GlassCraft Area (#4218)
An occasional whistle can be heard above the din of people plying their skills in the various levels of making glass items in the room. Centered in the back
of the shop, a large furnace, which is used for the heating of the molten glass, stands awaiting the next Apprentice, Journeyman, or Master to dip into
the hot liquid mass contained in a ceramic pot inside. Attached to the furnace through a series of metal pipes, the Annealing Oven contains several
projects that are being gradually cooled. Barrels of Sand, Potash, and Lime, crowd the corner nearest the furnace and provide the materials used in
creating the glass batch. Across the room and farthest from the furnace, an area has been provided for the craftsman to carve out molds from the various
blocks of wood assembled against the wall.

You see Glass Furnace here.

Obvious exits:
Door Craft Hall

Indrah stomps in from the GlassCraft Office.

Cera chuckles, "Hello Indrah....are you ready for a brief class on some of the basic materials used with glass making?"

Sep blinks in from ::between::!

Paradigm blinks in from ::between::!

Indrah nods. "Sure!" as she hops over to get a better view.

Melchiah blinks in from ::between::!

Reighan looks around and smiles nervously, "Is it time for the class ma'am?"

Cera reaches up and bands her hair back to keep any stray pieces out of her way, "Well okay Indrah...we need to go over some of the ingredients...and yes
it sure is...come on over and join us Reighan."

Deirdre walks, wobbling just a bit on young legs, in from the Craft Hall.

Cera laughs, "Hello Deirdre....come to join our class?"

Indrah nods, and reaches back to put a tie around her hair as well, creating a massive *poof* behind her.

Reighan walks over and runs a hand through his hair, looking around a little, having never done a glasscraft class

Deirdre wobbles ever so slightly in having heard there might be something interesting for her to peek at an nods her head slowly up and down when she
hears Cera. "Uh huhs, long as it's a clean one, dirty's bad," she notes solemnly specially so for a three turn old.

Random Appy lets out a low chuckle, "She's just a little girl, she can't handle Smith tools!"

Cera smiles softly, "Does anyone here know what the main ingredient in Glass is? and I think Deirdre we can keep it a clean one...I certainly don't want
to get in trouble for getting you all messed up..."

Indrah hops. "Sand?"

Deirdre sticks her tongue out at the appy then looks back to Cera stuffing hands in pockets and listening to Indrah.

Cera grins, "Well thought out Indrah...that is right but we also add several other things to it as well..." moving over to the barrels set against the
wall, "Could you all come over here and look at the stuff in these containers.."

Reighan nods and follows

Deirdre wanders over to peek carefully into the barrels standing on tip toe to get a small view but enough of one perhaps. She steady's herself with hands
on barrel edge while peering in then puts them back into pockets as she steps back.

Cera dips her fingers first into the sand, "See this is the sand that Indrah was mentioning..." pointing to the next barrel but not putting her hand in
it, "this is what we call Potash..." and moving to the third "And this is lime....when we combine all of these things we have a mixture that we heat
together to form what is called the batch...."

Cera grins, "I have a quick question to ask of all of you....is Glass a solid or is it a liquid?

Random Appy walks up to the barrels, purposefully positioning himself to try to make it impossible for Deirdre to see. She doesn't deserve to be here
after all

Indrah stands on her toes to look into the barrel, being rather on the short size for her age. "Both, isn't it? It starts off as a liquid like
substance..."

Random Appy bursts out, "It's solid of course. Never heard of no one drinkin' glass"

Deirdre makes a face as she sees the Potash, "that's dirty," she notes nose wrinkled up as she speaks. "Both?" she guesses far more then answers Cera's
question then frowns as the random appy gets in her way over and over and tries to see round him sniffling slightly.

Reighan hmms, "liquid when it's hot and solid when it's cool?" he asks nervously

Cera glances at the Random Appy, "Hmm well we all will have a turn so let Deirdre have hers...And by the way ....it is a liquid...even though when
cooled the tiniest things are still flowing with in the glass structure...I know that is hard to understand and it isn't that important...it is just a
neat fact to know...."

Deirdre oohs an nods her head up an down as she wipes at a few tears removing hands from pockets to do so, definitely sounds neat. "Can you see the
floating thingies ever?" she asks quickly in her small voice.

Random Appy grumbles softly and makes a token effort to move out of the way. He reaches his hand in, picks up some of the sand, then looks at Cera,
"You're lying! It's sand, then glass, both are solid!" he then tosses the sand back, causing a puff of dirty air right near the little girl.

Cera laughs softly, "Well I am sure that we all have been to the beach at one time or another and played in the sand...I bet you that Deirdre has done that
recently...and let it run through our fingers....And no Deirdre I can't see them...anyway...sometimes they are real fine and other times that are real
big..." glancing at the Random Appy, "If you continue to misbehave you can go and clean out the forge I will not tolerate disobedience within this work
room and you can injure someone."

Deirdre coughs as dirty air is breathed in and some tears come to her eyes. Quickly she moves over to Cera to stand right beside her away from the random
appy glaring at him, "he's a meanie," she says softly, "an a dumbie."

Cera glances down at Deirdre, "Honey we don't call anyone names even if they are mean okay?"

Random Appy puts his hands behind his back and glares at Cera, "I'm not misbehaving!" he then gets back to the lesson, "How do you know there are
little particles if you can't see them?" he demands, trying to ignore the little brat.

Cera smiles to Random Appy, "For this lesson we will just assume that they are there....when you go further on in your studies then I or someone will show
you how we know they are there...."

Deirdre nods her head slowly up and down, "okay," she voices softly not one to normally even call anyone a name. She's no brat at all, j'is a well behaved
kidling who's getting picked on.

Cera smiles, "Indrah...you have played with Sand before haven't you?"

Indrah stands beside Deirdre in some attempt to defend her, even though she's not that much taller than her. "Yes ma'am..."

Cera grins, "And have you seen or felt what I was talking about?"

Random Appy shrugs, obviously not believing the Master. He turns back to the bucket and runs his fingers through the sand, idly musing, "If sand makes up
glass, and glass can flow like sand, and glass has little particles, how come it doesn't look like a bunch of sand, instead of being see-through?"

Deirdre peers up at Indrah and beams then goes back to quietly paying attention.

Cera smiles, "That is easy to answer Random, when we heat the sand ...it melts...the other things help to hold it together...so does it really flow
like sand? no...does sand flow like a liquid no....Water or the Ocean flows....glass just flow incredibly slow..."

Random Appy still doesn't get it, "Then what are the little particles in glass?"

Indrah flaps her arms around. "Kinda like amber sap when you take it from a tree, it's like all gooey, but with glass ya can't touch it?"

Deirdre oohs as she listens and giggles softly mumbling to herself, "water glass," she grins up at Cera quietly listening.

Cera smiles, "After class I will address your question...Now we have to get moving onward or we will be discussing that forever....Now...the grain .or
the size of the sand is very important."

Cera again runs her fingers through the sand in the barrel, "This is some of the finer sand that has been collected....Although it is not of a good enough
quality to make a view lens....and for that it needs to be collected from paradise hold..."

Cera smiles, "Does anyone have an idea of why we need to have a finer grade of sand?"

Deirdre shakes her head having no clue and peers up listening for the answer.

Random Appy has to be right at least once.. "So the little pieces inside are smaller"

Indrah hops up and down. "So it will melt to be clear and smooth, and not all chunky?" ehh, not an elegant answer but hopefully it worked...

Cera chuckles, "In a sense you are right Random....and yes Indrah that is correct as well....the finer the sand the clearer the product that is
produced....now with adding Pot ash and Lime to the sand in certain amounts...we affect the batch again...or the glass the is produced...to
little of one or not enough of another and there is an effect that happens called Crizzling...these are tiny cracks in the surface of the glass because
of the wrong balance of the mixture."

Deirdre blinks an then giggles softly again as she hears the word crizzling, certainly sounds like a very neat word.

Random Appy doesn't hear anything except that he was right. 'See, I already know all about this stuff,' he mutters to no one in particular

Indrah looks up at the Random Appy and scowls, resisting the urge to kick him in the shins.

Cera now moves over to one of the work benches, pulling out a small bowl with a screen built into it, "Like I said we all have played at the beach one time
or another...and one of the things that more than likely was done was running the sand through and object...this one is just a small screen that I use to
use any particles that hadn't been caught before....but all the sand needs to be sifted and cleaned of any foreign material before it is used otherwise we
could end up with a blob of something in the glass or even the color can be changed by something we didn't catch."

Deirdre's mouth forms a small o then she looks up at Cera, "can something make the glass red and silver?" she asks excitedly.

Random Appy follows Cera, then gives her a look like she's crazy, "If you take all the junk out of the sand, you'll have nothing left!"

Indrah mentally baps Random. "You can't make glass out of sand with junk in it! It'll get all...chunky." word of the day: chunky! She nods, and takes the
bowl, and a handful of sand, dumping it on top of the screen and shaking it back and forth, letting the fine sand sift through, but catching large
particles of un-fine sand and bugs and things.

Random Appy rolls his eyes and doesn't pay attention to what's going on, "But sand is junk! So sand with all the junk removed is nothing!"

Cera nods, "Very good Indrah and if you notice some of the large sand is also staying in the screen...see these pieces are not close to the size we need so
they won't pass through the screen....Before I continue on...is there any questions about the sand besides those little small things you can't
see...heh heh."

Indrah shakes her head. "No..." then looks up at the insolent bugger beside her and points. "It's not junk!"

Random Apply glares at Indrah, then points at Deirdre, "Ask her, even the baby knows its all a bunch of junk!"

Indrah puts her hands on her hips and looks up at him. "Well I'm not here to learn JunkCrafting. So just be quiet and pay attention. If you're so smart
then YOU teach the class!"

Cera chuckles, "Well all right then...seems that we have all gotten the idea...Now once the materials are mixed....we heat the in a clay pot that is
placed in the furnace...Most of the time the batch needs to be heating over night to come to the right temperature before you can work with it...." moving
over to the furnace that is cold and been recently cleaned "Everyone can look inside on see the area that we place the pot over the heating area."

Cera looks down at Deirdre "And honey i will lift you up if you want so you can see inside...."

Deirdre blinks glancing at Random as she called her baby then looks quickly away an nods to Cera, "okay."

Random Appy starts to retort to Indrah, then stops as Cera speaks. He then turns to Indrah and chuckles, "You need a hand as well?" he reaches out to
grab her

Cera smiles and leans down picking Deirdre up and holding her in front of the door saying, "See in there is where we melt all that sand and stuff to make
that glass that you like to drink out of..."

Deirdre oohs as she's picked up and peers inside the door small young eyes wide as can be.

Cera chuckles and puts Deirdre down so others can glance at the furnace.

Indrah bats his hands away. "Don't touch me!" she squacks in a high voice then runs over, and grabs a chair, pushing it over to stand on. "NEAH!" she
declares with a razzberry.

Random Appy gawks, taken aback. Well, two can play at the child's game.. He walks up to the furnace and stares in, standing right in front of Indrah.

Cera ducks her head a moment watching Random Appy and wondering for a moment and then says, "I want you all to realize that unless there is a Master in
here or someone is using the furnace that you are never...never to touch the furnace without permission....one can get burned easily and it is very
dangerous...Deirdre that means you especially..."

Indrah threatens to kick the rude appy right in the rear. "Hey! Move it!"

Deirdre nods her head up an down, "don't think i'd want to touch it any hows," nose wrinkles just like it did earlier, "looks mighty dirty."

Cera moves her arm in the direction of the racks of tools, "Over there is the tools that are used to make glass objects that are blown....they can be made
from ...iron...steel...or wood...although wood is harder to work with and need to be treated before they are used...I like them much better...easier to
lift and allow steam to enter the glass when one blows on the end of the wooden tube."

Random Appy pretends to ignore Indrah and just nods at Cera, his attention really on annoying Indrah.

Cera grins, "Has anyone blown bubbles in their drink before?"

Indrah hops off the chair, ignoring Random and nods. "Yeah..."

Cera grins, "Well good...because basically we are taking a large thick blob and blowing a bubble in it...turning it all the time so that the bubble stays
approximately the same size on all sides."

Cera says, "By rolling it on a Marvering table...we create shapes in the bubble or a neck of a bottle...and smooth it out...if it somehow becomes misshapen we
re heat it...and smooth it out a bit more....so back and for between the furnace and the table till we get the shape we want....but...one important
note...we never leave it to cool outside....it needs to go in a special oven that will allow it to cool slowly...called an Annealing oven...so the glass
doesn't cool to fast and crack..."

Indrah raises a brow. "A kneeling oven?" ooh, something actually CLOSE to the ground?

Cera laughs, "No Indrah...Annealing...it is the process of cooling something down slowly...basically like an oven we bake the bread it but instead of
keeping at the same temperature we allow it gradually cool off....

Cera chuckles, "Glass can be formed many ways into different objects...by taking the liquid and putting it in a special heated pan....slowly smoothing
it out...we can make a pane of glass..."

Indrah has a thought which is projected by the usual bouncing up and down. "How do they make the lenses? Do they just make a round piece of glass and
then polish it or something?"

Cera smiles, "Actually lenses are made specially and are shaped in a different manner than just a flat sheet of flat glass...they can then be file or shaped
to produce a certain effect...and you and I will have to go indepth into a class just on those....in fact when I make the new lenses for the StarCraft
you are going to help me with them....and learn how to make them yourself."

Cera looks at Indrah, "I wonder if you know about the actually construction of the viewers...have you learned that yet?"

Indrah waves her hand. "Mostly, yeah." she pops out her two DVs and shows her.:

Cera smiles, "Just putting them together or the actually smith involved in creating the pieces?"

Indrah spins it around. "Just putting them together and how they're made. Up at Gar we couldn't really see smiths build them."

Cera smiles, "All right I think that i have given you all enough information to get started with....I have a couple of quick questions and a project that I
would like you to work on while you are going around your duties."

Cera smiles, "What are the three materials that make up glass?"

Indrah bounces up and down. "oo!"

Indrah hops "Sand, potash and lime!"

Cera glances, "Indrah? do you know the sand?...it is a fine sand..."

Cera smiles and asks, "And how do we clean the sand or remove the junk from it?"

Indrah cringes. The sand has a name? "Uhh....Put it in a screened container to filter all the junk out of it."

Cera laughs, "Softly...yes there are different grades I am sorry that i didn't make it clearer before...but now you know..."

Cera thinks, "Hmm one more....what kind of materials can be used for tools?"

Cera nods, "Yep...though there is three...wood....iron and steel...Okay....now on to the project...I want you to find a couple different grades of sand...and
when we meet again show them to me and tell me why they are different...we will also learn how to shape a simple bottle. Indrah you will need to make or
get a heavy leather apron to cover your clothes...you can't work near the furnace without protecting your clothes. We will also cover safety issues
working in the glasscraft area."

Indrah nods. "Right-o!