A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Face: The part of lead came which will be seen as you look at the finished project. The size of a came refers the the width of the face.
Façon de Venise (French, "style of Venice"): Glass made in imitation of Venetian products, at centers other than Venice itself. Façon de Venise glass was popular in many parts of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Fan Lamp: A style of flat lamp whose general shape resembles a ladies fan that is then held upright in base with a socket behind it to provide illumination.
Favrile: Iridescent glass patented by Louis Comfort Tiffany in the 1880s, produced by the exposure of hot glass to metallic fumes and oxides.
Fiber Blanket: A refractory, flexible sheet used to control the cooling rate of hot glass items.
Fiberboard: Pressed ceramic fiber material used to create drop molds or walls for casting frit
Fid: Originally a tool used by sailors to work loose knots. In stained glass it is used to help burnish the foil to the glass in copper foil construction. It is also used to widen or help manipulate lead and metal cames during construction.
Filigrana Rods: Glass rods of an solid inner color layer encased in clear. Use in bead making and torchwork.
Filigree: Generally made of brass, they are designs or flat strips used to hide seams or decorate edges. Commonly used in lamp shades as dividers to hide the seam between crown and body or body and skirt, or between the individual panels.
Finial: The small, brass (usually) screw top which holds the shade to a lamp base.
Finished: The process of completing the forming or decoration of an object. Finishing may take the form of manipulating the object into its final shape while it is hot, of cracking off prior to annealing, or of grinding, cutting or polishing.
Fire Clay: Clay capable of being subjected to a high temperature without fusing, and therefore used for making crucibles in which glass batches are melted. Fire clay is rich silica, but contains only small amounts of lime, iron, and alkali.
Fire Polishing: The reintroduction of a vessel into the glory hole to melt the surface and eliminated superficial irregularity or dullness.
Flashback: Occurrence in flameworking torch setups when the flame burns back through the torch, hose, regulator, and possibly the tank.
Flameworking: The technique of forming objects from rods and tubes of glass that, when heated in a flame, become soft and can be manipulated into the desired shape. It is commonly used today to create beads, small vessels, and sculptures. Formerly, the source of the flame was an oil or paraffin lamp used in conjunction with foot-powered bellows; today, gas-fueled torches are used
Flashed Glass: Where
a thin layer of one color of glass is laid on top a single side of another color glass within a
single sheet. This is achieved by dipping a gather of hot glass into a crucible containing hot glass
of the second color. The upper layer may be too thin to be worked in relief. Flashed glasses are often used in etching or sandblasting processes where the upper
color is removed to expose the lower. It can also be used just for the color it creates.
Flemish Glass: A cathedral glass with an impressed design of many channels running every which way through the surface
Flints: Planned breaks in a diamond or rectangular window, generally in the form of a curved triangle. Used to break up the monotony of the design.
Flux: A substance that lowers the melting temperature of another substance. For example, a flux is added to the batch in order to facilitate the fusing of the silica or flux is used when soldering copper foil or leaded glass pieces together, allowing the solder to adhere to the base metal. Fluxes are also added to enamels in order to lower their fusion point to below that of the glass body to which they are to be applied. Fluxes can be organic or inorganic in composition.
Foil: General term referring to the copper tape wrapped to the edges of glass. The process was developed and used by Louis Comfort Tiffany in construction his lampshades. Today you can get copper tape with an adhesive back already applied or you can cut your own and apply hot beeswax like Tiffany did. Tapes today come in a variety of widths and colors.
Foil Shears: A three bladed shear used
to cut apart stained glass patterns for copper foil construction. The shear removes a very thin
strip of material from between the pattern pieces to accommodate the thickness of the foil tape the
pieces will be wrapped with.
Founding:: The initial phase of melting batch. For many modern glasses, the materials must be heated to a temperature of about 2450° F (1400° C). This is followed by a maturing period, during which the molten glass cools to a working temperature of about 2000° F (1100° C).
Form: (1)The three dimensional base used to construct a lamp shade on. (2) Used interchangeably with mold when referring to the container in the indirect mosaic method in which the design is cast. (3) Any object used to provide a help create a shape from another material.
Frame: The skeleton (white metal, brass, lead or copper foil) of any shade.
Free Form: Creations not designed to fit a predetermined space with boundaries of their own. Items like suncatchers, sculptures, mobiles are considered free form.
Frit: Different ground sizes (powder, sine, medium, coarse) of glass generally used in fusing, flameworking, glass blowing, or mosaics.
Furnace: An enclosed structure for the production and application of heat. In glassmaking, furnaces are used for melting the batch, maintaining pots of glass in a molted state, and reheating partly formed objects at the glory hole
Fusing: (1) The process of founding or melting the batch; (2) The technique of adhering glass to other glass surfaces using heat, generally in a kiln. The degree of attachment ranges from a point where they are tacked together, but still two separate pieces to where the pieces are fully embedded into the bottom glass layer. (3) heating enameled glasses until the enamel bonds with the surface of the object.
Fusible Glass: Glass that is pre-tested by the manufacturer for it COE and compatibility with other glasses.
The sources for this material include:
•Glass: A Pocket Dictionary of Terms Commonly Used to Describe Glass and Glassmaking.
Compiled by David Whitehouse, 88 pp., 47 illus., 1993
•How to Work in Stained Glass. Anita & Seymour Isenberg, 247 pp., 1972
•Stained Glass Lamps. Anita & Seymour Isenberg, 222 pp., 1972
•The Techniques of Stained Glass. Partrick Reyntiens, 168 pp. 1977
•The Coming Museum Website: www.cmog.org
• The Stained Glass Association of America Website: www.stainedglass.org
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