Soffietta - studio - articles - Making a Vase with Murrini Flowers

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Making a Vase with Murrini Flowers

1. Here I am (this is Robin!) preparing the glass to pick up the pattern. For this piece, I need 3 big gathers of glass to get the pattern to wrap around the vase properly.

 

2. The pattern must be pre-heated so the pieces don’t crack when I pick them up. To pick them up, I roll the hot glass over the murrini flowers which are layed out in the pattern I want to create.

 

3. Picking up the pattern of murrini flowers.

 

4. In a finishing step, here is Patrick drawing on the piece with a stick of glass. He is adding the stems to the flowers.

 

 
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Hotshop Glossary
flourish

A few words and you will be talkin' glass like an old shop hand

  • ANNEALING - After a blown glass piece is finished, it must "soak" in a kiln at precisely annealing temperature for various amounts of time, depending on the thickness of the glass. It must then be brought down slowly to room temperature to take any stress out of the glass piece and insure against cracking and breakage.
  • BLOWPIPE - Hollow steel pipe with a stainless steel end on which to gather the molten glass, and form any blown piece.
  • BENCH - two armed bench where the blower sits, and works the piece with hand tools. The pipe is rolled horizontally on the two metal arms of the bench.
  • CANE - glass that has been stretched out into a long thin rod.
  • FLAMEWORKING - The process of using a torch to heat up rods or tubes of glass that will be manipulated into different shapes. Also called lampworking.
  • FURNACE - Equipment used for melting batch and keeping glass at a constant temperature. The temperature of the furnance ranges from 2150°F working temperature to 2400°F charging temperature.
  • GATHER - Also called a dip. The process of collecting molten glass from the furnace on a pipe, punty or gathering iron.
  • GLORY HOLE - Gas fired heating and reheating unit. The glassblower moves back and forth between the bench, the marver and the glory hole as he/she works the glass.
  • HOT SHOP - A workshop where molten glass is blown, cast or manipulated.
  • MARVER - Steel or marble table used for forming and cooling the hot glass while it is still on the pipe or pontil rod by rolling the piece on the table at various angles.
  • MARVERING - rolling the glass on the marver for purposed of shaping and/or cooling.
  • MURRINI - This is a cane made by layering up hot bits of colored glass , or by fusing together preformed components that are then pulled. The end result being an image within the cross section, such as letters, figures, animals, or faces.
  • PUNTY - A metal rod that is used to gather a small amount of hot glass, which is then transferred to the object or used to transfer the object making it possible to work the other end.
  • SOFFIETTA - A tool used as a puffer to further inflate a vessel after it has been removed from the blowpipe and is attached to the pontil (punty).
  • TEMP OF MOLTEN GLASS IN FURNACE - approx. 2100° F
  • TEMP. OF GLORY HOLE - approx. 2150° F