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ss in his artwork. Opalescent glass maintains its mineral 'impurities' and appears milky in color and is iridescent. Instead of painting directly onto glass, as had been done for centuries beforehand, Tiffany used glass that already had the color in it. He is most famous for his commercially produced Tiffany lamps, and their production first began around 1895. Although the lamps are the most famous glass art his company produced, a complete range of interior decorations were created as well. At Tiffany's peak, his factory employed more than 300 artisans, several of which were talented females hired to make intricate floral patterns (GlassFacts.info). The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida, currently holds the largest and most varied collection of works created by the Tiffany Company.

How can glass be taken care of and preserved? Aside from the obvious vulnerability glass has to physical breakage, cracking, and shattering, there are many ways even the sturdiest and resilient glass can decay. Factors that can accelerate decay in glass include: the type of glass and the manner in which it was manufactured, the amount of moisture, alkalinity, and salts in the burial environment and physical wear or abrasion prior to burial. A major form of manufacture defect that occurs in glass is known as devitrification.

Devitrification occurs in glass during the firing process and is defined by the fired glass developing a whiting scum and wrinkles instead of smooth and glossy shine. The structure of the molecules making up the glass change their structure into crystalline solids, devitrification is usually undesired but is sometimes used as a valid artistic technique. Devitrification is caused when the glass holds too high of a temperature for too long thereby causing chemical elements to be burnt off, or by the existence of foreign residue like dust on the surface of the glass or inside the kiln prior to firing. Proper firing techniques should be used to prevent devitrification. The most common techniques used to prevent this damage include proper cleaning of the glass and interior kiln surfaces and to allow the rapid cooling once the glass attains the desired temperature. If devitrification has already taken place there are some methods of restoration, one such method is to use a sheet of clear glass to cover the surface of a piece and refiring it. Acid baths, sandblasting, polishing with a rotary brush or pumice stone are additional techniques to rid the piece of unwanted surface (Beveridge, Doménech, Pacual, and Pascual i Miró, 66).

Another type of deterioration in glass is known as iridescence. The glass begins to decay from the outer layers inward, forming thin, onion-like layers that appear opaque in different colors from the original glass because the way in which the light is refracted through the glass has been altered. Some other types of deterioration are known as pitting, surface abrasions, and exfoliation. Pitting is when there are secluded holes or indentations in the glass surface or on broken edges. Poor handling and transport can result in surface abrasions, and spalling occurs when the decayed layers separate, flake off, which causes the original surface of the object to vanish (Conservation Research Laboratory).

Alongside impurities brought about during the manufacturing process, glass art is also susceptible to deterioration brought on by improper 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。