Glass Information and Education

shards: paperthin slics of glass generally used as design elements. Also called confetti.

shears: A tool used to trim a piece of glassware, for example the rim of a vessel, in the course of its manufacture.

soda glass: Glass in which the alkali is soda (sodium carbonate) rather than potash. Venetian cristallo is a soda glass and much soda glassware is in a facon de Venise style. The soda was traditionally obtained from barilla.

splayed base: A style of base or bottom of a glass object that flares outward. Also can be referred to as "spreading bases."

staining: The process of applying colored pigments or tansparent paints to annealed clear glass.

stippling: The technique of tapping a glass surface with a pointed implement so as to produce a pattern with tiny dots (stipples).

striking: Reheating a glass object in order to develop a colour or special effect, as when making ruby glass or Amberina.

sulphide: a medallion or cameo of opaque glass enclosed in transparent glass as, for instance, in a paperweight.

sweetmeat glass: A tall-stemmed container, used in England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries to hold crystallized fruits and other kinds of sweetmeats.

Syrian Glass: A general term for glassware produced in the region of Syria.