S

Sand - The most common form of silica used in making glass.

Sandblasting - A method used to remove layers of glass. A cloudy dull finish will result with every layer removed. Some artists use the sandblasting process to remove enough glass to actually go through the glass for different effects.

Sandblown - The process of blowing a bubble of hot glass into sand mold.

Sandcast - To ladle hot glass into a mold made of special casing sand.

Sar - A single piece of glass formed by fusing several canes or rods. A bar can be cut into slices, all with the same design, to be used as inlays or appliqués, or making mosaic glass.

Satch - The mixture of raw material (often silica, soda or potash, and lime) that is melted in a pot or tank to make glass. Gullet is added to help the melting process.

Satin Glass - A acid matt finish or frosting.

Sawing - Cutting glass with a rotating wheel with a blade usually diamond tipped.

Scavo - Corrosive chemical material added to the surface of hot glass, which gives a rougher matte finish to the final piece.

Sculpting - Handmade free forming solid glass works designed while in molten glass form.

Screen-Printing - A process for the decoration of glass whereby colored ink is forced by a flexible "squeegee" through a fine-mesh screen, or "mask", {traditionally made of silk, now also made of nylon, polyester and stainless steel) onto the glass surface. A separate mask is used for the application of each color. Considerable automation of the process has been developed, thus allowing extremely high printing speeds for even complex designs.

Scruffitto - Color is added to the surface of glass and then scratched away, so that an image appears in reverse.

Seeds - Minute bubbles of gas, usually occurring in groups.

Shard - A small fragment of glass. Glass fragments usually colored of which would be rolled or melted into a working piece for the additions of colors of textures is not melted all of the way. Different colors melt at different temperatures lending creative textures with variation.

Shears - Glassmakers scissors that are used for the cutting, trimming and shaping of hot glass. Usually very primitive in design with heavy gage steel.

Silesia - The main ingredient of glass used for art glass.

Silveria - Is a type of art glass with incased silver foil.

Slumped - Flat glass that is melted to take the shape of the form designed to sink into taking the actual shape of that form.

Smalti - A soft, intensely colored Venetian glass that is chipped into squares for use in creating traditional mosaic.

Soda-Lime (or Soft) Glass - A glass with a substantial portion of lime in the formula.

Sodium Flare - The bright light that is given off of the reaction of oxygen rich flame and the sodium of the glass in a kiln. Didymium glass in the glasses to avoid serious damage to the vision of one’s eyes. Usually, Flame-workers Lamp-workers are at the primary concern here.

Softening Point - The specific temperature in which glass is just barely able to maintain its shape and not flow like a liquid.

Softening Point - Temperature at which a thread or rod of glass rapidly deforms under its own weight.

Soliflore - A French term for a vase with a bulbous body and a long drawn out neck for a single flower.

Sommerso - Artistic glass covered by another layer of glass by superimposing two or more colours immersing the object in various pots of molten glass.. The first "Sunk Glasses" were produced in Murano during the second half of the Thirties to became very popular in the Fifties. Oten this tecnique is used to produce murano glass vases and artistic sculptures.

Spatter Glass - The glass with flecks of contrasting color rolled into it.

Sputtering - A metal coating process for the glasses surface.

Stretch Glass - A cracked iridescence on the surface.

Strike - The change in the color of the surface after the glass piece is reheated with intense heat on that surface.

Stringer - Thin colored thread or string of glass applied from a molten glob of color over the surface of hot glass.

Stippling - (1) The technique of tapping the surface of a glass objects with a pointed tool, often a diamond or tungsten carbide tip. Each tap produces a mark, and the decoration is composed of many hundreds and thousands of marks. (2) On lacy-pattern pressed glass, the stippling is part of the decoration of the mold.

Strain Point - The temperature at which thermal residual stresses become permanent upon cooling. Temperatures above the strain point will introduce permanent stresses that can cause or contribute to fracture. At temperatures below the strain point, the glass can be temporarily heated and cooled without introducing permanent stress. The strain point can be considered the maximum service temperature.

Studio Glass Movement - A movement that began in the United States in the 1960's and has spread allover the world. It is characterized by the proliferation of glass artist who are not affiliated with factories, but work with hot glass in their own studios. The emergence of independent glass artists was made possible by Harvey Littleton and Dominick Labino's developments in 1962 of a small furnace and easy-to-melt glass.