GlassHaus : Choosing Colors

Welcome to GlassHaus a new series on the blog all about glass as a material, scientifically, and all you need to know about glass blowing. My name is Ali, I started this company and I thought I would share more about one of my favorite things, glass!

Glass color is different than most materials because I can't mix two or more colors to make a new color. So instead of mixing colors, it is like layering them like sheets of colored plastic. All glass colors are created with metal oxides such as copper oxide (makes a turquoise color) or cobalt oxide (makes deep royal blue). Since glass is made with metal oxides, some of these can interact together to create a chemical reaction. Usually the color produced is a thin line where the two glass colors are touching and is often a dark grey color. Sometimes there are great colors produced from the reaction. Our Haflinger color way demonstrates this color reaction very well. 

I have been working with glass for 13 years at this point in time which has given me a lot of time to learn about the over 800 different glass colors available to me in the United States and how to utilize them to create a horse inspired color palette. 

I created designs of the cups I wanted to make back in the winter of 2022 and I had printed out the different colors I was considering at the time. It was important to consider the chemical composition of the glass color (does it react with other colors, does it need to be on the surface of under a layer of clear, etc.) and the price of the color. Glass as a raw material in the Fall of 2024 averages at about $40/kilo for a lower cost color and the most expensive color is $96/kilo. This price difference depends on the preciousness of the metal oxide used to color the glass. The more expensive colors use oxides such as gold oxide to make pinks and purples. 

Glass as a material comes in a variety of forms that include rod/bar, frit, powder, and sheet are a few of the forms colored glass comes in. Our glasswares use mostly bar, frit, and powder to create their color patterns. Glass is manufactured in Germany primarily and has historically been measured with the metric system. We purchase our glass in kilo increments. Some color forms can be sold in quarter and half kilo increments.

From all the years of practicing and working in the glass field, consulting colleagues and friends, and creating many samples, I narrowed down my tumblers to a collection of colors from three different color companies. 

This is a page out of my sketchbook where I organized all the colors after many trials and errors that comes with the territory of design and production. I paid a lot of time, research and effort into finding the colors that reminded me of horses and which colors had the more economical solution to produce unique and affordable glassware. 

Stay tuned for more information about glass and the process of making glassware in the hot shop!