A glass blank is a piece of

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

that requires additional decoration before it is considered finished. Types of decoration include

cutting Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force. Implements commonly used for wikt:cut, cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the scal ...

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

, acid-etching,

gilding Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

, and

enameling Vitreous enamel, also called porcelain enamel, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between . The powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating. The word comes from the Latin ...

. Often the term blank is used in reference to an uncut piece of glass that will be cut or engraved. "Blank" is used in the same way of pottery, especially

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

, that was often decorated elsewhere, for example by

hausmaler In pottery hausmaler () is a term for the artist, the style, and the pieces in hausmalerei, the process of buying pieces of pottery as plain "blanks", and then painting them in small workshops, or the homes of painters, before a final firing. In ...

Production

The glassmaking process can be divided into several stages, including: melting ingredients to make raw glass, remelting raw glass to make objects (sometimes adding decorations while the glass is still hot), and adding decorations to cooled glass objects. The last stage is often where blanks are involved. These are pieces of glass made with the intention of adding decoration to the cooled piece. Blanks are sometimes made in the same factory or studio in which they are decorated, but blanks can also be made and sold by one company to another company that adds decoration. In

glass engraving Engraved glass is a type of decorated glass that involves shallowly engraving the surface of a glass object, either by holding it against a rotating wheel, or manipulating a "diamond point" in the style of an engraving burin. It is a subgroup of ...

plain wineglasses that were many years old are often used. A glass engraved in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

to celebrate the birth of

William V, Prince of Orange William V (Willem Batavus; 8 March 1748 – 9 April 1806) was a prince of Orange and the last stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. He went into exile to London in 1795. He was furthermore ruler of the Principality of Orange-Nassau until his death in ...

in 1748, showing an

orange tree Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

with a new shoot, uses an English wineglass made about 30 years earlier."Wine-glass", V&A accession # C.163-1956
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Types of blanks

Cased glass blanks and figured blanks are two types of blanks made with specific finishing decorations in mind. A cased glass blank is an object made with several layers of colors. When it is decorated (often by cutting or engraving) the lower layers of one or more different colors are revealed. A popular example of pieces made using cased glass blanks are cameo glass objects. Figured blanks are made when hot glass is blown into a mold. While the molded shape is considered part of the decoration, additional details are often added after the glass is cooled.

References

{{Reflist Glass art