(please click image for full view and scroll right)

Title: Studio Glass Rods
Artist: AJGlass
Image created by: AJGlass using an Olympus D-340L digital camera and PhotoShop.
Medium: Glass
Type: Soft Glass, 104 Coefficient of Expansion (Moretti/Effetre, Vetrofond, Lausha)
Description: Studio – Four images of Moretti/Effetre, Vetrofond, and Lausha glass rods.

Details: These are images I took in my glass studio. You are looking at various colors of soft glass rods. The left image is a close-up look at two pounds of Translucent Yellow soft glass. The inset image in the left picture is of glass rods stacked by color in PVC tubes with a small plate of glass beads in front of it. The middle image is a closer look at the rods stored in stacked PVC tubes. The far right image is of partially used rods piled in a ceramic plate and standing up in two glass jars.

Discussion: Moretti/Effetre, Vetrofond, and Lausha glass are manufactured in factories in Italy, on the island of Moreno, where special formulas are used to create a wide range of colors. Soft glass is a mixture of lime, sand, and soda. Sand is silicon dioxide and is the basic component of glass. Lime is highly heated, low moisture, limestone which is used to give glass stability. Soda is sodium carbonate and it reduces the melting point of the sand and thus the glass produced. Soda keeps the glass malleable and workable over a wide range of temperatures.

Colors in glass are created by adding trace metal oxides to the mixture. Oxides can include gold (for red), copper (for green), cobalt (for blue), etc. Adding oxides can also change the stiffness of the glass and how much heat is needed to melt it. This is why white and pink soft glass is easily melted and can reach the consistency of water quickly, while dark clear forest green soft glass takes longer to melt and reaches the consistency of molasses. The oxides can also affect how different colored glasses react with each other – there being chemical reactions between certain colors and not between others. For instance, when melted together ivory and turquoise colored soft glass will form a dark black line where the two glasses meet.

Moretti/Effetre, Vetrofond, and Lausha are soft glasses – meaning that they melt at a relatively low temperature and stay soft and workable for a long period of time. This is in contrast to Borosilicate and Pyrex which are harder, higher temperature, stiffer glasses and Japanese Satake which is a softer, lower temperature, more watery glass. Each type of glass has a different coefficient of expansion (COE) meaning each glass when heated or cooled will expand and contract to a different degree. Thus a bead cannot be made by mixing Moretti and Pyrex glass as they have different COE’s and will literally break away from each other when cooled.

Moretti/Effetre, Vetrofond, and Lausha glasses come shipped from the factory in 39 inch lengths of various diameters which are often cut to 13 inch lengths for retail sale. There are roughly 13, 13 inch, 4-6 millimeter wide rods per pound of glass depending on their thickness. I find the rods to be easy to work with at this size and length. I liken using the rods to using a pencil and in fact at times hold the rods in the flame as I do a pencil. Prices for soft glass rods vary from wholesaler to wholesaler and are influenced by how much of the glass the factory made, how expensive it is to make, and how desirable the color is. Ruby red glass, made with traces of gold, can cost as much as $45 or more per pound while basic black glass can cost as little as $6.

In my opinion, there are few things as mesmerizing as watching glass melt. The warmth, liquidity, and glow of molten glass are extremely addictive. Working with glass can be both enjoyable and stressful at the same time depending on what you are trying to achieve in the flame. Unlike other materials like conventional clay, or fimo, filo, metal, stone, and fabric, working with glass takes a hands-off technique. Touching glass when molten will produce instant second degree burns (or worse) so the urge to reach out with a hand and grab it in the flame is strongly discouraged, though hard at times to resist. This is one of the reasons why making items out of glass is more difficult then making those same items out of other, more easily manipulated, materials. Thankfully there are many tools which can be used in place of hands with which to work the glass.

Legal: Copyright © Aaron J. Greenblatt. All rights reserved. Commercial use prohibited. This image and commentary may not be used for any reason without expressed written consent.

Please click here for more images of my studio.

Please click here for images of my glass work.