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RubyLovesRocket yea molten rock and glass are two completely different beasts, glass is one of the most unique substances on earth due to rhe fact that even when at room temperature it is still technically a liqiud, it has no uniform crystalline shape on a molecular level which allows it to take shape and be used in so many different ways. Lava will always try to form in a crystalline shape on a molecular level, so even if you do manage to get it into a bubble or some other odd shape the structure will simply be unstable and crack and shatter once it cools

Great question - Here's the answer from the Museum's Chief Scientist Dr. Jane Cook: The word “glass” covers an enormous range of materials with very different behaviors. Two important things for manufactured or blown glass are 1) how long does it stay soft and workable, and 2) how prone is it to crystallizing, that is, changing from a nice clear glass to something more like a rock. The glass that artists use at CMoG is formulated by chemists to be very workable and stable. Machine-made glass, like for bottles or windows, is also quite stable, but it is formulated to get hard more quickly, so the machines can run faster. But lava can also be many different things, as different as the thousands of types of rocks and minerals. Only a small number of types lava actually make volcanic glass, such as obsidian. And even that lava is very hard to work and crystallizes quickly if it doesn’t cool fast enough. Here’s two videos of glass blowers trying to gather and work lava near a volcano (note that this is a very dangerous activity): kzfaq.info/get/bejne/g71jd9x109TZZqM.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gqyAqJyXqrfDn6M.html Some artists will gather or purchase cold obsidian and reheat it to make work, blown, flameworked, or in a kiln. This is possible, but the glass is still uncooperative, compared to manufactured glass. An example is artists who work near Mount Saint Helens who make art using the ash from the 1980 eruption there.

Thank you so much for answering! How fascinating. You learn something new every day, as my mom says.

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She started as an undergraduate in college - hear more from Helen in this profile video about her Residency at The Studio kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hM5mnqmFubPFYoU.html

If you look back at the videos that they lived streamed from The Amphitheatre, they're all narrated. Some of the streams from The Studio are, some are not. If someone were to drop a fresh gather of glass on the concrete floor, depending on the viscosity/temperature, it would pool or spread like honey, or it would plop like puddy. Glass would not shatter until it's cooled to under 900°F or so and stopped glowing; and whether it shatters also depends on its weight, shape, thickness, and distance dropped.

GemFOX Food and Craft thanks!

I've not watched them all, but I have to say that this guy narrates like a really great teacher. The others are interesting and knowledgeable and clear, but this guy narrating this one is amazing and I bet the kids watching absorb a little more.

It would probably ooze like lava

Helen is a very informative host too.