Glossary M-N
MANDREL — A metal rod around which beads and other small obects can be formed.
MARVER — In French, marbre, meaning "marble". A flat sheet of steel or graphite used to shape and cool the glass.
MATURE — Clay that has been fired to a tight, hard, serviceable structure.
MELT— The fluid glass produced by melting a batch of raw materials.
MILK GLASS — Opaque white glass; early milk glass pieces are opalescent when held up to a light source.
MILLEFIORI — An Italian glassmaking term meaning "one thousand flowers," used to describe Venetian mosaic glass objects.Italian for "a thousand flowers." Commonly refers to glass objects made from masses of murrini slices, also called Tessera, or tile work; a technique in which glass rods are cut into discs and placed into a mold to form a decorative pattern, then re-fired to fuse the pieces together.
MOLD — Any form made of a refractory material in which glass can be shaped by slumping into or over.
MOLD BLOWN — Molten glass is blown into a mold to produce a glass object with the pattern of the mold.
MOLD PRESSED — Molten glass is poured into a mold, and then a plunger presses glass into the mold evenly to produce a glass object.
MOIL — The unwanted top of a blown object. Removed after annealing, usually by cracking off.
MOSAIC –—The technique of surface decoration or object making made up of smaller glass components, usually many small, adjoining pieces of glass that are then joined together through fusing or, in the case of tile mosaic, grouting.
MURRINI — A thin slice of complex glass cane that can be used as a component in another glass object. From Latin murra, apparently a stone from which costly vessels (vasa murrina) were made.The English adjective "murrhine" and the Italian adjective murrino are sometimes applied to mosaic glass and similar objects. When used as a noun, murrina refers to a slice of a complex cane, while a murrino is an insert of multicolored glass embedded in a glass object.
MURANO GLASS — refers to glass made in Murano, Italy or elsewhere using techniques like hand blowing and many others developed or refined over the centuries by glassmakers in Murano.
NEEDLE ETCHING — Technique developed in the 20th century; a hand held or mechanical needle is used to draw fine and sometimes ornate, repetitive designs on a glass piece.
NEEDLE POINT — Sharp pieces on the edge of glass that are formed when the contracting glass sticks to parts of the kiln wash.
NEON — An inert gas which, like some other gases, has the properties of high electrical conductivity and strong light-emissive power. Such gases may be introduced into evacuated glass tubes. Under these conditions, an electrical discharge causes the gas to emit light. Different gases emit different colors; for example, neon emits red, and xenon emits blue. Regardless of the gases employed, lighting of this type is known as neon lighting. The creation of neon-illuminated objects requires creation of glass tubes.
NOODLE — A fetuccini-like glass shape used as a decorative element in the hot glass arts.
NOVELTY — A small scale glass version of some larger object, like an animal, sword, ship, etc. and popular in the late 19th century as boxes, toothpick holders and similar items.
NUGGET — A small, irregularly shaped “glob” of glass, flat on the bottom, rounded across the top. Nuggets are made by literally dropping a small amount of molten glass onto a flat surface. Frequently called “globs,” they are often incorporated into leaded glass artwork.
