Glassblowing
Glassblowing blowing a bubble of air inside molten glass to create things like household items and industrial products. The first image I get from glassblowing is the mouth glassblowing way, but that isn’t the only way since there’s a lot of mass produced glass products. Glass products are now manufactured in 2 ways: “studio glass” and “mechanized production”. The studio glass method produces products that are generally made with an artistic expression. The mechanized production method is generally used for mass production and can be divided into two categories: machine press and press, and machine press and blow.
Soda-lime glass is made of sand, lime (calcium hydroxide), and soda (sodium carbonate) and it is most commonly used for high-volume production. While glass requires a lot of heat to shape and work with, glass is long-lasting and can be recycled many times without losing its quality.
Lampworking
This method of working with glass is basically glassblowing, but at a smaller scale and the products are typically for scientific equipment like an erlenmeyer flask and test tube. There are two methods of lampworking: benchwork and lathework. Benchwork is used for complex, assymetrical shapes, whereas lathework is for symmetrical shapes. The main type of glass used for this is borosilicate and soda-lime. Borosilicate is typically used when creating lab equipment because of its high resistance to chemicals.
The video below is about a scientific glass blower felt like beer glasses were too boring, so he added a little twist to them by incorporating scientific equipment elements to make them cooler.
Clay Throwing
Throwing (or turning) uses a pottery wheel to shape the clay symmetrically. This is typically used to make bowls, pots, and jugs. There are three types of materials: earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. Earthenware is the easiest to use for throwing, as well as pottery, while porcelain is the hardest.
In this video, they use stoneware on the wheel. They hand-make hundreds dinnerware uniformly by using a mold, but each plate is still unique.
Ceramic Slip Casting
Ceramic slip (slurry) is a mixture of clay, minerals, and water. This method is best for manufacturing multiple identical products. This process requires a mold, which the slip fills.
Press Molding Ceramics
There are two main techniques used for press molding: jiggering (also called jolleying if the mold is in contact with the outside surface instead of the inside) and ram pressing. Jiggering/jolleying can only be used for symmetrical, around an axis of rotation shapes. Ram pressing can be used for both symmetrical– such as oval, squares, triangles– and asymmetrical shapes. Press molding is also the fastest for production out of the three processes for ceramics, and it specializes in high volume and rapid production of identical parts.
Press molding seems pretty similar to slip casting, but the difference is that one is pressed and one is just pouring a mixture into a mold.
Thoughts and Real Life Examples
Glass and ceramics are pretty similar, in which they both require craftsmanship and certain techniques. I’ve actually always wanted to try glassblowing and I did take a ceramics class in high school.
An example of glass in my life is my mason jar, which I use to hold all my markers. The plates I have at home are also all either glass or ceramics and so are the cups/mugs. My parents also love gardening and have a lot of houseplants, so most of the pots and vases in the house are ceramic.
When I did ceramics, I used the wheel only twice to make small vases. I usually shaped the clay with my hands to create things like a pinch pot, a salt cellar, and a seal.
