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Glassblowing: Egypt’s Unsung Artform

December 23, 2021
c. Egyptian Streets

From brittle beauties that can withstand the trial of fire, to thick ornate vases: there is nothing, it seems, that cannot be made within a glassblower’s workshop. At the heart of it all is the oven: a fiery, glorious pit where most of the magic happens. Heated to 860 degrees celsius, this is where glass is melted, made, and blown. The earliest recorded glass-like glaze was found in Egypt, presumably by the Badarian civilization in 12,000 BCE. Though it appears in nearly every culture today, in all of its shades, the oldest clear glass was initially a deep royal blue. The composition hasn’t changed much over the years, with silicate of lime and copper, traces of iron to color. The largest and earliest glass-blowing factory was at Egypt’s Tall el-Amarna, in 1400 BCE, where “a great variety of colored glazes were made for wall decoration and personal ornament.” Since antiquity, Egyptians have not only perfected the art of glass-making but developed a sophisticated culture of color and reflection surrounding glass. The invention of glass-blowing itself originated in Syria, during the first century, and revolutionized the splendor of glass creation across…


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