Hand Made Perfume Bottles

Blown glass is definitely one of the oldest ancient techniques of creating hand made perfume bottles. It is believed that the ancient Egyptians are the original inventors of the glass making technique. The production of the metallurgy and the faience contributed a great deal in the manufacturing of glasses for a perfume bottle. The earliest Egyptian glass that was introduced to us came in a form of small beads and other pendants that were found in the area way back in the 3000 B.C. Glass was made by melting a combination of lime, soda and silica sand. The glass is formed through the chemical reaction and interaction of the heated sand and soda which produces a transparent flowing liquid. When the liquid is cooled down, the glass is formed instantly.

The first glass vessels first appeared in Egypt during the middle of the 2000 B.C. They were made by molding on a core that is made of sand and mud to form the interior of the vessel. The core is then submerged to a very viscous molten glass; the core will then be scraped out when the vessel has cooled down. During that time, the glass was referred to as an artificial semi-stone which was quite a costly novelty item. The aristocrats during that time did not own any glass workshop since it was a royal monopoly. When the decline of the royal power ended, the New Kingdom ended prompted a stop on the production of glass for a certain period of time. The revolutionary invention of the blown glass then took place in Syria in the 1st century B.C. However, the technique was not able to reach Alexandria until the later half of the the 2nd century B.C where the glass blowing was introduced by the Romans. The newest discovery gained an increase in production.

Blown glass perfume bottles were made by sticking a piece of molten glass to the end of a blowpipe and introducing pressurized air the other end of the pipe. This was entirely done by the blowing of the mouth. The artistic transformation of the shapes of the perfume bottles begins to emerge. The shape will then be cut using a copper wheel and then ground using an emery powder. When the perfume bottle has already took its shape, fine embellishments and other decorations were added by pinching the hot glass, adding handles and other features. The simple straight patterns could be transformed into a more intricate and complex shapes that adds up to the beauty of the perfume bottle. When the shape is already formed, coloring and hand painting takes places. It is then followed by placing the perfume bottles in a furnace that has a very hot temperature in order for the color to set in the glass making it permanent. After which, the bottles are left to cool down before they are used.

Today, the blow glass products still undergo the same process the way the ancient create them. No other primitive tools were added to the original ones.