How glassblowers do different things. Own business: glass-blowing production. Method for making glass using a brazier

The art of glass blowing is a complex, painstaking process. A similar technique is similar to the first century BC, it appeared in Sidon (now coastal Lebanon).

The art of glass blowing is a complex, painstaking process. A similar technique is similar to the first century BC, it appeared in Sidon (now coastal Lebanon). From there the art spread to the Roman Empire and then to other parts of the world. The art of glassblowing is still practiced today, and involves mastering a host of complex techniques. The most important thing in the work of glassblowers is the performance of work with a high level of accuracy and accuracy.

The process begins when a 4-5 lb. tube enters the furnace, where the glass is melted at 2200 degrees Fahrenheit (lava temperature).

This process is called collection. Once collected, glassblowers dip the blowpipe into hot glass until a decent-sized blob is concentrated at the end. This is a very difficult moment, as the glass has the consistency of honey and drips easily from the end of the pipe.

In the next step, the glassblower starts blowing air into the pipe, creating a small air bubble inside the molten glass. This is a very delicate process: if the artist blows too hard, then his work will collapse.

One of the most difficult aspects of blowing is keeping the temperature at the right level. By maintaining the temperature, the artist can shape the glass into whatever shape he has in mind. Thanks to the traditions that are passed down by glassblowers from generation to generation, this art never ceases to attract and conquer our attention.

I'll start from afar. Somewhere in 1996, I made an author's mirror lamp and simultaneously conducted experiments on it: I decided to decorate it with a pattern, etching the pattern with hydrofluoric acid. In the city where I lived, there was a metallurgical plant, on the basis of which there was a glass-blowing shop. It was so easy to get into this plant - only with passes. Of course, I didn't have any passes. There was a fence around this plant. I was not too lazy, went around it all and found a loophole in one place, where I crawled through, bypassing the guards. It must be said that this workshop was especially guarded, since, among other things, crystal was made in it. Entering this workshop, the first thing I saw was a large fiery furnace (later I saw several more), working people, one of whom, at the moment I entered, was blowing the product. In his hands was a long pipe, which he pushed through the open window of the furnace, complete with glass at the end. Then he began to twist the tube and blow into it with some special thing (air pump?). Later, I found out that no one has blown glass with their mouths for a long time. Mostly amateurs do it. It was very hot in the workshop, although it was winter, and this heat remained on the faces of the people working at the furnaces. I stood with my mouth open because I had never seen anything like it before. And no one noticed me. The spectacle, of course, is fascinating and I still remember it. They also had many tools with which they worked, but at that moment I did not see them all. Therefore, for a hint, I got into the book * :)

At home, it is, of course, impossible to install a production furnace, so a glass blowing gas burner will be the most optimal device.

In addition, you will need:
Set of glass rods and tubes
Table
Gas for gas burner
Oxygen for the same gas burner
Compressor

Tools needed by a glass blower.

a - wire for cutting blanks;
b - transformer;
c - metal tweezers;
g - metal tongs;
d - a victorious knife;
e - device for hot cutting of tubes and rods;
g - scissors;
h - metal reamers;
and - wooden reamers;
k - needle;
l - stand;
m - holder;
n - scapula.

Work organization

First of all, it is necessary to place the desktop (its area must be at least 120 x 70 cm and height - 70 cm) so that it is equally well lit from all sides. The top of the table should be covered with any refractory material, such as asbestos.

Further, on the edge of the table closest to the master, a gas burner is fixed, to which hoses are attached, designed to supply gas, oxygen and air. Moreover, the valves from them are best placed on the left side of the glassblower, attaching them to the hoses under the table.

Gas-burner equipped with taps that allow the master to control the supply of gas, compressed air and oxygen. So, with an insufficient amount of air, the flame coming out of the throat of the burner acquires a bright yellow color. Such a flame is needed only when heating already finished product. If the flame has a slightly bluish color, this indicates that the air is supplied in a slightly increased volume.

The silent output of a strong jet of deep blue flame indicates the supply of oxygen.

Special care must be taken when working with the burner. Compressed air compressor, gas and oxygen cylinders are best installed outdoors, outside the workshop.

To make small glass figurines, you need to stock up on colorless and colored tubes and rods (the so-called darts). Glass flasks with a wide neck are also suitable as blanks.

Before smelting, the tube-blank figurines are cut into several parts using a victorious knife or a circular saw. Larger workpieces are cut by preheating them with a tungsten wire through which an electric current passes. After the operation, you can drop water on the workpiece in the intended place so that it bursts along the cut line.

Steel tweezers should always be at hand at the master. It is needed for stretching molten glass, forming small and thin parts of the product, as well as for making small holes.

Wide tweezers (tweezers) with copper, brass or graphite tips are often used in the manufacture of glass figurines with parts flattened on both sides.

When blowing various products, scissors used to cut molten glass will also not be superfluous.

The purpose of the reamers is to unfold the semi-finished product in the process of final finishing of various funnels, stands in the manufacture of vessels. With their help, cavities and edges of products are formed and smoothed.

Holders are used, as a rule, when blowing large glass products.

Sequence of work

First of all, you need to learn how to confidently use a glass blowing tube. To do this, you can try to form a large glass drop at the end of the tube. In the manufacture of glass products, one must also be able to flatten a heated rod and bend it evenly enough, as well as solder several glass rods into one. And only after such a training, you can start blowing the intended figure or product.

First you need to prepare

*Work on glass, ed. "Veche", Moscow, 2000

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 glassblower, arranged an excursion 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, Yegor did not fold his hands and did not go to the West, as many could do, but having received several lessons in practice from a teacher of 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, wrapped 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.

The process begins when a 4-5 lb. tube enters the furnace, where the glass is melted at 2200 degrees Fahrenheit (lava temperature).

What is currently impossible to do with your own hands? Whether it's an ordinary craft, a wardrobe item, furniture and more. How to make glass at home? - It would seem that glass is melting, it is unrealistic. IN modern world nothing is impossible. The main thing in this business is desire. And in this article you will find detailed step by step algorithm such an entertaining and interesting activity as glass making.

What is known about glassmaking?

It is known from history that glassmaking is a very ancient process. How it's done? According to the time frame, it refers approximately to the period before 2500 BC. Previously, such a rare and valuable occupation in our time has been replaced by the widespread production of this material.

Glass products are found everywhere. They are used as containers, household and decorative elements, insulators, reinforcing fiber and other things. Glasses differ only in the constituent material that is used for manufacturing. But the process itself is almost the same.

The main materials you will need:

the main element is quartz sand (silicon dioxide);
sodium carbonate or soda;
calcium oxide, she is lime;
furnace for melting glass;
other salts and oxides that can be used on an individual basis additionally (oxides of aluminum, iron, magnesium, lead and calcium or sodium salts);
protective clothing;
grill;
charcoal;
forms and other elements for shaping;
refractory crucible.

Methods for making glass using a furnace

The first way to solder glass at home is to use an oven.

Acquisition of quartz sand:

This material is the basis for the production of glass. Glass, in which there are no impurities of iron, has its advantages - it is light. What can not be said about the glass in which it is present. It will give off greenery.
It is important to wear a mask before starting work. Quartz sand is fine-grained and easily enters the nasal cavity and further into the lungs. This, in turn, will irritate the throat.
You can easily buy quartz sand in a specialized online store. Its cost is low.

Important! The cost of the approximate amount that will be needed will be around $ 20. e. In the future, you can buy it up to a ton, the approximate cost of which will be 100 c.u. e. This is if you plan to work on an industrial scale.

It happens that finding high-quality sand is not so easy, and it contains more than the amount of impurities. Dont be upset. In this case, manganese dioxide will come to the rescue. It should be added in small amounts. If in your idea it is glass with a greenish tint, then absolutely nothing needs to be done. Leave everything as it is.

Addition of carbonate and calcium oxide:

The carbonate in this case lowers the production temperature of industrial glasses. At the same time, it causes glass corrosion with the participation of water. To avoid this, it is necessary to additionally introduce lime or calcium oxide into the glass.
Magnesium or aluminum oxides are used for glass durability. As a rule, these inclusions occupy a small percentage in the glass composition. The figure is approximately 26-30 percent.

Addition of other chemical elements:

This method of making decorative glass at home requires the use of lead oxide. It gives shine to crystal, its low hardness, makes it available for cutting, and gives a low melt formation temperature.
Lanthanum oxide can be found in eyeglass lenses. It has a refractive property.
With regards to lead crystal, it can contain up to 33 percent lead oxide.

Important! The more lead, the more dexterity is needed to shape the molten glass. Based on this, many glassblowers prefer a smaller amount of it.

Iron impurities in quartz glass give it a green tint. In this case, iron oxide is added to increase the greenish tint. This also applies to copper oxide.
Yellow, amber, and even black can be obtained with a sulfur compound. It all depends on the amount of carbon or iron added to the glass charge.

The main stages of glass production:

Place the mixture in a temperature-resistant crucible. The latter should be as resistant as possible to the temperature that will be in the oven. It can vary from 1500 to 2500 degrees. It depends on the additives.

Important! There is one more important requirement for the crucible - it must be such that it can be easily fixed with metal tongs.

Melt the mixture to a liquid consistency. For industrial silicate glass this can be done in a gas-fired oven.

Important! There are also electric, muffle and pot furnaces. They can be made with special glass. Please note that quartz and sand, which do not contain additional impurities, go into a glassy state when the temperature in the furnace is 2500 degrees Celsius. If sodium carbonate is added to the contents, this is ordinary soda, then the temperature will drop to 1500 degrees.

Carefully monitor the consistency of the glass. It is important to remove all bubbles from it in a timely manner. This can be achieved with regular stirring to a uniform density. It is also necessary to add one of the elements - sodium chloride, sodium sulfate or antimony oxide.
Shape the glass. To do this, use one of the following methods.
The simplest thing is to pour the melted glass into a mold and wait until it cools down. With this method, many optical lenses are created. Previously, this method was used by the Egyptians.
Place the finished molten glass in a bath containing molten tin. The latter acts as a substrate. Next, you need to blow it with compressed nitrogen for shaping or polishing. Another way is to collect at the end of a hollow pipe required amount glass and, turning the pipe, blow it out.

Important! Glass made using this method is called float glass. It has been produced since the early 1950s.

Leave the glass to cool down. It is important to place it in a place where it will not be damaged, water, dust or, for example, leaves will not spoil it. Keep in mind that when in contact with cold objects, it will crack.
The final step of this method to make glass at home will be glass annealing. This method of heat treatment will give strength to the material. When using it, all point sources of stress that can be encountered during the glass cooling process will be removed.

Important! Upon completion of this work, additional coatings can be applied to the glass to increase durability and strength. Also can be laminated.

Unannealed glass is less durable.
As for the temperature for finishing work, it depends on the exact composition of the glass - from 400 to 550 degrees Celsius.
The cooling rate of the glass depends on the size. Large glass products must be cooled slowly. Smaller things go faster.

Method for making glass using a brazier

The second way to make glass at home is a charcoal roaster. Let's take a look at everything step by step in this case.

Equipment for work

First you need to make an oven. A barbecue grill is perfect for this. It is important that it is heated with charcoal. In this case, in order to melt quartz sand into glass, the heat that coal generates when burned is used. Again, the cost of this material is not too high. They are widely available.

Important! Grill Use standard size. Better if it is in the form of a dome. The main qualities that he should have are the presence of thick walls and good strength. If the grill has a ventilation hole, usually located at the bottom, it must be opened.

However, there may be small obstacles in this method. Even if there are very high temperatures, it is not always possible to melt it with ease. To do this, before starting the process, you need to add lime, borax or washing soda to the sand. The amount of additives should not exceed ⅓-¼ of the volume of sand.

Important! Remember that these additives significantly lower the melting point of the sand.

Glass Formatting

For blowing glass, prepare a long hollow metal tube. In order to pour glass, a mold is needed. It should be dense and should not melt from hot glass. Use, for example, graphite.

Important! Using this method it must be remembered that the heating of the grill is much higher than its normal heating. It is possible that the grill itself may melt. Therefore, in the manufacture of glass in this way, you need to carefully and responsibly perform all actions. Negligence can result in serious injury or even death.

Security measures:

Place a large amount of sand and a fire extinguisher near the work area.
All work must be done outdoors.
The floor must be concrete, for example.
Stay away from the grill when cooking glass to protect yourself and your clothes from high temperatures.
Remember to wear protective clothing. These are fire-resistant clothing, oven gloves, a high-strength apron over clothing, and a mandatory welding mask.
Also in this method you will need a vacuum cleaner. It will act as a coal blower. We arrange it as follows: we attribute the body to a sufficient distance. We fix the hose to the ventilation hole, which is located below. It may need to be bent to give the desired shape. You can fix it to one of the legs of the grill. The hose must be fixed firmly and not move.

Important! If the opposite happened, then in no case do not approach him, because he is very hot. Next, you need to turn off the vacuum cleaner and look at the position of the hose. It must be aimed exactly at the vent hole.

Operating procedure:

Place on the inside of the grill charcoal. It is necessary to put it in two or even three times more than for roasting meat. Well, if it is filled almost to the brim.

Important! Use hardwood charcoal. It burns faster and better than briquetted.

In the middle of the bowl, place a cast-iron container or a crucible with sand.
Carefully study the packaging of the coal used. Fire it up in the right way. There is coal that is ignited directly by itself, and there is material for which ignition fluid is used. Wait for the flame to spread evenly.
Wait until the coal is ready for further work. The readiness of coals can be determined by color. They will be orange.
The next step is to turn on the vacuum cleaner. This is necessary so that the coal is blown.

Important! Coal exposed to air flow can be heated to very high temperatures. Up to about 1100 degrees Celsius. This must be taken into account when near the stove. Ascending flashes may appear from it.

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