African artisans

Mouthblown glass

Craftsmanship

Sand and soda, heated by natural glass in a large oven, turn into a transparent fluid-like texture which the glassblowers can pick up to start moulding. The immense temperatures of the furnace make the glass soft and pliable, ready to fashion the glassware items. To shape the product, the blower picks up a bit of molten glass with a pipe. Skillfully the glass is blown into the shape of the mould. As the product takes on the form of the desired item, the temperature drops, and the blowpipe can be removed. Once cooled down completely, which takes several hours, the products are finalized, labelled and packed.

Cased glass technique

Creating coloured glassware requires the cased glass technique. A method of combining three layers of glass into one, a sheet of coloured glass is put in between two layers of transparent glass, therefore: cased glass. The craftsman takes up a piece of transparent glass, a piece of coloured glass and then again, some transparent glass. Once all the glass is collected on the end of the blowpipe, it can be mouth-blown into shape.