Glassblowing, Art Glass, Lampwork, & Stained Glass Locations Locator Map and Directory

Art glass normally means the modern art glass movement in which individual artists working alone or with a few assistants to create works from molten glass in relatively small furnaces of a few hundred pounds of glass. It began in the early 1960s and showed continued growth through the end of the century. The glass objects created are not primarily utilitarian but are intended to make a sculptural or decorative statement. On the market, their prices may range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars (US). The best known of the moderns are Dale Chihuly, who uses many of the best independent glass workers to create his large and colorful works and Hans Godo Frabel, who creates his art together with a team of studio glass artists.

Glassblowing is the process of forming glass into useful shapes while the glass is in a molten, semi-liquid state. A person who blows glass is called a glassblower, glasssmith, or gaffer. Traditionally, the glass was melted in furnaces from the raw ingredients of sand, limestone, soda ash, potash and other compounds. The transformation of raw materials into glass takes place well above 2000°F (1100°C); the glass turns into a burnt orange color, the glass is then left to "fine out" (allowing the bubbles to rise out of the mass), and then the working temperature is reduced in the furnace to around 2000°F (1100°C). "Soda-lime" glass remains somewhat plastic and workable, however, as low as 1000°F (550°C).

Lampworking is glassworking using a torch to melt and shape the glass. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the modern practice no longer uses oil-fueled lamps. Although the art form has been practiced since ancient times, it flowered in Murano, Italy in the 1300s, and spread from there to the rest of Europe. In addition to artwork (glass beads, paperweights, etc), lampworking is used to create scientific tools, particularly for chemistry.

Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive the design, and the engineering skills necessary to assemble the decorative piece, traditionally a window, so that it is capable of supporting its own weight and surviving the elements.