Glass work of Firozabad
Bangles are also made with soda glass. Coloring agents are added to the molten glass in the furnace. The craftsman gets this from the furnace on a metallic pipe and gives it to another. He puts a thin‘taar’ (wire) of this glass onto a rod that constantly rotates on a motor. So the thin glass coils around the rod and takes the shape of the bangle. These rods are of different diameters depending on the size of the bangle to be made. One more craftsman sitting at the other end of the furnace holds a big metallic ruler or a pointed tool that prevents the bangles from sticking with each other. When the entire rod gets filled up, the bangles are removed and another glass stream is added. The entire coiling process generates a long glass spring of sorts. This is cut using a diamond cutter. This is what separates each bangle from the other. Now since these are open ended and not complete circles, these are taken home by another set of workers to be finished. They melt the glass slightly to join the open ends. This is called ‘kaanchtaankna’ (stitching the glass). The bangles are further etched upon and polished to be sold in the market.
