| Blown glass, a very ancient technique, is the | | | | glass-blowing took place, probably in Syria, |
| oldest among the handicrafts. It is said by | | | | during the 1st century BC, though the |
| some, that ancient Egyptians were the | | | | technique did not reach Alexandria until the |
| original inventors of glass making | | | | latter half of the following century when it |
| techniques. Production of metallurgy and | | | | was introduced by the Romans. The new |
| faience helped a great deal in the | | | | discovery widely increased production and |
| manufacture of glass afterwards. The earliest | | | | glass then ceased to be either a rarity or an |
| Egyptian glass known to us was in the form of | | | | upper-class prerogative.Blown glass vessels |
| small beads and pendants found in sites | | | | were created by sticking a piece of molten |
| dating back to the 3rd millennium B.C. At | | | | glass onto one end of a blowpipe and through |
| that time glass was made by melting a | | | | the other end introducing pressurized air |
| combination of silica-sand, lime, and soda. | | | | into the pipe. This was done by mouth |
| The interaction of the heated soda and the | | | | blowing. At that stage, the art of |
| hot sand formed a transparent flowing liquid, | | | | transformation into attractive shapes began. |
| which was then permitted to cool forming | | | | It was then cut with a copper wheel and |
| glass.The first glass vessels appeared in | | | | ground with emery powder. After the vessel |
| Egypt in the middle of the 2nd millennium | | | | took its shape, decorations were added by |
| B.C. These were made by the technique of | | | | pinching the hot glass, adding handles or |
| molding on a core made of mud and sand to | | | | other features to it, changing simple |
| form the shape of the vessel's interior. Then | | | | straight patterns into more intricate ones. |
| the core was submerged into viscous molten | | | | After the coloring and hand painting process |
| glass. Once the vessel was cold, the core had | | | | was completed, the bottles were put into a |
| to be scraped out.At that time, glass was | | | | furnace with a very high temperature to set |
| regarded, as an artificial semi-precious | | | | the color on the glass so that it is |
| stone and it was a costly novelty material, | | | | permanent. Afterwards, the bottles needed to |
| most likely the aristocracy owned no glass | | | | be left out to cool. Then they were |
| workshops since it was a royal monopoly.The | | | | ready.Nowadays, blown glass products are |
| decline of royal power after the end of the | | | | still made the same way our ancient ancestors |
| New Kingdom put a stop to glass production | | | | used to make them. No extras are used but the |
| for a time. Not till the Greco-Roman Period | | | | very primitive tools used 7000 years ago and |
| did new Egyptian glass centers arise in the | | | | the golden fingers of the Egyptian |
| Hellenistic cities of Alexandria and | | | | craftsmen.A. |
| Naucratis.The revolutionary invention of | | | | |