Welcome to our web cam. Click the small arrow on bottom left of the picture. The refurbishment is now complete with the latest technology supported by the Welsh Carbon footprint. The energy bill has been cut in half. The camera is positioned so you can see the glass being fashioned on the bench with simple tools that have been developed over hundreds of years. Tongs (jacks or pucellas) do most of the styling they are made from sprung steel. We use calipers to measure height and width. When making a piece from our range we keep the master design and refer to a note book that contains all designs and sizes.
Each evening the furnace is filled with sand. The furnace temperature is raised to thirteen hundred degrees Celcius and the sand transforms into glass. The molten glass is gathered using a hollow stainless steel pipe. It is now taken to the bench to be shaped.
After you have formed a ball of glass you blow down the pipe and hold your thumb over the hole. The heat expands the air and a bubble will appear in the glass. At this stage you can add more glass and inflate to the desired size and repeat the process as required
You will need to create a neckline; squeeze the glass thinner between the glass and the iron. You need to create this groove because this where you will be breaking the piece from the iron. You achieve this by giving the glass at this point a thermal shock such as drizzling water with a hacksaw blade around the point to be broken off
The piece is placed in an oven(lehr) over night to cool slowly. If you failed to do this the glass would explode due to stresses.
