| p>Blown art glass is quickly becoming one of the | | | | Lampworking is the softening of a glass tube by |
| fastest growing hobbies in North America... and it | | | | heating it in the flame of a torch. Next, the |
| is about time. Glassblowing has been around since | | | | softened glass is manipulated into its final form by |
| 27 BC in Syria, though the first evidence of | | | | blowing and shaping with hands and tools. Any |
| manmade glass products occurs in Mesopotamia in | | | | number of things can be created using either |
| the late 3rd century BC. But the advancement of | | | | technique; sculpted animals, ashtrays, vases, |
| actual "blowing" glass using a tube transformed | | | | aquarium pieces, beads, paper weights, perfume |
| the materials usefulness. The new technique | | | | bottles...the list goes on and on. Moreover, |
| quickly spread throughout the Roman world. | | | | practically every major part of the world at one |
| Harvey Littleton, a ceramics professor, and | | | | time or another in its history has been known, in |
| Dominick Labino, a chemist and engineer, are | | | | some part, for its glass art. However, Mexican |
| credited with starting the most recent "studio | | | | glass art is the most popular. |
| glass movement" in 1962. The two held | | | | Mexico is the land of the master craftsman. |
| workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art. This is | | | | Known throughout history as being expert |
| where the current method of melting glass in a | | | | potters, weavers and wood carvers, Mexican |
| furnace for use in blown glass art was originated. | | | | artists have really made their mark as |
| Thus, Littleton and Labino are credited with | | | | glassblowers. Beginning in 1542 in Puebla, these |
| making molten glass available to artists in private | | | | artists produced glass items in a variety of |
| studios. | | | | shapes with little more than a long pipe and a glob |
| The actual process of preparing the glass for | | | | of melted glass. Experienced Mexican glass |
| blowing is very involved though. The glass is | | | | blowers will even add effects as small bubbles, |
| melted in furnaces using the sand, limestone, | | | | blobs of color or pebbles to their finished to |
| soda, potash and other compounds. The actual | | | | pieces to make them stand out. |
| transformation of raw materials into glass takes | | | | Authentic Mexican glass is easily identified by a |
| place well above 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. | | | | ponti, or a place at the bottom of the finished |
| After the glass has melted, the artist uses a | | | | product that indicates it was mouth blown. |
| blowpipe to shape the glass. The blowpipe is about | | | | Another feature of Mexican glass is its individual |
| five feet long and is used for blowing a parison of | | | | nature. No two pieces are ever exactly alike in |
| molten glass. Molds are used to impress | | | | size, shape or design, which simply adds to the |
| decorative patterns. | | | | unique nature of each piece. |
| There are two types of modern glassblowing but | | | | But the most unique detail about this glassblowing |
| offhand glassblowing is the type most people | | | | is how little it's changed since its inception. For the |
| picture in their mind when they think about this | | | | most part, glassblowers are still producing beautiful |
| kind of art. The artist gathers a glob of fused | | | | works of art the same way they did back in 27 |
| glass at the end of a hollow tube called a blowpipe | | | | BC...melted glass and a metal tube. This is one |
| or blowing iron. The molten glass is then fashioned | | | | instance where my grandpa was wrong. In the |
| into its final form by various techniques of blowing | | | | case of glassblowing, "They are still making them |
| and shaping with hands, tolls and molds. The | | | | like they used to. |
| second kind of glassblowing is lampworking. | | | | |