Glass Information and Education

malti: Italian glass tile.

marinite: A high-duty refractory insulation board often used in place of a kiln shelf.

marriage glass: A glass vessel made and decorated to commemorate a marriage. Most contain inscriptions with either gold/silver enameling or etching/engraving.

martele: Literally, hammered. A decorative technique producing a multi-faceted surface, used particularly by Daum a Galle as a background texture to a design.

marver: An iron or marble table upon which the gather is rolled onto an evenly shaped mass, in a process known as 'marvering'.

marvering: The controlled forming of viscous glass on a flat metal table (marver). The technique is used in the making of color bars in the glass blowing process.

mature: A term used to describe the desired fired state of enamel, glaze, etc. If fired beyond the maturation point, it is said to be overfired; if below, underfired.

metal: The substabce, glass, both in its molten and cold states. The term is normally used to distinguish the fused material from the finished object.

metallic overglaze: See overglaze. A metalic overglaze containes very fine particles of metal such as gold, silver, copper, or palladium. The result produced by firing these materials onto glass is a shiny, metallic surface (sometimes reffered to as metallic luster).

mexican glass: General term for glass made in Mexico since the early twentieth century.

mica: Small chips or specks of colored glassware that are applied to a glass object to produce a multicolored mottled appearance.

millefiori: Literally, 'a thousand flowers'. A decorative technique dating from the first century BC in which slices of coloured glass canes, usually arranged to resemble flowers, are embedded in clear molten glass.

millefiore glass: Intricately arranged bundles of colored cane (frequently a floral pattern) fused together; pieces of this fused bundle (rod) are then used in other hot processes (e.g., fusing or the forming of the traditional millefiore paperweight).

muffle kiln: A low-temperature kiln used for refiring glass to fix enamelling and gilding. The glass objects would be placed in a fire-clay box, or muffle, to protect them from the smoke and flames of the kiln.