Special Photo Essay:

The Art Glass Process, Page 2

We sometimes add a treatment of chemicals to react with the colors in the glass.

The chemicals are salts or oxides of cobalt, copper or silver. The other glass colorants are compounds of chrome, iron, gold, manganese, nickel, selenium, and cadmium.

Color chips of wide variety are available and can be picked up on the hot glass to create a great range of effects and mixtures. Most colors will stay true like pigments, but there are also many chemical interactions that occur. The chips are made in small factories in Germany and Czech Republic and used all over the world.

Wooden tools called blocks are used to smooth and shape the gather and color additions. The wood also supplies a reducing condition on the surface which affects some of the colorants and chemicals.

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