About This Blog

Are you curious about how we do what we do here at The Corning Museum of Glass? This blog was created to help answer your questions and give a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes at the Museum.

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Let us know if there’s something you’d like to learn more about in the comments.

24 comments » Write a comment

  1. hello.
    i saw a few videos of yours ( specially one about chunk casting) and played attention to the temperatures the speaker said abut melting the optical glass but i dont know if that temperature is in ªCentigrades or ª farenheith.
    if you can halp mi with this thing i ll be thank full.
    thanks for all you show about glass, its been a grat help for me and gave me lot of ideas that soon will put into practice. thanks .
    fernando.
    [email protected]

    • We refer to temperature using Farenheit. Hope that helps and thanks for your kind words!

  2. When I was in primary school in the 60s, we were told it would all be metric by now.

    never underestimate British Imperialism!

    or the Spanish Inquisition, it just goes by other names now…..

  5. I have always wanted to learn how to blow glass and make my own glass object (a little kiss).  I would like to set up a group of people who want to learn how to blow glass at Sea on Celebrity.  Who would I contact?  Are you for hire?  I can be reached at (937) 879-5702.  I am a travel agent at Excellence in Travel

  6. Does anyone here have experience in photographing glass objects?  Any tips?  I’m a pretty experienced amateur, but would appreciate any tips anyone has learned.
    A family friend who makes her own jewelry beads and wants me to photograph them suggested this site. 
    Thanks! email: [email protected]

  8. I’d like to see more on photographing glass. in particular art glass of all types and crystal/brilliant glass. the set up for the plate was really interesting. I have a very large glass collection and I’d like to get good photos of everything but it’s so difficult. lol. I know I’m not alone in this talking with other collectors.

  9. Is there someone I could talk with about how Gorilla and Vibrant are used at the Museum, either in art, or for protecting art work? I’m on the Board of Trustees for the Hickory Museum of Art, and also an Optical Communications employee in Hickory. COC and HMA are pursuing a collaboration project later this year, and I believe Gorilla and/or Vibrant might end up being key “ingredients” in some way. Thanks!!

    • Hi Anita – We will put you in touch with our collections manager who said he could help you.

  10. I got started making beads thru one of your museum classes, now I’m hooked! I’m trying to replicate the rough finish found on Viking Era beads, my daughter does viking costuming. I’ve tried reducing and oxidizing flames, working in higher temp ft lame areas and also a sprinkling of baking soda all with no luck. Do you know a technique I could use?
    Ken

    • Hi Ken – One of our flameworkers suggests trying sandblasting or acid-etching to get a rougher surface.

    • Hi Ken – Here’s some more advice from one of our other flameworkers, Jen Kuhn:

      I have had good luck etching beads after the fact with a chemical etching solution to give a very even coat of roughness. Baking soda works well if you roll the hot bead in a bowl of the baking soda then burn it off-you will get some pitting as well as general roughness. Beads can also be sand blasted as well. All three of these will give you different rough surfaces.

      http://www.armourproducts.com/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=15-0150&sid=kx4304dd6fcwrx1a18938ix79c8m0949
      15-0150 – 2.8 oz. Armour Etch Glass Etching Cream
      http://www.armourproducts.com
      Armour Etch is a fast acting specially formulated glass etching compound that lets you create permanent etched designs on windows mirrors and household glassware.

      • I’ll try the baking soda idea with a bit hotter bead and more baking soda. Have you ever tried using clean white sand the same way?
        Ken

  11. When can we register for a demonstration time for your visit to Brockport, NY, August 17, 18 and 19?

  12. Hi! I’m a graduate student in art conservation and art history, and I’m wondering if I could use one of your images (the devitrified polished Beth She’arim slab photo by Robert Brill in https://blog.cmog.org/2012/05/29/an-adventure-in-glass-archaeology-the-beth-shearim-slab/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=an-adventure-in-glass-archaeology-the-beth-shearim-slab) on the American Institute of Conservation wiki lexicon, on the “devitrification” page. The wiki is for educational purposes, for both conservators and non-conservators, in order to define terms associated with conservation. If this photo isn’t available for educational use, are there other photos showing devitrification that would be?

    Many thanks for your time – you can reach me at my NYU email, [email protected].

    Best,
    Celeste Mahoney

  13. What a beautiful video of the Osram Sylvana Ribbon Machine! I’m writing my third novel to be published in 2020 by the Dutch Publishing House Querido (Amsterdam), called Lalalanding. It is set in France (Paris) in the fifties, working around this image of a lightfactory producing light bulbs. Do you have more information on the Glass Ribbon Machine in that era? Was there a machine in France, maybe even in Paris? Than you so much for responding, it could be here or you can reach my at [email protected] and I’d appriate this very much!

  14. I have become very interested in American Brilliant period Cut Glass, but I am Disabled and on Disability and I have tried to get downloads of the Trade Catalogs in this category but there are over 400,000 Trade catalogs in your collection and most are not downloadable even though they are listed as Digitized we do not have access to them, how do we get the ones that we can download? I mean trying to go through 400,000 is kind of silly, is there no way for me to get a list of them or a URL list so we have a short cut to the ones that we can get, I think it is a shame that all of them have not become downloadable. So many of us love this glass but do not have the money to buy all the catalogs that have been in reprint, you can buy off the ACGA or eBay but we are not able to do this and those catalogs are no longer copyrighted, so why have they not been made available to the general public. Thank you all for reading.

    • Thank you so much for your inquiry, here is a response from our Rakow Library team: “Thank you for your question! While many of our trade catalog collection is not yet digitized, we are working to make these accessible as we are able to devote resources to this project. We have over 20,000 catalogs in our collection and hundreds of them are digitized at this point. Our FAQ on Finding Digitized Materials in our Collection (https://libanswers.cmog.org/faq/216135) is a good guide to searching for these digitized materials. To find a list of cut glass trade catalogs that are available online, use this search: cut glass catalogs. Then on the right side of the page, under Improve your results, limit your search to Trade Catalogs (Digital Collection) by checking the boxes next to those two choices. If you have questions about searching or using these trade catalogs, please call our reference desk during our open hours 10-4 Monday- Thursday.”

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