Littleton

Alan, I believe David Donaldson is correct on “straw marks” if he got his information from Harvey Littleton who was the “Frederick Carder” of studio glass in the last half of the 20th. century and one of the most influential glass blowers of all time.

Leigh Alan Demrow, Janesville, WI

(…a portion of the molten glass in which all of the batch ingredients had not completely gone into solution due to a cold spot on the tank.)

Fun Question

Straw marks – Fun question!! Are you discussing the packing of American Pressed (or Pattern) Glass- late 19C to early 20C or all glass with flaws in general.

Paul Bailey, Bellevue, WA

Fun Answer

I would say all glass flaws in general, whatever they might be called. Although the topic was supposed to be on “glass myths,” and my topic-starter was about the stupid name for a certain sort of flaw. Interestingly, I don’t think any of the people whose replies were published today provided any explanation of WHY a straw mark is called a straw mark.

Michael Krumme, LA

Bubbles

There are many methods of making bubbles in glass. One is to sprinkle soda ash or potash on a freshly gather of glass before adding another gather of hot glass. This creates small bubbles. We saw this being done in Biot in France in 1970. It was not common to mix different coloring oxides with the soda ash. This creates bubbles and a tint of color in the layer.

Over many years of visiting the Eisch Glass factory in Bavaria we observed a common practice for the batch master to have a
green block of wood about 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches square that they would stick on the point of a long steel rod. They would push it to the bottom of a pot of crystal some hours after charging and quickly removing the iron rod. The wet wood at the bottom of the pot would gas causing large bubbles that stirred the pot of clear crystal to make it more homogenous, reducing potential striations.

Shari Maxson Hopper, Paradise, CA