The difference: Industrial v. Craft Glass
How do you see the difference between a handmade piece of glass and an industrially produced piece?
Well, many markers can help you here. Above is an example of an art glass piece, freehand blown and shaped. You can see the fluidity and the weight, there are no angles. When looking at the shadows, you see the difference in glass density as waves in the shadow. This piece is clearly handmade, showing differences in wall thickness, small bubbles and fine lines that come from the molten glass.
Here you see a punty ( punty is what the glassmakers call the connection between iron and glass, the place where a metal rod is attached to the hot glass shape using hot glass as glue ). This is a sure sign of handmade glass and we leave them on wherever we can!
Here you see a punty being made.
It allows for the shape to be opened and formed .
This piece of glass is also handmade, you can see the nuances of color in the glass and in the shadow. There is a different density from top to bottom and you can also see some bubbles in the glass ( almost unavoidable on larger pieces).
This piece is blown into a wooden mould, a great way of making glass by hand but keeping the shape consistent.
Hot glass is gathered on an iron and dropped into a wooden shape, where it is blown out until it is cool enough to keep this shape.
The blowing iron is just knocked off, and this glass part needs to be removed and cut and polished in the coldworking.
Above, you see a piece of glass that was mould blown and cooled down for 12-24hr. The shape inside the mould is the bulbous part on the bottom, the part above it is called Kopny, it is going to be cracked of using a flame and cold water.
After this has happened, the edge is sharp, and needs to be sanded and polished, a laborious process involving a lot of water and several grids of sanding and polishing paste.
Once the top and bottom of the glass piece are polished the piece is complete.
You can distinguish mould-blown glass by looking at the depths in the shadow of the glass and at these polished surfaces on top and bottom. They have sharp edges and if you look closely you can see how the glass has been cut and shaped.
Training your eye to distinguish quality in glass is worthwhile. You can imagine the story of creation and truly appreciate any piece's craftsmanship!
Contact us if you would to order a piece for yourself or become our stockist.