About The Stripper
Engage with some awesome blueness to kick start your week #bluemonday.
The look of blue glass when light shines through gives off the atmosphere of tropical sea and clear sky.
The history of blue glass is extensive and you will find forms of it in antique decanters, vases, containers as well as many ornaments (which we have stayed away from). We have sourced a selection of small items including some collectable Whitefriars glass.
Lapis
Starting in 1509, the colour of blue glass was made from Lapis Lazuli (lapis). This was because artists could not create the colour blue just using their paints. Lapis is a deep blue semi-precious stone prized since antiquity for its intense colour. This was very expensive and only the fortunate could purchase glass with lapis blue.
At the end of the middle ages, lapis began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into the colour ultramarine, the finest and most expensive of all blue pigments. It was used by some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Masaccio, Perugino, Titian and Vermeer, and was often reserved for the clothing of the central figures of their paintings, especially the Virgin Mary.
Cobalt
Cobalt glass—known as "smalt" when ground as a pigment—is a deep blue coloured glass made by adding a cobalt compound, typically cobalt oxide or cobalt carbonate, to a glass melt. Smalt has been around since the Middle Ages, however, in the eighteenth century the Swedish chemist Brandt discovered how to isolate the blue colour and smalt from the nineteenth century onwards was greatly improved.
Characterised by bright dark blue, most cobalt glass found today was made after the Civil War. There was renewed interest in the dark blue glass in the late 1930s and blue glass dinnerware was made.
Cobalt glass such as Bristol blue glass is popular with collectors, and is used in the distinctive blue bottles of Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry. It is enjoyed for its attractive colour.
Bristol Blue
Bristol blue is a general term given to coloured British blue glass dating from late 18th century to the mid 19th century. Produced in and around Bristol, as well in other British glass making centres, pieces include bottles, decanters, pitchers and drinking glasses.
Bristol Blue Glass Limited (trading as The Original Bristol Blue Glass) was started back in 1988 by James Adlington, with the help of glass maker Peter St Clair. The aim was to re-establish a glass making tradition back into Bristol that had been lost for over 60 years. At this time, a lot of the traditional English glass making techniques were in severe danger of being lost forever. Through many a struggle, James managed to learn and pass on many of the old skills required to blow glass by hand, in the time-honoured fashion.
Glass is either blown, pressed or moulded
Blown glass was the earliest method of making glass, managed by skilled craftsman to control the symmetry and form of the object.
Mould blown glass was done into a metal or wooden mould allowing the glass to be more mass produced consistently. It could then be finished by hand.
Glass blowers eventually became redundant and the more important role was the mould master who chipped at the metal mould to create crafted intricate patterns.
Pressed was a new technique developed from the 1820s, where you use a plunger to push molten glass into all corners of a mould. This method was designed to imitate more expensive cut lead crystal.
Moulded spinning glass into a mould at high speed for consistent and the method used in most massed produce glass today.
Be Inspired with out Pinterest board BLUE GLASS