Glass work of Firozabad
Glass-fusing is another very interesting process to make products that require fine detailing. Pratish kumar has been practicing this for the last twenty years. He works fourteen hours everyday and makes the most astonishing idols for worship - Radha Krishna, Ganesha, Shiva Parvati, Ram Sita etc. His basic raw materials include ‘Chinese glass’ (borosilicate glass that melts at a higher temperature than ordinary silicate glass), natural gas and oxygen burners, iron tong, carbon base (that doesn’t burn with heat) and golden polish (to highlight the features of the figurines). He prefers using Chinese glass tubes because they are absolutely clear and don’t crack like the locally available soda glass. This is sourced from the market in Firozabad itself and costs about three hundred rupees a tube. After melting and fusing glass into the product he wants to make, he paint it golden and sends it for another round of firing that makes the gold ‘pakka’. One of his kids is learning the craft from him and helps him in packing his products by cotton-wrapping them and putting them in boxes. Customers buy these products from Pratish’s home directly.
