Can you imagine your life without glass? Glass somehow became something important in everyday life from cups to plates to vases. Yet, the hand-blown glass is at risk of being lost in Egypt. So let’s take a closer look at how that glass came to be as you know it today. Glass in its self is a very ancient manufacturing process dating back to the 16th Century B.C.in Egypt; where it was made by the method of core-forming and cold cutting but had been abandoned due to the introduction of the glass blowing technique. Evidence of this is found in one of the walls of the tombs at Dahshour. At that time glass products were very expensive and only the elite can afford to buy them. Moving on to the Old and Middle Kingdoms, pure glass was introduced.
Having a closer look at the process would allow us to give you a little detail about the working space. Starting with the oven it has 2 separate compartments one for the molten glass and the other is for cooling down the finished products gradually so they don’t explode from the sudden drop in temperature. Moreover, all the glass used is recycled glass to maintain an eco-friendly environment.
Now moving on to the actual process of blown glass, it involves the blowing of short puffs of air into molten portions of glass called a ‘”gather” which has been spooled at one end of the blowpipe. This has the effect of forming an elastic skin on the interior of the glass blob that matches the exterior skin caused by the removal of heat from the furnace. The glassworker can then quickly inflate the molten glass to a coherent blob and work it into the desired shape.
Even though this craft has started thousands of years ago only 2 artisans in Egypt are still practicing it. So throwing some light on that hoping to provide job opportunities, for other artisans interested in the craft.