Inflating molten glass on the end of a blowpipe and shaping it with breath, gravity and simple tools. The technique made glass vessels cheap enough for ordinary households for the first time in the Roman world, and its studio revival in the 1960s turned a factory trade back into an individual craft. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Earliest Evidence (Circa)Invented in the 1st century BC on the Syro-Palestinian coast and spread rapidly through the Roman world 1 OriginGlassblowing was a genuine technical leap, not a refinement of older glassworking: it put to use inflation, expanding a molten blob of glass with a small amount of air, a working property of glass that earlier glassworkers had never exploited. 1 Glassblowing
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Connections
Tools Used
Glass Cutter is used in Glassblowing.
Glazing Jack is used in Glassblowing.
The glory hole is a reheating furnace a glassblower returns a piece to between working steps to keep the glass workable.
Source Glassblowing (Wikipedia)
Jacks are the tweezer-like tool a glassblower uses to shape molten glass during forming.
Source Glassblowing (Wikipedia)
Lehr (Glassmaking) is used in Glassblowing.
Source Marver (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Glassblowing (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassblowing, Principles section
glassblowing exploited a working property of glass that was previously unknown to glassworkers: inflation, which is the expansion of a molten blob of glass by introducing a small amount of air into it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassblowing, Earliest evidence section
In the first century BC, Phoenician and Syrian craftsmen developed the technique of blowing air into molten glass with a blowpipe, making it into a bubble and thence moulding it into a great variety of forms.
Tools Used: Jacks (Glassblowing Tool), Glassblowing, Tools section
Jacks are tools shaped somewhat like large tweezers with two blades, which are used for forming shape later in the creation of a piece.
Tools Used: Glory Hole, Glassblowing, Modern glassblowing section
The second is called the 'glory hole', and is used to reheat a piece in between steps of working with it.
View the Source Punty (Wikipedia)
Marver (Wikipedia)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where and when was glassblowing invented?
Phoenician and Syrian craftsmen invented glassblowing in the first century BC; the Roman Empire then spread the technique across the Mediterranean and Europe.
Glassblowing was developed in the first century BC by Phoenician and Syrian craftsmen, who worked out how to inflate a bubble of molten glass on a blowpipe, a property of glass no earlier glassworker had exploited. The technique spread quickly through the Roman Empire, with major early workshops established in present-day Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus, and later in Italy, the Rhineland, France and Belgium.
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