British Society of Scientific Glassblowers
***Please Note: The BSSG is currently working to upgrade & re:launch this website ***
The British Society of Scientific Glassblowers was founded in 1960 for the benefit of those engaged in scientific glassblowing and its associated professions, and to uphold and further the status of scientific glassblowers.
Scientific glassblowers are charged with manufacturing laboratory equipment in glass, using glass rods, tubes and prefabricated components.
Although the Society is primarily for scientific glassblowers, we encourage anyone with an interest in glassworking to join – glass as a material holds an interest for many, and glassworkers provide a huge range of products, from glass beads and jewellery, to paperweights, decorative and practical vessels of every shape, size and colour, and sculpture intended for purely aesthetic effect. Were it not for these artists and craftsmen throughout history, scientific glassblowing would not exist as a craft. The Society holds a quite sizeable library, to which members have free access.
Society meetings are held at regular intervals, often in places of work, to allow demonstration and sharing of techniques, as well as to catch up with old friends. The Society encourages and promotes high standards, and the acquisition of skills and technical knowledge of glass, and related instruments and apparatus. To this end, the Society sets standards of working, and training syllabi, and provides examiners, certificates and Annual awards.
An annual symposium is held, organised in rotation by the Society sections, where papers are presented and awards made. Trade exhibitors are invited to display their products, and visitors are welcome.
The British Society of Scientific Glassblowers is just one of the many Scientific Glassblowing Societies around the world, and we keep close contact with many of them.