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Making a bird |
| GATHERING FURNACE The glass is gathered from the furnace, at a temperature of 1100 deg C. The molten glass sticks to the heated iron and as the iron is turned gathers on the iron. The furnace is recharged with the sand, soda, and lime recipe once a week and takes around 30 hours to melt at a temperature of 1300 deg C. |
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GLASS COLOUR The colour is glass powder and crystals which stick to the hot glass and can then be heated to form a surface of colour on the gather. At this stage the colour can also be twisted and swirled in the heat of the glory hole. |
| A WET PAPER PAD The colour is then cased by gathering another layer of glass over the top of the first. This is then taken to the bench and as the iron is rolled along the arms of the bench, the gather is formed using a wet newspaper pad. |
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GLASSMAKING TOOLS On the left, are some of the other tools used to shape the glass. Most of these tools would have been familiar to a Roman glassmaker 2000 years ago. They are very simple and each one performs many functions. |
| THE PUCELLAS & ANNEALING OVEN The steel pucellas are used to divide the glass bird away from the waste glass on the iron. This is made narrow at this point so that with a gentle tap on the iron the bird will fall off onto a shelf in the annealing oven. |
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THE FINISHED BIRD On the left we see the finished bird with its swirls of colour, just before it is placed in the oven where it will even up in temperature and then cool down overnight. The following day, when it is cool, the bird will be ground, smoothed and polished to finish it off. |
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