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