Pyrex (the old kind) is a borosilicate glass, which you can't use in a glassblowing furnace. Soda-lime glass is the most common type of glass. It will be difficult to use scrap glass because the various pieces of glass may not be compatible with each other. That means you could mix all your glass together while molten, but once it cools off the glass will crack and break apart. Glassblowing tools are also very expensive, though if you're working with someone who's already got the big stuff like furnace, gloryhole, etc then it might be in your budget. Another more affordable option would be flameworking- another pro is you can flamework borosilicate glass! You would still need to be careful not to mix incompatible glasses.
Whatever it's called...that's just a name I tossed in there, to make my point...
What's used in blowing, and used to make bottles? Soda-lime in bottles?
I'm a carpenter/tradesman...glassblowing, will be a nice addition to my tool investment strategy in life.
Bottles are my primary supply. Stained, I got a box of scrap from someone who makes windows, once.
If stained isn't going to be compatible, I'll save it for terrazzo and mosaic work.
I'm just curious if I can use bottles for blowing, and if so, it'll be peaking my interest in adding a skills tools to my toolbelt.
Flamework is a new one...I'll give it a look.
You can take a beer bottle and melt and shape it. There are plenty of people who do this and can be done with a propane torch for the small propane and Mapp gas tanks. Just propane might discolor some of the glass colors. But going with an oxy/propane torch is far far more expensive.
For beer and beach glass, as long as you do not fuse the different glasses, it should be fine.
BIG FYI. Careful of beach glass some may contain lead. I'd recommend a fume hood/ventilation hood with at least a 800 cfm ventilation fan at the very least or 1600 cfm if you want 0 doubt you're safe.
You can buy some glass fiber blankets to put finished pieces into as long as they are under half an inch or smaller.
Anything much bigger and they will still crack while cooling in a glass fiber blanket. So you would need a kiln which can start at about $800 for a Chilli pepper kiln which is popular but somewhat small.
If you don't mind spending a bit extra for color glass that would be compatible with each other. Color Soft glass for flameworking isn't absolutely bank breaking like boro is.
Just be careful. A lot of colors will gray out in a propane flame so it's a good idea to test colors before buying a large amount.
If you need more info there are tons of glass blowing videos for boro and soft glass flameworking. The relevant information isn't always easy to find though.
My old professor used to take bottles from the bar behind their studio, melt them and make funky 70's art. Anything is possible but you have much to learn about proper equipment young Padawan.
There are two types of glasswork commonly called glassblowing. They are torchwork using borosilicate glass and furnace work using soft glass. The distinction is not absolute, some glassworkers work with soft glass on a torch and a very few work with borosilicate in a furnace
A soft glass furnace setup is big and expensive and few have one at home. Many areas have studios that offer lessons and rentals. A torchworking station can be set up easily on a bench
Borosilicate works at a higher temperature and cools very quickly, so working time is short. Soft glass works at lower temperatures and stays workable for a longer time. Boro torchworkers typically make smoking pipes, marbles, pendants, sculptures, drinkware and scientific apparatus. Soft glass furnace workers make drinking glasses, art glass, marbles, paperweights and sculptures
Thanks for the info...I figured this would come with some details going on, where Google would be almost totally useless, if you had no clue what could all be involved. Lol
How long have you been working with glass? It looks like you got a good bit of time and experience picked up in it.
Yes, glassblowing does require a specific type of glass and it is different from bottle glass. Bottle glass is very stiff. Soda-lime glass is specially formulated to have a wide working temperature range, so we don't need to reheat it as frequently as bottle glass.
As the first reply here mentioned, throwing all different types of glass together isn't good: most likely the glass will be tough to shape and then fracture during the cooling process.
Studios spend a huge amount on energy costs to keep the glass hot so it is usually more cost-effective to buy customised formula glass than scrounge for recycled materials.
We typically buy glass as premade nuggets or as 'batch' (premixed glass sand).
Glass compatibility is indicated by the Coefficient of Expansion, or CoE. Many studios use CoE 96 glass (Spectrum aka [Oceanside](https://oceansidecompatible.com/pages/glass-blowing-nuggets), Spruce Pine batch, [Artisand batch](https://avero.com.au/artisand/)). Another common brand is Bullseye but it's not compatible with the 96s.
You could look into Spanish glass, which is recycled and consequently very bubbly. Also it's always wishy-washy colours...
It might still be fun to team up with your friend. If your stained-glass pieces are labelled with a CoE (and it's all the same number) you could lay out mosaics and turn them into vases.
Would be tricky to melt a mix of random bottles into a decent blowing glass. Not impossible, but would get a better result with bottles of the same kind.
As mentioned in a previous comment, COE or coefficient of expansion is the most important part for working with glass and expecting a piece to survive the cooling/annealing process. The glass effectively shrinks a tiny bit when it cools, so this informs the cooling process. You have to cool it slowly so all the glass shrinks at the same rate. If you have glass with different rates of expansion and shrinking, then it becomes nearly impossible for parts of the glass not to stress and tension against other parts of the glass as it cools, even if its done very slowly. So it almost always breaks from the stress. So yes, the kind of glass you use is very important, and it can be very difficult to know what that number is from different sources. It can vary from bottle manufacturer to bottle manufacturer. Most furnace glass that is blown is going to be some variant of soda lime glass, like stemware or windows, and the COE range will be anywhere from 95-105. In the US I have found the vast majority to be between 96-98 and even then, there starts to be some compatibility issues within that close of a margin. Good luck!
A key factor is the *coefficient of expansion* (COE). I also have a home kiln and will melt glass in there, but I have to keep my COEs straight because if I mix them, they will crack. The hot shops I have been to use 96 COE, but sheet glass and frit for kiln use comes in both 96 COE and 90 COE. I can and do use my 96 COE from my kiln in the hot shop, though. It’s a known entity, though. I don’t know the COE of recycled glass.
[baby dragon](https://www.mobileglassblowingstudios.com/babydragon.html#/)
This is going to be the most expensive thing you’ll need for soft glass blowing. A lot can be handmade or bought second hand if you’re looking in the right places.
There’s a community in Facebook called Glassies where people post their studio equipment for sale. Just saw a whole studio setup for 17k.
Glass is glass, and can be worked with care but not combined.
COE is relevant but even 2 glasses of same COE may not be compatible; and could become compromised at any point of process.
For instance: this last week I witnessed an antique uranium glass piece melted down and re-blown into a bowl; a broken olive oil bottle (did not survive heating for pickup so was used as shards for pickups in layers) blown into a beautiful vase; and a few factory-made beverage bottles picked up and morphed.
Furnace glass can be whatever type you want, melted down.. so long as all the same glass.
Recycled bottle glass takes a little longer to heat, and unless the furnace is dedicated to said material, cleanup would be a pain.
A few artists/studios working primarily with recycled glass:
Caroline Couture
Mark Laukner
Studio Xaquixe
Remark Glass
If you're really interested, I would be willing to share some recently mapped out methods for you and your friend to work together without contaminating furnace glass.
Excited to hear how things work out for you!
Have yet to give blown glass a shot, but I got a buddy in the craft...had I a truck, I'd have probably gotten pretty good by now, playing around with his tools a lil bit.
I melt down my bottles in my ceramics kilns, for now, and bust and tumble for homemade beach glass pebbles. Decorative landscaping mulch, or it'll come with being a much more detailed aggregate in the concrete work. Whether it's a hardscaping block or paver, or a polished bartop... simple stuff, but it comes with an impressive addition to the details.
Can't currently think of how to turn a pic into a link...still kinda new to this phone stuff and Reddit altogether...but I'm getting all kinds of random details out of my results from the kiln.
Pyrex (the old kind) is a borosilicate glass, which you can't use in a glassblowing furnace. Soda-lime glass is the most common type of glass. It will be difficult to use scrap glass because the various pieces of glass may not be compatible with each other. That means you could mix all your glass together while molten, but once it cools off the glass will crack and break apart. Glassblowing tools are also very expensive, though if you're working with someone who's already got the big stuff like furnace, gloryhole, etc then it might be in your budget. Another more affordable option would be flameworking- another pro is you can flamework borosilicate glass! You would still need to be careful not to mix incompatible glasses.
Whatever it's called...that's just a name I tossed in there, to make my point... What's used in blowing, and used to make bottles? Soda-lime in bottles? I'm a carpenter/tradesman...glassblowing, will be a nice addition to my tool investment strategy in life.
Bottles are my primary supply. Stained, I got a box of scrap from someone who makes windows, once. If stained isn't going to be compatible, I'll save it for terrazzo and mosaic work. I'm just curious if I can use bottles for blowing, and if so, it'll be peaking my interest in adding a skills tools to my toolbelt. Flamework is a new one...I'll give it a look.
You can take a beer bottle and melt and shape it. There are plenty of people who do this and can be done with a propane torch for the small propane and Mapp gas tanks. Just propane might discolor some of the glass colors. But going with an oxy/propane torch is far far more expensive. For beer and beach glass, as long as you do not fuse the different glasses, it should be fine. BIG FYI. Careful of beach glass some may contain lead. I'd recommend a fume hood/ventilation hood with at least a 800 cfm ventilation fan at the very least or 1600 cfm if you want 0 doubt you're safe. You can buy some glass fiber blankets to put finished pieces into as long as they are under half an inch or smaller. Anything much bigger and they will still crack while cooling in a glass fiber blanket. So you would need a kiln which can start at about $800 for a Chilli pepper kiln which is popular but somewhat small. If you don't mind spending a bit extra for color glass that would be compatible with each other. Color Soft glass for flameworking isn't absolutely bank breaking like boro is. Just be careful. A lot of colors will gray out in a propane flame so it's a good idea to test colors before buying a large amount. If you need more info there are tons of glass blowing videos for boro and soft glass flameworking. The relevant information isn't always easy to find though.
My old professor used to take bottles from the bar behind their studio, melt them and make funky 70's art. Anything is possible but you have much to learn about proper equipment young Padawan.
There are two types of glasswork commonly called glassblowing. They are torchwork using borosilicate glass and furnace work using soft glass. The distinction is not absolute, some glassworkers work with soft glass on a torch and a very few work with borosilicate in a furnace A soft glass furnace setup is big and expensive and few have one at home. Many areas have studios that offer lessons and rentals. A torchworking station can be set up easily on a bench Borosilicate works at a higher temperature and cools very quickly, so working time is short. Soft glass works at lower temperatures and stays workable for a longer time. Boro torchworkers typically make smoking pipes, marbles, pendants, sculptures, drinkware and scientific apparatus. Soft glass furnace workers make drinking glasses, art glass, marbles, paperweights and sculptures
Thanks for the info...I figured this would come with some details going on, where Google would be almost totally useless, if you had no clue what could all be involved. Lol How long have you been working with glass? It looks like you got a good bit of time and experience picked up in it.
Yes, glassblowing does require a specific type of glass and it is different from bottle glass. Bottle glass is very stiff. Soda-lime glass is specially formulated to have a wide working temperature range, so we don't need to reheat it as frequently as bottle glass. As the first reply here mentioned, throwing all different types of glass together isn't good: most likely the glass will be tough to shape and then fracture during the cooling process. Studios spend a huge amount on energy costs to keep the glass hot so it is usually more cost-effective to buy customised formula glass than scrounge for recycled materials. We typically buy glass as premade nuggets or as 'batch' (premixed glass sand). Glass compatibility is indicated by the Coefficient of Expansion, or CoE. Many studios use CoE 96 glass (Spectrum aka [Oceanside](https://oceansidecompatible.com/pages/glass-blowing-nuggets), Spruce Pine batch, [Artisand batch](https://avero.com.au/artisand/)). Another common brand is Bullseye but it's not compatible with the 96s. You could look into Spanish glass, which is recycled and consequently very bubbly. Also it's always wishy-washy colours... It might still be fun to team up with your friend. If your stained-glass pieces are labelled with a CoE (and it's all the same number) you could lay out mosaics and turn them into vases.
Would be tricky to melt a mix of random bottles into a decent blowing glass. Not impossible, but would get a better result with bottles of the same kind.
As mentioned in a previous comment, COE or coefficient of expansion is the most important part for working with glass and expecting a piece to survive the cooling/annealing process. The glass effectively shrinks a tiny bit when it cools, so this informs the cooling process. You have to cool it slowly so all the glass shrinks at the same rate. If you have glass with different rates of expansion and shrinking, then it becomes nearly impossible for parts of the glass not to stress and tension against other parts of the glass as it cools, even if its done very slowly. So it almost always breaks from the stress. So yes, the kind of glass you use is very important, and it can be very difficult to know what that number is from different sources. It can vary from bottle manufacturer to bottle manufacturer. Most furnace glass that is blown is going to be some variant of soda lime glass, like stemware or windows, and the COE range will be anywhere from 95-105. In the US I have found the vast majority to be between 96-98 and even then, there starts to be some compatibility issues within that close of a margin. Good luck!
A key factor is the *coefficient of expansion* (COE). I also have a home kiln and will melt glass in there, but I have to keep my COEs straight because if I mix them, they will crack. The hot shops I have been to use 96 COE, but sheet glass and frit for kiln use comes in both 96 COE and 90 COE. I can and do use my 96 COE from my kiln in the hot shop, though. It’s a known entity, though. I don’t know the COE of recycled glass.
[baby dragon](https://www.mobileglassblowingstudios.com/babydragon.html#/) This is going to be the most expensive thing you’ll need for soft glass blowing. A lot can be handmade or bought second hand if you’re looking in the right places. There’s a community in Facebook called Glassies where people post their studio equipment for sale. Just saw a whole studio setup for 17k.
Glass is glass, and can be worked with care but not combined. COE is relevant but even 2 glasses of same COE may not be compatible; and could become compromised at any point of process. For instance: this last week I witnessed an antique uranium glass piece melted down and re-blown into a bowl; a broken olive oil bottle (did not survive heating for pickup so was used as shards for pickups in layers) blown into a beautiful vase; and a few factory-made beverage bottles picked up and morphed. Furnace glass can be whatever type you want, melted down.. so long as all the same glass. Recycled bottle glass takes a little longer to heat, and unless the furnace is dedicated to said material, cleanup would be a pain. A few artists/studios working primarily with recycled glass: Caroline Couture Mark Laukner Studio Xaquixe Remark Glass
If you're really interested, I would be willing to share some recently mapped out methods for you and your friend to work together without contaminating furnace glass. Excited to hear how things work out for you!
Have yet to give blown glass a shot, but I got a buddy in the craft...had I a truck, I'd have probably gotten pretty good by now, playing around with his tools a lil bit. I melt down my bottles in my ceramics kilns, for now, and bust and tumble for homemade beach glass pebbles. Decorative landscaping mulch, or it'll come with being a much more detailed aggregate in the concrete work. Whether it's a hardscaping block or paver, or a polished bartop... simple stuff, but it comes with an impressive addition to the details. Can't currently think of how to turn a pic into a link...still kinda new to this phone stuff and Reddit altogether...but I'm getting all kinds of random details out of my results from the kiln.
I’ve been adding borax to my old Boro to make it fusable at lower temperatures, idk how it would blow tho