Lampworking Glasses — A Necessary Safety Precaution

Even those who are new to hot glass work know that lampworking glasses are an absolute must-have. Lampworking can present numerous health hazards — some obvious, and others not so obvious, with negative impacts that surface later.

Accidents happen! For this very reason, lampworkers need to wear safety glasses to prevent projectiles, specifically shards of glass, from causing painful and potentially life-altering eye injuries.

Along with the risk of hot little caltrops in your eye, glass gives off radiation when you heat it to a working temperature, radiation which will eventually damage your eyes – quickly, in the case of high-heat glass like fused quartz, which burns very brightly.  When working with the lower temperature soda-lime or borosilicate glass that bead-makers and glass artists use, discerning the differences between colors is really a bigger problem than controlling radiation.  The darker the filter glass, the more difficult to discern color and detail.  Enter ACE glass.

However, an outright physical injury is not a lampworker’s only concern. Infrared and ultraviolet light released by furnaces can pose a great, but hidden, threat to eye health. Long-term exposure can lead to cataracts, conjunctivitis (a form of inflammation in the eye), and other serious, long-term issues.

Safety is of the utmost importance. High-quality safety glasses designed specifically for lampworking are a necessity to ensure your safety. Where can you find such high-quality glasses?

VS Eyewear offers quite a selection so that you can decide which pair is right for you. You can choose from plastic frames, wrap-around frames, metal frames, split lens glasses and even prescription glasses.

With UV filtering coatings applied, they provide much-needed protection from harmful ultraviolet light. Infrared protection is also needed, though. Many of the available glasses boast protection from both ultraviolet and infrared light, as well as from sodium flare, which at the very least can make it difficult to see the work at hand.

The type of glasses that you will need depends on what kind of work you will be doing and with what materials, so it is wise to investigate what dangers are present in the course of your work.

Please contact our highly trained staff to find the right pair of glasses for your application.  Whether it is soft glass lampworking, lampworking with bright borosilicate colors or fuming, hot glass or glassblowing, Scientific work or Quartzworking, VS Eyewear has the glasses for you!

Feel free to browse our broad selection of lampworking glasses and do not hesitate to contact us with any concerns or questions.