Glassblowing?

[Ascher Stormbringer]

I've only just started researching this really, but an idea sprouted to have a character who can blow glass (on a very small scale). Has this been done before?

Things I've considered:
1 - they'd need a wagon or something to lug all their stuff around in, probably..
2 - making glass from raw materials or melting it at all would need a hellofalot of heat, not sure how that would be achieved (I know they used to use bellows and a furnace but idk where a furnace would come from xD)
3 - finding raw materials, if it IS possible.. I know they could find sand, but lime/soda?

Or would it just be totally unrealistic and they should just trade what's already made and out there (if there's much glass out there?! I imagine it'd have a pretty high price)? No worries if it wouldn't work at all, I can think of something else, just wondered how realistic it is :3

Thanks!

[Aspen]

I'm sure you've come across some of this info in your research, but just to add in to help your case because I think this is a really cool idea...

Glass blowing has been around for a really, really long time (we're talking before the Middle Ages) <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassblowing#History">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassblowing#History</a><!-- m --> and it seems like molds were used fairly often, which may help. More history: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.seattleglassblowing.com/glass_history.html">http://www.seattleglassblowing.com/glass_history.html</a><!-- m -->

This page has images of an early furnace: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/furnace51.htm">http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/furnace51.htm</a><!-- m -->

Tank furnace construction: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/furnace5.htm">http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/furnace5.htm</a><!-- m -->

Edit: this page has links to a bunch more info/pictures: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/furnace1.htm">http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/furnace1.htm</a><!-- m -->

[Hugleikr Silfr]

Because I asked on the old board

[Ascher Stormbringer]

Thank you! <3 That's interesting. Sounds like the main obstacles would be the furnace and finding materials?

[Hugleikr Silfr]

Yeah, the need for high heat had me unable to figure out just what to do to achieve it... But yeah, know they had made glass in the ancient times but I had trouble licating exactly how they achieved it and where they got the raw materials. But yeah, I've been interested it since I liked watching it be done in Colonial Williamsburg

[Ascher Stormbringer]

One source I read said they used bellows for the heat but I'd need to follow that up.
I remember seeing it done in France and thinking it was pretty cool. Don't want to pinch an idea though, it just seemed to fit well with this half-baked character :3

[Hugleikr Silfr]

Yeah, just the maintaining, what was it?, 2000+ F heat that had me stumped. But if you can figure it out then go for it. No idea is truly original anymore. Heck, I wouldn't mind if you would want to work together with it later on. I could eventually bring in an apprentice type character later if you want to do that

[Kentaro Lykoi]

A character in Anathema used to blow glass.

[Cassandra Asylum]

A response I wrote to a PM on the subject a while back:

The biggest obstacle for glassblowing is the heat involved. We've discussed and approved rudimentary mud and earthen ovens before, but glassblowing requires proper furnaces and glass needs to be heated to 2,400 °F (1,320 °C), which is extreeeemely dangerous if that fire isn't properly contained. There are a lot of ways it could go wrong, so I think it'd be a pretty rare skill, though not an impossible one. It does also mean that it's probably unlikely that a glassblowing Luperci would be much of a traveler -- having to create a new furnace at every new location would be extremely cumbersome and dangerous, because one gets accustomed to a particular furnace and how it heats up/behaves, etc.

I actually have a Groupon from a while back for a one-time glassblowing class I need to redeem soon. While I'm there I'll be sure to bombard the poor teacher with lots of odd questions about glassblowing in a post-apocalyptic world, hahaha....

[Hugleikr Silfr]

Dude, Kiri I would love to hear the answers to those questions. Lemme know what is said?

[Cassandra Asylum]

Oh, I'll definitely be reporting back! I just gotta figure out when I can use that Groupon, haha. It expires in mid-December, so yeah... x_x

[Cassandra Asylum]

Just a note that I will be going to my glassblowing class this coming Monday. If anyone has specific questions they think might be helpful to ask my instructor, let me know!

[Cassandra Asylum]

So the class was relatively fast-paced and I was way too distracted by Really Hot Australian Instructor to get a lot of detailed questions in <_< but some things I found interesting include:

- Molten glass at the studio is stored in a furnace heated to 2,100 °F at all times. This furnace was relatively large, I think, and held several gallons of molten glass, and it would apparently take the glass TWO WEEKS to fully cool if the furnace were turned off. It would, similarly, take the furnace TWO WEEKS to heat back up and melt all the glass again. It's doubtful that Luperci would want/need to store molten glass and would just melt/work glass as-needed, but yeahhh.

- In general, I don't think furnaces are very portable, and each furnace definitely has its quirks and works differently from others. As such, it stands that glassworkers wouldn't be able to cart their favorite furnace around in their travels, so glassworkers are probably unlikely to be very nomadic. Since glassware would be more usable in a more civilized Luperci society, there's little incentive for talented glassworkers to leave Russia/Europe.

- Glass cools really, really fast, and cooling too fast can damage it. We reheated our glass constantly in the class as we worked with it, sticking it back in the furnace and rotating it around a while to get it liquidy enough to work with again. Even when the glass piece was done, we stuck it in a "cooling oven" thingy that was heated to ~1000 °F which is "a good temperature for glass to cool at" so that the glass could set without cracking, etc. Conclusion: Luperci glassworkers probably need multiple furnaces to work with and a way to gauge temperatures.

- Molten glass can be "shaped" with wooden instruments soaked in water? This was really weird to me because WHY DOESN'T IT CATCH FIRE idkk??? Our instructor was totally shaping our blobs into better spheres with a rolled up (and very charred) newspaper soaked in water. There was also a wooden spoon-like thing he used. What the fuck even. It smoked a bit, but no fire.

- We were making glass ball ornaments, basically. The molten glass was stuck on one end of a hollow stick thing, which we blew into. It was basically like blowing a balloon, except the stick had to be constantly rotating so the glass didn't drip off. This makes it a two-person job because you really can't rotate a 1.5 meter stick (and the stick is this long so you can stick it into the furnace without standing that close) with molten glass on the end while blowing into the other end. The glass had to be reheated 2-3 times during the blowing process to keep it malleable enough.

- It's totally unavoidable to drip molten glass here and there when you work. There were drip buckets all over the shop filled with shards of glass that cooled after they dripped in, but even so, there were glass shards all over the shop floor. Since Luperci don't/can't really wear human-style shoes, getting feet pads cut up in the a glass shop would probably be an issue.

- The furnaces at the shop were lined with ceramic tiles and then wrapped in "metal." The ceramic holds the heat well and doesn't break, I guess.

[Everly Skyfall]

Thanks Kiri, very interesting! :3

[Medusa Kathari]

A character in Anathema used to blow glass.

eyyyy