In Matthew Tercsak's Orlando specialty shop, Mystik Inc., many of the pieces that he sells are created from blown glass. He has always appreciated the art form of glassblowing, and taken the time to learn more about the ancient style of art over the years. In recent years, he has also started blowing glass on his own, which deepened his love of the art form.
To accurately achieve the glass form, raw materials must be super-heated to an extreme level, two thousand four hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The earliest pieces of glass were not created by humans, but by mother nature herself. During a volcanic eruption, molten lava would rain down over areas of sand and rock, melting the two elements to their liquid state. The resulting mass would cool and become the form of glass known as obsidian. Alternately, a lighting strike in sand could melt that sand into the glass called fulgurite.
The art of glassblowing, forming molten glass into a shape by applying breath-pressure, dates as far back as the early Roman Empire. Artisans would use kilns and forges to melt glass pieces, dip the end of a long metal tube into the glass, and blow through the opposite end to create a shape before the glass cooled. Since the Roman Empire had such an impact around Europe, the art of glassblowing caught on more quickly.
Glassblowers in modern times, like Matthew Tercsak, use either mold-blowing or free-blowing techniques to create beautiful glass artwork all around the world.
To accurately achieve the glass form, raw materials must be super-heated to an extreme level, two thousand four hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The earliest pieces of glass were not created by humans, but by mother nature herself. During a volcanic eruption, molten lava would rain down over areas of sand and rock, melting the two elements to their liquid state. The resulting mass would cool and become the form of glass known as obsidian. Alternately, a lighting strike in sand could melt that sand into the glass called fulgurite.
The art of glassblowing, forming molten glass into a shape by applying breath-pressure, dates as far back as the early Roman Empire. Artisans would use kilns and forges to melt glass pieces, dip the end of a long metal tube into the glass, and blow through the opposite end to create a shape before the glass cooled. Since the Roman Empire had such an impact around Europe, the art of glassblowing caught on more quickly.
Glassblowers in modern times, like Matthew Tercsak, use either mold-blowing or free-blowing techniques to create beautiful glass artwork all around the world.
