than the diameter of the blower tube. Keep spinning the tube!

Open the product and complete its manufacture. This requires transferring your piece to another rod called a pont. This is one of the most difficult operations in glassblowing. However, knowing a little professional secret makes it much easier. Find a small tool ( the best option- file) and dip it into the water. Carefully draw a line around the neck. This will reduce the strength of the glass and make it more brittle. After that, it will be easy to separate it from the first tube.

At first glance it may seem that the production of glass requires very complex compounds of chemicals obtained in a difficult way. But in reality, glass is made enough in a simple way using the most ordinary components.

Glass is an alloy of certain materials, cooled in such a way that the atoms in its structure are grouped in a chaotic manner. An interesting fact is that 95% of the Earth's minerals can be used in the glass production process. The most important of these are (silicon dioxide), soda, limestone, borax, boric acid, magnesium oxide and lead oxide.

It is noteworthy that the first glass was created by nature itself. About 450 million years ago, molten rock from the bowels of the Earth rushed to the surface and, with the help of volcanoes, broke through the earth's crust. When the hot lava contained silicon dioxide and rapidly solidified, a glass formed as hard as rock. There is an entire mountain in California covered in glass of volcanic origin.

Volcanic glass is called obsidian. This extremely hard and durable mineral is widely used in industry, and its especially beautiful specimens are used to make jewelry. Due to its high hardness, obsidian belongs to.

Man has been making glass since ancient times. The Egyptians knew how to make colored glass more than five thousand years ago. With this material in the form of glaze, they covered stoneware, dishes, and sometimes made beautiful beads and other decorations. Perfume and ointment bottles made of glass were already in use in Egypt over 3,500 years ago.

The Roman Empire period (1st century BC to 5th century AD) was one of the greatest periods in the history of glass. It was at this time that man mastered how to blow glass and how to give objects a certain shape and at the same time make them the right size.

Glass blowing.

Glass blowing is one of the oldest human skills. But since modern mechanisms have been developed and the need for glass products has increased significantly, manual glassmaking technology is becoming a rarity.

When the glass is in the molten state, it can be processed different ways. For example, it may be pressed, blown, painted or rolled. For centuries, the main method of glass processing was blowing, which helped to produce a wide variety of glass products.

The glassblower collected a ball of molten glass at the end of a straw and blew into it. Using his skills, he gave the glass the desired shape and brought it to the desired thickness. He constantly heated the glass in order to keep it in working condition for as long as possible. Then the master finished processing with special tools.

In this way, many types of glass objects were created. Glass can also be molded into a mold and take on a desired shape. Surprisingly enough, window glass used to be made by blowing a long cylinder, which was then cut and rolled to form sheets of glass. Of course, the size of these sheets was limited by the strength of the light glass blower.

Today, a similar glass-making process, referred to as handmade, is increasingly used in the production of special scientific equipment or expensive, magnificent glassware. To date manual labor The glass blower is highly valued, and a person needs considerable professional skills to work in this industry.

Production of glass bottles.

Over time, the need for glassware such as bottles became so great that every effort was made to create a glass blowing machine, which was invented in 1903.

The machine uses vacuum to blow enough glass for one bottle. First, the neck of the bottle is formed. Then compressed air is supplied and the entire bottle is blown out.

After that, the resulting product is automatically fired and tempered, and then a slow cooling process takes place, which makes it durable. Such a machine is capable of producing more bottles in one hour of work than six glassblowers by hand in a whole day.

Later, another machine was created to automatically blow out light bulbs, which allowed the wider use of electric light. The majority of all standard bottles, jars, jugs, glasses and other glass vessels are produced by machine.

Today, of course, there are many new ways to produce glass, but this is the main process. Raw materials for glass production enter the glass factory and are stored in huge tanks. The required amount of substances is measured, dosed, and then they are mixed in the correct proportion.

Broken glass, similar to that produced and called "cullet" is added to the mixture to speed up the melting process. The resulting mixture is automatically fed into the oven. The molten glass then flows out of the furnace to cool.

It then goes through numerous processing processes such as blowing, pressing, rolling, casting and painting, depending on the type of glass to be produced. Thus, it is possible to produce both simple window glass and patterned glass, which is characterized by high decorative qualities.

I have been to various workshops and various factories, I have seen how jam and metal are made, I have seen how fish are caught on an industrial scale, and how hemp is tested, and yesterday I visited an amazing place - an art glass workshop. Egor, a master glass blower, arranged a tour for bloggers of the Petrograd community to his workshop, where he creates wonderful and beautiful things from scratch that anyone can make under his guidance.

1. Complete swindle!

Our acquaintance with Yegor began with a small introductory word from the master. He told us that he is self-taught, he studied on video from the Internet, there is no domestic literature on glass as such, so he had to study Western. With Russian masters from the Stieglitz Academy, for example, communication also did not work out, because. those old farts believe that if they take him to work or study with them, then he will find out all the secrets of the craft from them and run away to create his own company, thereby creating competition for them. As a result, Egor did not fold his hands and did not leave for the West, as many could do, but having received several lessons in practice from a teacher at an art university, then he began to create with his own hands, creating 3 furnaces and preparing all the necessary base.

2. The base is glass, of course. Egor buys American There are a lot of flowers, it is of high quality, but in Russia everything with this raw material is bad, it is not enough to get it. Glass is purchased either in the form of similar sheets-plates, or in the form of cubes, which, in principle, is all the same, because everything is melted in the furnace.

3. Furnaces are perhaps the most important part of the process. There should be at least three of them: glass-melting, which maintains a temperature of ~ 1100 degrees Celsius, a furnace for preheating blanks, as well as furnaces for cooling finished products.

4. All 3 ovens are electric, adjustable with this simple shield. By the way, the workshop is located in the building of the Union of Artists, which is cool. In addition to this glass workshop, there are others.

5. The cuckoo oven got its name for the sliding doors that resemble a birdhouse))

6. The temperature there is decent, the oven is used to heat the product during operation. You can’t climb inside, it’s hot, but Egor said that he and his friends put an action camera in there, wrapping it in cooling rags, and took some cool photos. Fire!

7. Actually, a long blowing tube, with the help of which the whole miracle happens.

8. Liquid glass is taken by a tube from a glass-melting furnace and the process of creating a blank for the product begins. In our case, it's a vase!

9. Very little glass is taken, because. in large quantities it is simply not necessary.

10. Then, along the metal surface, you need to bring the blank to the desired shape.

11. Glass is hot, which means you can do anything with it, including inflating it!

12. Once again we dip the workpiece into the furnace and grab an additional amount of liquid glass, it is necessary in order to move further to the next furnace, in which all the action will take place.

13. Yegor moves on to the Cuckoo, in which glass is blown and maintained in the desired shape.

14. So far, this is just a blank for a vase, that is clear glass, on which a layer of colored glass will be applied in the future.

15. Blowing continues until it becomes clear that the blank is ready.

16. Then, when the blank is completely ready, you get any colored glass of your own taste, in our case it is a 4-color blank from which the vase will be created. As you can see, our blank is literally stuck to a multi-colored blank and is already being sent to the oven.

17. In order for the blank and blank to take the desired shape, they must be combined, as it were, by bending the molten glass around the blank.

18. Bent, now you need to use dental tweezers or any other suitable tool to connect the edges of the workpiece to each other.

19. This is done several times by sending the product to the oven, then again bending and connecting the edges, until it becomes clear that the blank and the colored blank are one!

20. Yegor creates the bottom of the vase with antique scissors, as if squeezing the glass.

21. And then what? Then long and hard you need to blow, melt, until you understand that the wall thickness is already necessary. By the way, as you can see, the stove is on gas. One such cylinder is enough for 1.5 days on average. Due to the fact that the room is small, it is not possible to store gas here, so every couple of days you have to refuel at the nearest gas station.

22. Molding is when a product is given the desired shape with a wet newspaper. The hardening glass spins on the newspaper, cools down, and at the same time acquires the necessary shape.

23. With some other dental tool, Egor applies a pattern to a vase, which we will see soon)

24. Again, we need to dip our product in a glass melting furnace to apply a layer of glass to give it gloss and also for strength.

25. And again molding. In general, the process is clear and simple - blow, twist, shape, cool. But at the same time, all this is very difficult, and requires attentiveness and experience, which you get by making mistakes and achieving results. As in everything, by the way. Creative and interesting work, it’s not for nothing that Egor stopped being an office plankton and began to work with his hands, it’s cool.

26. Here, the product, already with an additional layer of glass that we recently applied, is sent back to the furnace.

27. It seems that the master realized that it was time to stretch the product. This is done in a rather tricky way - the tube, with the product at the end, quickly rotates around its axis, making several turns, thereby stretching to the desired size.

28. Then, to make the neck of the vase, you need to attach such a thing to the bottom (on the left) so that there is something to hold the product for.

29. In the meantime, on the other hand, the future neck of the vase is already being created with tongs, as if simply expanding it, while the glass is liquid.

30. Going into the oven a few more times, then expanding again, and voila, the elegant neck of the vase is ready!

31. Master and his product. In fact, red is yellow, and pale blue is a color closer to blue. When the product cools down, it will take on the proper colors.

32. It's time to cut off that thing from the bottom of the product, we don't need it anymore.

33. After all, the product is sent to the furnace, in which the temperature of +517 degrees is maintained for a long time, and then lower, lower, lower, it is necessary that the glass gradually cools down, otherwise it will simply crack and the product will cease to exist. The vase, created with us, will reach room temperature in 8-9 hours, but we will not see this anymore)

34. Here, like our vase, they already lie on the lid of the stove. Diverse, beautiful, one might say - each is unique in its own way. Pay attention to the round gizmos on the bottoms of the vases - these are the remains of those things that were cut off in photo No. 32, in order to remove them, Yegor later goes to another workshop, where everything is removed and cleaned by grinding. The vase is ready!

35. Broken pots that were in electric furnaces, which became unusable due to the fact that the electricity was turned off in the building, and everything was broken.

36. Various figurines and products that were created here are displayed on the shelves.

37. Cars, for example =)

Very cool workshop and Egor excellent master who loves his job, enlightens others and is always happy to help. Contact him, every week he leads excursions to his workshop on Okhta, and together with you he will create something interesting as a keepsake that you will take home with you.

Everything about everything. Volume 3 Likum Arkady

How is glass blown?

How is glass blown?

Glass blowing is one of the oldest skills. But as modern mechanisms have been developed, they are favored, and as the demand for glass has increased, hand-blown glass is becoming rare. When glass is in a molten state, it can be processed in a variety of ways. It can be blown, pressed, painted or rolled.

For centuries the main method of glass processing was blowing. The glassblower collected a ball of molten glass at the end of the straw and blew it in the same way as we inflate bubble. Using his skills, he, blowing, gave the glass a shape and brought it to the desired thickness. He constantly heated the glass to keep it working. Then the master finished processing with special tools. So many types of glass objects were created. Glass can also be molded and thus given its shape. Surprisingly enough, window glass used to be made by blowing a long cylinder, which was then cut and rolled to make sheets of glass. Of course, the size of these sheets was limited by the strength of the light glass blower.

Today, a similar process for obtaining glass, which is called " handmade", is still used in the manufacture of special scientific equipment or very expensive, magnificent works of glass. But the need for glassware such as bottles became so great that every effort was made to create a glass blowing machine, which was finally invented in 1903. The machine uses vacuum to blow enough glass for one bottle. First, the neck of the bottle is formed. Then compressed air is supplied and the entire bottle is blown out. After that, the bottle is automatically fired, hardened, then it is slowly cooled, which makes it durable.

Such a machine is capable of producing more bottles in an hour than 6 people by hand in a day! Later, another machine was created to automatically blow out light bulbs, which allowed the wider use of electric light. Most of all bottles, jars, jugs, glasses and other glass vessels are produced by machine.