Glass has been used as a material to manufacture domestic objects for over 3500 years. When the useof blowpipes was introduced in the first century BCE, the expansion of molten glass by blowing and creating hollow vessel shapes revolutionised the industry. This novel technique led to an increase in production and a decrease in the required raw materials. Production costs were also reduced while the number of possible shapes increased exponentially, primarily thanks to the development of the techniques of free-blowing and mould-blowing.

Free-blowing allows the glass artist, or gaffer, to blow out a blob of molten glass from the end of a blowpipe and then shape, decorate and attach other shapes to the hot glass bubble in between short re-heats. Objects are then transferred to a solid iron and the end of the bubble that was originally attached to the blowpipe is opened up and shaped with wooden and metal tools in order to create, for example, the rim of a bowl or the open top of a bottle.

Mould-blowing relies on the same basic technique of blowing molten glass into a bubble. However, to give the object a particular shape or a decorative surface treatment the bubble is expanded into a wooden or metal mould in which the profile of the single-, or multi-piece mould, is transferred onto the glass. This procedure is precise and repeatable, and objects of the same shape and design can be produced quickly by reusing the same mould and by releasing the vessels so that they can cool down (anneal). Through this process the moulds can be reused multiple times until they have worn.