What is the manufacturing process of glass?

Archaeological data show that the ancient glass manufacturing technology in China began in the Western Zhou Dynasty and lasted for more than 2,000 years. It reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty and became the heyday in the history of ancient glass. There are more than 4000 ancient glassware in the Palace Museum. From the era of collection, there was almost no interruption from the Warring States to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Most of the collections have been handed down from ancient times, especially in the Qing Dynasty, with the largest proportion of glass products, accounting for about 90% of the whole collection. Glassware in Qing dynasty is divided into two series: palace glassware and folk glassware, of which palace glassware accounts for 3/4. Palace glass represents the technological level of glass making in Qing dynasty, and it is a variety of glassware made by the glass factory of the manufacturing hall for the royal family according to the emperor's decree. In the Qing Dynasty, from Emperor Kangxi Michelle Ye to the last emperor Puyi, the glass factory and official workshop of the Ministry of the Interior never stopped making and producing glass. After the establishment of the glass factory, under the unified command of the emperor and the management minister of the manufacturing institute, the glass production in Qing Dynasty embarked on the track of steady development. According to incomplete statistics, there were monochrome glass, enamel glass, mosaic glass, carved glass, gold-plated glass and other varieties in Kangxi dynasty, and gold-plated glass was added in Yongzheng dynasty. Monochrome glass refers to glassware blown with monochromatic glass. Monochrome glass in Kangxi Dynasty is the inheritance and development of glass making technology before Qing Dynasty. In the past, the Palace Museum in Beijing only collected a piece of transparent glass water. Monochrome glass was the mainstream product at that time, and it produced the largest number and the richest variety during Yongzheng period. Monochrome glass can be divided into "Nie glass" and "Bright glass". "Nie glass" refers to opaque glass and "bright glass" refers to transparent glass. Enamel is a kind of glaze coated on metal tires, porcelain tires and glass tires, which was introduced to China from Europe during the Kangxi period. Glass tire painting enamel is the earliest glass decoration technology in Qing Dynasty, which began in Kangxi dynasty, but the glass tire painting enamel in Kangxi dynasty has never been seen. Another innovation in the glass manufacturing process of Kangxi Dynasty was the successful firing of a set of glass. The so-called "cover glass" refers to an object made of more than two colors of glass. There are two ways to make it. One is to cover the glass tire with another color different from the tire color, and then carve patterns on the outer glass; One is to directly pattern the tire with a heated semi-molten color bar. Glass cover is the product of the combination of glass forming technology and carving technology, and it is an important invention in the history of glass making technology. Articles made by these two methods can see the effect of convex carving, which not only has the beauty of glass texture and color, but also has the three-dimensional sense of concave and convex patterns. Gilded glass is another innovative glass variety in Kangxi Dynasty. However, there is no record of making gold glass in Yongzheng archives; However, in the archives of Yongzheng Dynasty, the production of gilded glass was recorded, and the golden pattern was painted on the glass surface. The production method should be derived from the practice of gilded paint in lacquer art. Throughout history, the Kangxi dynasty was the beginning and foundation stone laying period of the official glass making process in the Qing Dynasty. The establishment of the glass factory is the product of Michelle Ye, Emperor Kangxi, inheriting China's traditional glass-making technology and absorbing European science and technology. It is also the result of the royal family's attention and love for glass products. Glittering glassware became the new favorite of works of art in Qing dynasty and an important gift of the emperor. There were as many as 30 kinds of glass colors in Yongzheng period, which were colorful and colorful, and became the highlight of glass making technology in Yongzheng period. Qianlong dynasty was the most brilliant and all-round development period of glass making technology in Qing dynasty. Jiaqing is a turning point in glass production technology. Since then, the glass factory of the manufacturing institute has been devastated, and the technological level has gradually declined. The history of the development of glass craft production in Qing dynasty is closely related to the rise and fall of Qing dynasty, which is an irresistible development law of government-run workshops.