Making sugar glass yourself

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The formulae for Hollywood versions of sugar glass is a well-guard industry secrets - the special effects people try new recipes and new mixes with different chemicals every time, and it is difficult to tell what your glass is made of. However, the times I have worked with professionally produced sugar glass, it has always tasted sweet-ish, so sugar is always an ingredient.

If you are running low on budget and cannot afford to buy specially produced sugar glass, there is a way of making your own. Be aware, though, that this sugar glass cannot handle heat or liquid:

Ingredients:

2 cups of water
1 cup of pale corn syrup
3 1/2 cups of sugar
What to do:

You will need a thermometer to measure the temperature of your mixture. Mix everything together and bring it to a boil (this happens at approximately 100 - 110 ° C, depending on the quality of the syrup). Leave it boiling for about 15 minutes, but try to keep the temperature stable.

Then, after the 15 minutes, let the temperature rise to 50 ° C hotter than its boiling temperature (if yours boiled at 105, cut it off at 155 ° C). This should take a little less than an hour, during which most of the water boils away, and the mixture becomes fairly thick.

When you hit your temperature, pour your sugar glass on a thick glass plate (if you are trying to make window pane) or a mold (if anything else such as a sugar glass bottle) and let it cool off.

Voila! Sugar Glass bottle is ready!.

Sugar glass is used in the movies, especially in old westerns, when in the old saloon, a fight would break out, and bottles would be smashed left, right and center across peoples heads. Sugar glass bottles have been a mainstay of the fx dept. since the 30's.

it may not be overly practical, and don't use it for smashing across peoples heads, but it can be used in the kitchen for creating fun. So whatever use, you use sugar glass bottles for, you are going to have a good tale to tell, next time you see one on t.v.desert and structures.

One thing that it doesn't explain here is how to arrange a mould to make the bottle, or the shape, but they have other links on making moulds on the site
stage glass, making stage glass, acting glass, fun acting, western movies, bottle smashing movies, cowboy movies glass bottles



Brian J. Geiger / CC BY 3.0