Furnace & Heating
The furnace side of the studio: melting tanks, crucibles, reheating ports and the ventilation that keeps the room breathable.
6 tools
Night furnace
Every tool in the hot shop, explained properly
Twenty-eight tools across furnace work, gathering, shaping, colour and annealing, with real specifications and the safety notes that matter.
3D Studio
Take a gather, then blow it, in your browser
Four interactive simulators let you gather glass, shape it, colour it and anneal it, with live estimates for volume, wall thickness and cooling time.
Colour and chemistry
Match the expansion before you match the palette
Colour that does not share a coefficient of expansion with the base glass will crack the piece weeks later. Check compatibility first.
Independent and educational
We are not a supplier. Every specification here is reference material compiled for learning, with no products to sell.
Safety first, always
Heat, fumes, silica dust and ventilation are covered on every relevant page, not buried in a disclaimer.
Four free 3D tools
Gather and blow, shape, colour and anneal in an interactive simulation. No account, no download, runs in the browser.
No guaranteed outcomes
Glass is a material with a mind of its own. Nothing here promises a result, and every schedule needs testing on your own setup.
Tool library
Five categories, twenty-eight tools
From the melting furnace to a diamond file, each tool is documented with real specifications, compatible glass types, and the safety notes that actually matter at the bench.
Gathering & Blowing
Pipes, rods, hoses and the pads that turn a glowing gather into a hollow bubble.
6 tools
Shaping & Tools
Hand tools for the working window: tweezers, shears, pliers, jacks and paddles.
6 tools
Color & Surface
Colouring materials and the surface treatments applied while the glass is still hot.
5 tools
Annealing & Finishing
Controlled cooling schedules and the coldworking tools that finish a piece after it has cooled.
5 tools
The process
How a piece is made
Four stages, each with its own tools and its own failure modes. Get the order wrong and the piece cracks.
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Step 1
Gather and heat
A blowpipe enters the furnace and picks up molten glass at around 1150 °C. The gather sets the size of everything that follows.
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Step 2
Blow and shape
Air inflates the gather from inside while rotation keeps it round. Jacks, pliers and paddles move the form while it is still soft.
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Step 3
Colour and detail
Frit, powder, oxide and gold leaf are applied to hot glass. Every colourant must match the expansion of the base glass.
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Step 4
Anneal and cool
The piece is held above its annealing point, then cooled slowly through the strain point. Skip this and it cracks days later.
3D Studio
Gather, shape, colour and anneal in your browser
Four interactive simulations with live estimates. They run entirely in your browser, load only when you open them, and fall back to 2D diagrams if WebGL is unavailable.
A live gather on the end of a pipe
This preview is drawn with animation rather than a 3D library, so the home page stays light. The full simulators add real geometry, deformation and a draggable annealing curve.
Jump straight in
3D tools are educational simulations. Real glassblowing requires hands-on instruction and the equipment manufacturer's safety instructions.
Most referenced
All 28 tools
Popular tools
Glass Furnace
The melting tank that holds glass at working temperature, day and night, for the whole life of the studio.
Gathering
Blowpipe
The hollow steel tube you gather on, rotate and blow through. The primary instrument of the hot shop.
Gathering / Blowing
Glory Hole
A reheating chamber that brings a cooling piece back to working temperature without touching the main furnace.
Shaping / Blowing
Colored Frit
Crushed coloured glass graded by mesh size, rolled onto a hot gather for speckled colour.
Coloring
Annealing Kiln
A small top-loading kiln used for beads, small sculpture and single-piece annealing.
Annealing
Calculators
Three numbers worth getting right
Batch proportions, an annealing schedule, and whether two glasses can actually be combined.
Free tool
Batch Recipe Calculator
Work out raw material weights for a soda-lime, borosilicate or lead crystal batch, with an estimated melting temperature and refining note.
Runs in your browser
Free tool
Annealing Schedule Calculator
Turn a glass type, a thickness and an oven load into a full ramp, soak and cool schedule with a timeline.
Runs in your browser
Free tool
COE Compatibility Calculator
Check whether two glasses can be fused or mixed safely by comparing their coefficients of expansion.
Runs in your browser
Reading
All articles
Featured articles
How to Start Glassblowing: A Beginner's Guide
What you actually need before your first gather, what to learn in your first month, and the honest costs of setting up at home.
Mira · 11 min read
Understanding Your Glass Furnace
How a melting furnace actually holds temperature, why the crucible fails before the elements do, and the daily routine that doubles its life.
Ada · 13 min read
Gathering and Blowing: The Core Techniques
The gather sets up everything that follows. Here is how to take a clean one, keep it round, and inflate it without losing control.
Mira · 12 min read
Not sure where to start?
The beginner guide covers what to learn first, what it genuinely costs, and the equipment decisions you can safely postpone.