1. Is that dangerous to use glass production tools? Will there be many production procedures?

There are various tools for different production techniques. If the tools are not used properly, there are risks to be hurt. This is the same as using scissors and knife. The procedures and techniques used will depend on how complex the work will be. For instance, to blow a ball need only a few minutes, but to make a lost wax casting piece need to go through a complex procedure like prepare the original sculpture, transfer to silicon mold, make wax origin, lost wax, casting, demould the mold, recondition, and polishing.

2. Is there good or bad glass? What is the difference between Liu Li and glass?

Even though there is different materials and prices, it is not necessary to distinguish the glass from good or bad. The more important is the quality of design and production. The difference between Liu Li and glass is just different preference to call them. Actually, Liu Li and glass are the same. Currently the so called Liu Li means lead glass with good transparency, low melting point and ease of processing. Since it is as clear as crystal, it is also called Liu Li crystal or crystal glass.

3. What are the techniques for coloring? How to shape a form? How to control temperature?

If you want to keep a nature texture of brush, you can apply color directly by brush or pen. If you want an even density of large area, you can use pen brush. If you want neatly patterns, you can print the patterns on stickers, stick to the glass, then fire them to cure.

There are several ways to form a shape: hand blowing, solid sculpture, tubing, mold blown, and pressing. There is a certain firing schedule to control the temperature. When using hand blow technique you need to watch the change of color and hardness of glass. If you make the pieces by fusing or casting techniques in a kiln, you need electronic temperature controller and thermal couple to control the temperature to follow the firing schedule.

4. How to shape a form? How to make glass with gradate colors? How to control the degree of heating?

Different techniques are applied to shape specific forms. For instance, you can use hot shop or tubing techniques to make a hollow form. To make a solid form, you can use canes, sand casting, and plaster mold casting.

To make gradate colors on glass, you can use hot shop techniques to roll color powders or frits on glass, then either blow to expend or stretch it by tools like jack. You can also use casting methods to put glass chuck with different colors in the pottery pot above the plaster mold. After the glass is molten, it will flow through the hole in the pot’s bottom and mix into the plaster mold to have a color mixing effect.

In addition to use controller to control the heating in a kiln for slumping, fusing or casting, you also need experiences and observation to control the timing of heating.

5. How does the boat sail into a bottle? What are the contents of glass colorants? When is the first time that glass is used?

To sail a boat into a bottle, you do it when there is no bottom. The way to do it is using borosilicate glass to make a bottle without bottom, place the boat that already made by borosilicate glass inside the bottle from the bottom, then use gas torch to melt and fix the boat on the bottle, then seal the bottom.

The contents to glass colorants are various metal oxides. The origin of glass is said to be at Mesopotamia about 5000 years ago.

There are many techniques need kinds of equipment. There are many glass factories in Hsing-Chu. They may provide service to support teaching.

6. How to make a translucent bottle? Will glass shrink?

You can use sand blasting and acid etching to make a translucent effect. Sand blasting is using compressed air to blow the abrasive media to hit glass to make it loss sheen. Acid etching is to apply paste of mixture of Hydrofluoric acid, ammonium fluoride, and sulfuric acid onto glass to make a translucent effect.

Glass will expand when heated and shrink when cooled. When treat the glass with sudden heat or cold, or uneven heating, it will result in thermal shock and break.

7. How to blow a hollow object? Will that be hazardous to the health when producing glass objects?

To blow a hollow glass ware is similar to blow a bubble, first to gather molten glass from furnace by one end of a metal pipe, blow air through the other end of the pipe to form a hollow ball shape, and shape the object by tools. If you use glass tube as material, first to heat both ends soft enough to pull and stretch the ends to be thin tubes, seal one end, heat the middle tube until soft while turning, blow through the other end to expand the middle tube to be a ball shape, then use tools to shape it into a desired form.

When producing glass objects, basically there is no danger to the health during hot work period. Nonetheless, during cold work period, there are risks to hurt eyes, skin and tracheas when in a process of cutting, grinding, sandblasting, acid etching.

8. What is the melting point of glass? What are the different contents? What is the physical property?

Normally the melting point of sodium glass is between 1400℃~1500℃. The melting point of quartz glass is up to 1710℃. Glass has different contents according to specific purposes, so there are so called sodium glass, potassium glass, lead glass, borosilicate glass, quartz glass. And according to different contents, there are different physical properties. For instance, sodium glass and potassium glass have less transparency. Lead glass has good transparency. Borosilicate glass can withstand thermal shock. Quartz glass has high transparency and hardness.

9. How to treat glass after it is recycled? Is that only disinfection the glass? Color glass is very pretty, is that difficult to make?

When the glass is recycled, it is not only being disinfected. It can be cut, grinded, painted, sandblasted, laminated and combined together by cold work. It can also place in furnace to be molten and reuse again.

10. What is the difference between normal glass and tempered glass? How to make a tempered glass? What is the usage?

Tempered glass is a glass through special treatment to reinforce its strength. The way to make a tempered glass is to heat the flat glass to a temperature close to its softening point, then use compressed air to cool it rapidly. By this process, the strain of the glass will lock inside the glass and increase its strength. The other way to increase the strength of glass is by placing a membrane between two sheets of glass. Add heat and pressure to melt the membrane and glue these glass together. It is called laminate glass. Tempered glass is used in the place that needs transparency yet have a chance to be collided.

11. Why the glass is easy to be broken? Except to use the glass bottle as a bottle, can it be cut and use? Will that be dangerous?

This is the characteristic of glass to prone to be broken due to it structure of elements. Except to use the glass bottle as a whole, you can cut the glass to change the form and usage. The tools for cutting are diamond saw, diamond band saw. If cut the bottle with regular diameter, you can rotate the bottle and heat partially, then drop water on the heating part to cut the glass.

12. What is the material of glass? Is that liquid? If it is liquid, how to make it in one piece? What is the difference between Bo Li and Liu Li? Why Liu Li looks more beautiful then Bo Li?

The base material of glass are silica sand（SiO2）, sodium carbonate（Na2CO3）, and lime or so called calcium carbonate（CaCO3）. Those material are heated under high temperature（1400℃～1500℃）and become a liquid form. The forming methods are hand blown, mold blown, pressing, sand casting, amounts others. It will be set to a form when cooled.

It is only a preference of name to Bo Li and Liu Li. They are all glass. Bo Li is a general term for all kinds of glass. Liu Li is lead glass with crystalline effect.

13. How to make degree on wearing glasses? How to make glass surface so smooth and shining? The safety glass is hard and safe. Can it replace the cement wall? Is the specific weight of glass bigger then cement? Which is heavier? Is crystal equal to glass? Wearing glass accessory often will that do any harm to the body? How to repair the scratch on glass?

The degree on glasses is decided by the thickness of the cambered surface of glasses and change of gradation. The smooth and shining effect of glass is made by fire polishing, cold work polishing, or acid polishing. The specific weight of glass is larger then cement. It is possible to replace cement as a wall, but the cost is much higher. Crystal is not equal to glass. There are nature crystal and artificial crystal. Artificial crystal is a kind of glass. Lead glass and quartz glass are called crystal glass due to its crystalline appearance. There is no harm to the body if you wear glass accessory very often. The best way to repair the scratch of glass is to polish again.

14. How to make glass? What is the procedure? How to paint color on glass?

The base content of glass are silica sand（SiO2）, sodium carbonate（Na2CO3）, and lime, also called calcium carbonate（CaCO3）, melt in high temperature（1400℃～1500℃）to be a liquid form.

There are different procedures of glass making depend on the production methods. For instance, blow and hot sculpture techniques make glass directly from furnace. Flame works, such as beading and tubing, use material like canes and tubes made from furnace.

There are two types of glass colorant. One is paints. The other is enamels. The former is to paint the paints directly on glass. The latter is to mix enamels with a plant oil or CMC, then apply the mixture to glass. When it is dried, put glass in the kiln and heat it under 560℃ to cure.

15. How to make glass with different transparency? What is the speed and time for melting and cooling? What is the temperature?

You can control the transparency of glass by applying sodium carbonate, lead oxide, borax, metal oxides and the thickness of the glass.

The speed for melting and cooling can not be too fast, especially in the annealing period, otherwise, the glass will break due to thermal shock.

The melting point for sodium glass is 1400℃～1500℃. The casting temperature for a lead glass is between 800℃～850℃.

16. What is the difference between normal glass, safety glass and tempered glass?

Normal glass means sodium glass. It is relatively fragile. The fracture of glass is sharp and dangerous. Safety glass has higher resistance to impact. There is laminate glass that laminates two piece of sheet glass by sandwich a plastic membrane in between. There is steel wire glass that sandwich a layer of steel wire net in between two sheets of glass. They will not hurt human body when broken. Tempered glass means glass with special heat treatment that has stronger resistance.

17. Can glass be sculptured? How slender, long and thin can glass be?

Glass can be sculptured by a diamond wheel, sandblasting machine, or hand held grinder. In practical operation, we would rather say it is ground then being sculptured. It can be described as grinding sculpture or engraving.

If the glass is pulled to become glass fiber, the diameter can be as small as 0.026±0.005（㎜）. The length of the string will depend on the volume of glass. Usually make it in a 3km roll. Sheet glass can be as thin as 1.2㎜～1.4㎜.

18. Why the window shield of automobile will be in granule shapes after it is broken?

The window shield glass of automobile is tempered glass. First, heat the sheet glass up to softening point, then cool the surfaces fast by compressed air and make the surfaces in a pulling state and become balanced due to even pulling force on both sides. As long as the outside force not to exceed this pulling force, the glass won’t break. When the surface of the glass is damaged, the internal pulling force will lose balance and make the glass break into granules.

19. Is that easy to preserve glass objects? Will the production process complex?

Even though glass is fragile, in a condition without outside forces, the glass can be preserved for a long period of time. The production of glass has different level of complexity depends on the technique used. For instance, glass painting needs only to use pen brush to paint colors on glass, while lost wax casting needs to go through complex steps to make the original sculpture, silicon mold, wax transferred from the origin, refractory plaster mold, lost wax, casting, repairing, and polishing or acid etching.

20. Can Bo Li be made the same effects as Liu Li?

Bo Li and Liu Li is just a name difference. Bo Li is the general term for all kinds of glass.Liu Li is vastly used for lead glass with crystalline effects. Actually sodium glass with high quality and transparency can produce similar visual effect as Liu Li.

21. How to make color glass? How to make the color even?

The production of color glass, if in the raw material stage, we can add various metal oxides according to the color desired. If in the blowing and hot sculpture stage, we can roll color powders or frit and reheat it, we can make transparent glass to be color glass. To make the color even, the former needs to mix the contents well enough and melt the material for a long time, the latter needs to evenly distribute the powders or frits with even size.

22. Can we make sandblasting effect without machine?

In addition to using sandblasting machine to make sandblasting effects, we can also use acid etching method to gain the same effect. Dip the glass in a mixture of hydrofluoric acid and calcium carbonate for 20 to 30 minutes, or brush paste with the same formula on the surface of glass for a few minutes.

23. How to apply acrylic paints on glass evenly?

It is very easy to produce brush stroke if paint on glass directly. It is better to sandblast the surface first then apply the paint. After it is dried, then apply another layer. Repeat this procedure many times.

24. How can we include fresh flowers and fruits in the glass (like used in jelly candles)?

It is not possible to include fresh flowers and fruits in the glass like what did in jelly candles. The heat of the glass will burn them into charcoal. There is one way can make similar effect. That is to make the flowers and fruits by the same kinds of glass. Preheat it and place it in a graphite mold with vacuum system. Suck in melting transparent glass while vacuuming, you can wrap the glass flowers and fruits inside the glass.

25. What are the difficulties of glass production?

The difficulties of glass production are mainly the problems of equipment and techniques. Since there are various processing methods, there need various equipment and techniques accordingly. It is difficult to have complete equipment and techniques in one time. So that most of the glass industry or personal studio will focus on single processing technique.

26. How to cut glass?

There are many kinds of hand tools, machinery and ways of cutting. The hand tools include diamond cutter, tungsten wheel cutter. The machine equipment includes diamond saw, diamond band saw, water jet, sandblasting machine. When using hand tools for cutting requires oil to lubricate the wheel. When using machines for cutting requires water for coolant to refrain from thermal shock.

27. Can we stay at home for simple glass creation?

You can create simple glass arts such as glass painting, acid etching, glass laminating. If you have simple torch (gas torch), you can make small solid sculptures such as pendants, brooches, and beads.

28. Will glass flow in room temperature? Can I cut glass by knife? How to make 3D image inside a sheet glass while two sides of surfaces are still smooth and shine? Can glass be bent freely? Will that be possible that when glass falls on the ground, it becomes patterns or beads instead of fractures? Glass is transparent, can reflect light, condense light, form image. How can we make these characteristics disappear to make a new type of glass? How to make the glass glow by itself? How to make a glass penetrates through other glass?

The glass is in a solid form in room temperature. It will not flow. Glass can not be cut by a normal knife and has to be cut by hand tools such as diamond cutter or tungsten cutter, or equipments such as diamond saw, diamond band saw, water jet, and sandblaster. Use laser engraver to burn 3D images inside the glass by white dots. When glass is heat to softening point (for sodium glass it is around 700℃, it can be bent easily. It is the characteristic of tempered glass that break into pattern or small beads instead of fractures when fall on the ground. One of the methods to make glass loose transparency and the abilities to reflecting and condensing light, etc., is to make translucent, dark and opaque glass with different formula. To make glass glow by itself, you can add luminous powder in the molten glass before set a form. The ways to make glass passing through glass are through cutting, grinding and laminating by UV glue (sun glue).

29. Can glass be glued?

We can glue glass by AB glue (two parts epoxy) or UV glue (sun glue). The former is to mix two parts together thoroughly and apply the mixture to the place to be glued. The latter is to apply UV glue to the joint of two glass, then press them tightly, wipe the excessive by alcohol, and cured by UV light or sun light.

30. What should I do with the broken glass in my home?

If the glass is broken, you can fix it by AB glue or UV glue. If it is way beyond repairing, you had better package it separately for recycling.