History of fused glass

3000 years ago
It has been generally recognised that the first fusing and kiln casting was carried out by the ancient Mesopotamians in the second millennium BC. It’s thought that this early glasswork evolved from existing ceramic and metalworking techniques.Glass was considered a precious material and therefore took its place alongside gold and silver.

Egyptians
The ancient Egyptians further developed the process and by the latter half of the 2nd millennium BC they were proficient in the techniques of both fused glass work and had developed a technique of working with glass rods (now called lamp work) and were grinding and polishing the glass.

Greeks and Romans
The Greeks and the Romans took the art a stage further and introduced a technique of core formed vessels in which glass was wrapped around a core vessel and then heated again to produce the most beautiful and sophisticated mosaic and striated patterns.

Development of "Hot Glass"
Fused glasswork reached its peak from the third century BC until the birth of Christ. During this time the Romans were developing a new technique ‘glass blowing’. It had many advantages in that is was efficient, lower cost and the pieces were repeatable. Hot glass soon became the preferred way of working and was adopted throughout the Roman Empire.

Forgotten
By the 3rd or 2nd centaury AD fused glass techniques were virtually forgotten and here they lay until the 19th century when they were rediscovered in Europe. Spurred on by recent discoveries of ancient glass by archaeologists of the time, the glass artists and craftsmen of the period found again a wonderful way to express themselves artistically and fused glass was reborn.

Archangel Uriel
Edris Eckhardt
Kiln-formed glass
Corning Museum of Glass