Glassblowing

Glassblowing is a technique for shaping molten glass by inflating it into a bubble with a blowpipe, a method practiced by a glassblower under the direction of a workshop head called a gaffer. The technique emerged around the middle of the first century BC among Phoenician and Syrian craftsmen and quickly replaced older methods such as casting and core forming as the dominant way to shape glass. Its spread was accelerated by the rise of the Roman Empire, and glassblowing remains a major glassworking method today, used in both industrial glass production and studio art.