glassblowing.tools

Glossary / Bench Equipment

Heat shields

Freestanding insulated panels that keep the furnace's or glory hole's heat off the glassblower.

What it is

A heat shield is a freestanding panel between the glassblower and a source of heat. Spiral Arts’ is riveted from galvanized sheet steel with an insulated core and a reflective back, on a weighted base with casters, with a window notched out so the user can see past it.⁠⁠[1]

History

A 1570 painting of the Medici glass workshop shows a worker preparing a blown foot “in the shade of one of the thick fire-clay heat shields” around the furnace.⁠⁠[2]

Sources

  1. Spiral Arts — Heat Shield
  2. Corning Museum of Glass — The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian Glassworking, "A Look Inside a Renaissance Venetian Glasshouse"

Heat shields in the archive 1

Photo Tool Maker Sellers
Heat ShieldA rolling insulated heat shield with a reflective back and a sight-line window cut-out. Spiral Arts 1