Anyone else have an affinity for glass?

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I do. It started with marbles. Played with marbles as a kid. Have a large collection. I like goldstone, imploded glass, and clear glass. I don't like dichroic glass so much though. It looks cheap and silly to me, like plastic.

I used to have a heavy, clear glass bear with my birth stone on it and I used to love looking at my Grandmother's blue glass songbirds.

I like the coolness of it, the smoothness of it, and the depth of glass pieces. I feel them in my hands, put them on my lips and forehead (maybe my chin) and look at tbem. I can't really explain what I do with them. Got two new pieces today from someone who makes them: a necklace and a figurine. I showed her one of my other pieces. I generally always have something glass with me, whether it be marbles, flat marbles, or some sort of art glass that isn't too fragile.

Yeah, I like alot of glass things, as well----just, all kinds of different little tchotchkes. I think I know those blue glass birds, that you're talking about----my mother used to have 2----and, I've still got one, around here, somewhere. I love marbles, as well, because they come in so many cool colors / color combinations, and I like alota color. I don't carry any with me; but, I WOULD if I had some cool ones----particularly, purple ones.....

I have a love-hate relationship with glass. When I was younger I had no shoes so I often ran around barefooted. As a consequence I cut my feet a lot.

When I started drinking beer in earnest I preferred glass bot0ottles over cans.

When I was drunk I loved the sound of breaking glass. I used to throw empty bottles up in the air and wait for it to come crashing down. I loved that crash sound.

I've went to jail for breaking glass. I was drunk and kicked off someone's side view mirrors to hear the glass break.

Most of the drinking glasses I've had were cleaned-out, square spaghetti jars.

I also love things that are made of glass. I used to play with those little glass animals. I don't think they make them anymore. I also like the transparency of glass, as well.

Tell me about it. There was a clear blue glass paperweight that I picked up at a flea market when I was in junior high and loved it as a prism.

When I was a lad, I was fascinated by glass blowers. I'd see them at amusement parks and such, and I thought that was fabulous that they could heat the glass and make things out of it.

I bought a tiny punchbowl with cups dangling from hooks, that I watched a glass blower create. Everyone thought it was rubbish, but I thought it enchanting. It was extremely fragile and eventually broke apart of course.

I also enjoy looking at art glass, the kind that museums exhibit. I find it fascinating.

Purple glass is made by adding oxide of manganese to the glass-mixture. Red is made by adding selenium and blue by adding cobalt. The mixtures need different temperatures to work with. By adding selenium and cobalt together to the mixture, one would burn and you would not reach the desired effect of purple glass.
I do collect glass, mainly Dutch, made in Leerdam, by designers like Copier and Meydam. I try to restrict myself to realy thick vases. But that's not realy working and it sort of got out of hand.
Sometimes it's the shapes, sometimes the colours, sometimes simply the feel that I like.
Here's some examples:

I'm not really fond of glass because of it's tendency to, you know, break. And into very sharp pieces that can cut you. Just seeing the razor-sharp edges on some kinds of glass set me on edge. I seem to be more much into things that are round and softer like stuffed toys and balloons and rubber balls and...that sounds so dirty, doesn't it?

I am guessing that the temperature required to not burn the oxide of manganese might be difficulty to maintain.

I found some really nice purple glass pieces on this website:

www.rossiglass.com

Last week I helped installing an exibition of Christmas baubles in The Nationaal Glasmuseum. Part of the exhibition were specially designed baubles, made by the glassblowers of the glassworks connected to the museum. On some of the baubles the eyelet came off, probably because the eyelet was a different colour glass than the bauble itself. It had something to do with diffent temperatures and different shrinkage.