Glossary | Kilnforming


Anneal: To cool previously heated glass through a specific temperature range in order to relieve excessive stress once the glass reaches room temperature.

Annealer: More accurately called an annealing kiln or annealing oven. A stationary chamber or continuous conveyor belt running through multiple chambers, used to cool glass after it is formed hot.

Assembling: Fitting together or bonding glass or other elements using means other than heat, such as glue.

CAD: (computer-aided design) Computer technology developed for use in automated drafting, three-dimensional modeling, and computer-simulated operation of models.

Cane: Rods of glass, often ranging in diameter from ¼ inch to 1¼ inches, traditionally drawn by hand from furnace glass. Cane can be monochromatic or can use multiple colors or types of glass to form a design that is visible when seen in cross-section. Giles Bettison’s method involves drawing cane, not from furnace glass, but from pattern bars assembled from strips of sheet glass.

Coldworking: Changing the shape or surface texture of glass using tools and processes that do not rely on heat. Coldworking methods include grinding, carving, engraving, polishing, sandblasting, and other techniques.

Enameled glass: Kilnfired glass that has been painted or silkscreened using glass enamel—a superfine glass powder with concentrated color.

Etching glass: Cutting into the surface of glass using the action of acid, caustic, or abrasive substances.

Fire polishing: Firing a glass object in a kiln to a temperature high enough to impart some level of gloss to its surface without distorting its shape.

Flameworking: A method of forming objects from glass tubes and rods by softening the glass in a gas-fueled torch and shaping it by means of tools and hand manipulation techniques. Also known as “torchworking” and “lampworking.”

Frit: Grains of glass of varying particle sizes, often crushed mechanically from sheet or created by water-quenching hot glass.

Fusible film: A decal of an artist’s image, with enamels or metallic oxides as colorants, which can be transferred and fired onto glass.

Fusing: Joining glasses through the application of heat, typically effected within a kiln.

Gaffer: A glassblower who executes another artist’s design, often as part of a team.

Glassblowing (also “blown glass”): Shaping a mass of molten or heat-softened glass by blowing air into it through a long metal pipe.

Glass fusing: Joining glasses through the application of heat within a kiln.

Glory hole: A chamber, typically gas-fired, where glass is reheated during blowing or hot-sculpting work.

Gouache: An opaque watercolor.

Inclusion: A material that is trapped within the layers of glass when it fuses.

Inflating glass: The process of shaping an object from molten glass by blowing air into it through a tube.

Kilncasting: Creating a glass object within a kiln by heating glass above or inside a refractory mold until it flows to fill the voids of the mold.

Kilnformed glass (also “kiln-glass”): Glass formed using a kiln.

Kilnforming: The shaping of glass within a kiln using heat and gravity. Kilnforming methods include fusing, slumping, kilncasting, and other techniques.

Kinetic sculpture: A three-dimensional artwork that is designed to be set in motion.

Maquette: A small-scale model or rough draft of an unfinished architectural work or a sculpture.

Marver: To roll a gathered gob of hot glass (held on the end of a pipe or punty) on a flat steel surface or table in order to smooth it, consolidate applied decoration, or control cooling for the desired effect.

Murrine: Cross-sectional slices of patterned glass canes or rods. Singular: murrina.

Murrine cane: Glass rods with internal patterning, designed to be cut into cross-sectional slices called “murrine.” The rods are created by bundling, heating and drawing out many smaller rods or strips of multicolored glass.

Pâte de verre: Glasswork created by firing fine glass grains, usually mixed with a binding agent, against the surface of a mold. Literal translation from the French: “paste of glass.”

Pattern bar: A bundle of glass (typically consisting of strips or rods) fused together to form a solid mass that, when cut crossways, yields slices of multicolored internal design.

Pick-Up: A method for blowing glass using murrine arranged on a marver. A molten glass bubble on a punty is rolled over the murinne, which sticks to the bubble. The bubble and murrine are reheated together and formed into a vessel or other form. This method requires a glass furnace.

Photo transfer: A photographic image transported directly onto a medium such as glass.

Punty: The solid metal rod that is used to hold hot glass during glassblowing and for some hot-sculpting processes.

Roll-up: A method for blowing glass using kilnformed flat panels, in which no furnace of molten glass is required.

Sandblasting: Projecting a powerful stream or spray of abrasive material with compressed air to alter a surface. Referred to as “sand carving” when abrasion is more than a surface treatment.

Screen-print decal: An image comprised of vitreous enamels screen-printed onto transfer paper, which can be applied and fired onto glass.

Sheet glass: Glass that has been rolled into flat plates. Traditionally done by hand using single or double rollers or rolling mills. In the broadest sense, may also include industrial float or plate glass, but the term is more typically used to refer to art glass.

Silk screening: A method for printing images by forcing coloring material through a stencil mounted on silk mesh.

Slip cast porcelain: A hard, fine-grained ceramic ware molded from a mixture of finely divided clay and water.

Slumping: Bending glass into or over a mold in a kiln.

Stained glass: The joining of disparate pieces of glass by means of lead or other metal channels. More accurately called “leaded glass” as pieces of colored glass rather than stains are most typically used.

Tack-fuse: To heat bond together pieces of glass in a kiln such that they do not lose their shape beyond a slight rounding of edges.

ThinFire: Brand name of a ceramic-based shelf paper used to separate glass from the kiln shelf during kilnforming.

3D modeling: Representing the surface of a three-dimensional object using specialized computer software. A 3D model can be displayed as a two-dimensional image, used in a computer simulation, or physically created using a 3D printing device.

3D printing: A form of additive manufacturing technology for producing three-dimensional models, including industrial prototypes.

Torchwork: See flameworking

VitraGlyphic: A process developed at the University of Washington for the rapid prototyping or 3D printing of objects composed of finely powdered glass and powdered adhesive materials.

Vitreography: A printmaking technique using float glass as the plate or matrix. The glass matrix is prepared by sandblasting and etching or by partial covering with silicone.

Vitreous glass painting: A process of applying and kiln firing specialized stains and enamels onto glass to create permanent designs and/or images.

Vitrigraph kiln: A small bottom-draw kiln developed by Rudi Gritsch at Bullseye Glass Company for hand-pulling fluid or controlled lines of glass called “stringer.” To write or draw with glass. The term was coined at Bullseye from the Latin for glass (vitrum) and the Greek for writing (graph).

Zanfirico cane: Glass rods with a clear shell and internal filigree pattern created by twisting together multiple threads of hot colored glass.