Ornamental Glass.

Manufacturer and Builder 3, 1876

Continued from page 12.

A mode of transfer, similar to that employed in the manufacture of pottery, has been tried on glass, patented, but after all abandoned. The transparency, instead of the opacity of the material, requires the use of a much larger quantity of color; and as this can not be confined at the edges, it renders them ragged and uneven, giving the whole design an exceedingly poor and weak effect.

The most succesful results with transfers have been obtained by what is technically known as "stopping out." The colored ink employed is composed of materials which will not adhere to the glass when heated. The transfer is first made on the glass, and the enamel laid on afterward; when burnt, the ink color is removed, and being under the enamel, has prevented it from adhering to those places covered by the transfer. Stencilling however has so much the advantage over transfer, both in rapidity and certainty, that it is the only method pursued at present by the majority of manufacturers. The price of this glass does not much exceed that of plain glass, and is now very generally used.

There are three variations in the method of executing these patterns, which are worthy of notice. The first, "flocking," consists in grinding the whole of one side of the glass, and ornamenting the other side in the usual manner; the contrast between the ground and the pattern is much lessened by this treatment, but for some situations a considerable advantage is obtained by having a completely screened glass which can not be seen through. The second, "double mat," is similar to flocking, except that instead of grinding, a coat of enamel laid on the reverse side, and the bright lights and fibers are taken out of this second ground, and a very beautiful damask-like appearance is thus obtained. The third variation is in the use of a colored instead of a white enamel; when this method is employed conjointly with the double mat, the ground being tinted and the ornaments white, a peculiarly fine effect is produced; but when this conjoined method is still further assisted by painting and staining, it affords by far the most chaste and baeutiful decoration that can be applied for domestic purposes.