Glass Lampworking
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Glass lampworking is an art form that comes from thousands of years of history. It spans continents, from Africa to Asia to Europe, with many different traditions and skills. As recently as the last 50 years, lampworking has enjoyed a modern resurgence. It generally requires fewer tools and materials than other glass techniques, and you can create everything from decorative beads to small hollow vessels.
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History of Lampworking
Traditional glass beads, with the exception of Asian and African glasswork, hail from the Venitian Renaissance in Italy. It is believed that the oldest known glass beads date back to the fifth century BC. Lampworking became widely practiced in Murano, Italy in the 14th century. Murano was the glass bead capital of the world for over 400 years. Traditional bead makers used an oil lamp to heat their glass, which is where the technique gets its name.
Traditional glass beads, with the exception of Asian and African glasswork, hail from the Venitian Renaissance in Italy. It is believed that the oldest known glass beads date back to the fifth century BC. Lampworking became widely practiced in Murano, Italy in the 14th century. Murano was the glass bead capital of the world for over 400 years. Traditional bead makers used an oil lamp to heat their glass, which is where the technique gets its name.
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Lampworking techniques
There are many different techniques that you can employ at the torch when you begin lampworking. Here, we will cover everything from the absolute essentials like a lamp-wounding, to ornamental skills like marvering.
Technique 1:
Hollow workHollow work is used to create vessels, hollow beads, and other forms. There are two ways to approach hollow work when flameworking. You can either start with hollow tubing and heat to reshape it into your desired form, or make a small steel blowpipe and build the neck of the vessel right on the tube with a hot gather of glass.
Technique 2:
Lamp-wound workThe lamp-wound or bead-wound technique is essentially creating a bead by winding the glass around a mandrel, using heat from the torch and gravity. Bring your glass up to a temperature high enough to make it workable and wind it around a mandrel that has been coated in bead release. Many glass artists also work off the mandrel, holding the glass rods themselves and heating the tip until it is workable. The first marbles that students make in The Crucible’s Glass Flameworking I are known as “gravity marbles.” Students simply use a torch to heat their glass and gravity to keep the glass moving and shape a marble.
Technique 3:
MarveringMarvering is a technique of shaping your glass while it is hot by manipulating it with various tools made from graphite, wood, stainless steel, brass, tungsten, or marble tools, and paddles. While your glass is still hot, or after reheating, you can decorate the surface with stringers. The term originates from the French word “marbrer” which translates to “marble”.
Technique 4:
CastingGlass can be cast by simply pressing it into a mold in its molten state. The Bohemian glass industry was known for its ability to copy more expensive beads and produced mass-produced molded glass.
Technique 5:
Pulling a StringerStringers are essentially threads of glass that are pulled over the flame of your torch from re-melted sheet glass. First, warm up your glass over the torch to make a gather at the end of the rod. When your gather is hot, use needle-nose pliers or tweezers to pull the gather out into a stringer. Start by pulling slowly, and as it cools pull faster. You can also adjust the width of your stringer by how fast or slowly you pull.
Technique 6:
“End of Day Bead”Venitian bead makers would end the day with shrapnel and glass frit all over their workbench. At the end of their workday, they would clean up their bench by heating up some inexpensive glass and rolling it over the frit on their bench. This would melt it all together, creating a perfectly unique and colorful bead known as the “End of day bead.”
There are many different techniques that you can employ at the torch when you begin lampworking. Here, we will cover everything from the absolute essentials like a lamp-wounding, to ornamental skills like marvering.
Technique 1:
Hollow workHollow work is used to create vessels, hollow beads, and other forms. There are two ways to approach hollow work when flameworking. You can either start with hollow tubing and heat to reshape it into your desired form, or make a small steel blowpipe and build the neck of the vessel right on the tube with a hot gather of glass.
Technique 2:
Lamp-wound workThe lamp-wound or bead-wound technique is essentially creating a bead by winding the glass around a mandrel, using heat from the torch and gravity. Bring your glass up to a temperature high enough to make it workable and wind it around a mandrel that has been coated in bead release. Many glass artists also work off the mandrel, holding the glass rods themselves and heating the tip until it is workable. The first marbles that students make in The Crucible’s Glass Flameworking I are known as “gravity marbles.” Students simply use a torch to heat their glass and gravity to keep the glass moving and shape a marble.
Technique 3:
MarveringMarvering is a technique of shaping your glass while it is hot by manipulating it with various tools made from graphite, wood, stainless steel, brass, tungsten, or marble tools, and paddles. While your glass is still hot, or after reheating, you can decorate the surface with stringers. The term originates from the French word “marbrer” which translates to “marble”.
Technique 4:
CastingGlass can be cast by simply pressing it into a mold in its molten state. The Bohemian glass industry was known for its ability to copy more expensive beads and produced mass-produced molded glass.
Technique 5:
Pulling a StringerStringers are essentially threads of glass that are pulled over the flame of your torch from re-melted sheet glass. First, warm up your glass over the torch to make a gather at the end of the rod. When your gather is hot, use needle-nose pliers or tweezers to pull the gather out into a stringer. Start by pulling slowly, and as it cools pull faster. You can also adjust the width of your stringer by how fast or slowly you pull.
Technique 6:
“End of Day Bead”Venitian bead makers would end the day with shrapnel and glass frit all over their workbench. At the end of their workday, they would clean up their bench by heating up some inexpensive glass and rolling it over the frit on their bench. This would melt it all together, creating a perfectly unique and colorful bead known as the “End of day bead.”
Before you go to use the torch, make a plan for your project, and have an understanding of what steps will come next. When working with glass, you need to work quickly while the glass is hot. Write down (or draw) the steps of your project to reference while they are working on the torch. Sketching out the steps of your projects will ensure greater success. Do not write out the steps of your project on anything flammable, like paper!
Examples of Starter Projects
Additional Resources
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