Glossary

Annealer – insulated box where finished pieces are allowed to cool slowly to remove strain and prevent breakage.

Batch – the recipe of silica and other chemicals that formulate the raw material of glass.

Bench – bench with two metal rails used to roll blowpipe while shaping glass, most of the glass process occurs here.

Bits – gathers of clear or color on a punty rod applied to the piece.

Blocks – tools made of cherry wood to shape hot glass, kept soaked in water.

Blowpipe – stainless steel hollow tubes used to gather and manipulate molten glass.

Break-off table – table where finished products can be removed from punty rod and placed in annealer.

Cold work - a general term for glass working processes not involving heat or the molten state.

Cullet – broken reusable pieces of glass that can be melted in the furnace.

Diamond shears – used to cut or trim glass.

Fumer – chemicals mixed together and sprayed on the piece when hot to give it a silver or gold surface.

Furnace - melts the batch or cullet into glass, heated to around 2450°F.

Gaffer – the traditional head or most skilled member of a glass blowing team.

Gather – to take molten glass, with a twisting motion, from the furnace onto a blowpipe.

Glory hole – chamber used to reheat the glass that is being worked with.

Grinder – machine used to polish or bevel glass, used with diamond abrasives.

Jacks – tool used to make lines or a neck in a work.

Marver – large stainless steel flat surface used to roll hot glass to shape.

Paddle – wooden tool used to make flat sides or bases on hot glass.

Pipe warmer – small heated box where pipes and punties are preheated.

Punty rod – solid rods used to transfer or make additions on a glass object.

Sandblaster – uses compressed air with aluminum oxide to etch the surface of the glass.

Studio glass – glass designed and made by an artist rather than a factor.

Studio glass movement – term given to the development of small, artistic-run studios for the production of art glass, precipitated in 1962 by technological advances by Dominick Labino and Harvey Littleton.

Tweezers – used to manipulate hot glass.

Wet newspaper – another way of shaping the hot glass.

Yoke – a stand used to rest blow pipe on while re-heating in the glory hole.