By: Katharina Wang, MArch 2026

Katharina Beliveau Wang completed a Master of Architecture in LSU School of Architecture in 2026. She is now an assistant professor of practice at the LSU School of Interior Design with five years of prior experience working in the field of commercial architecture and interior design. She earned her Bachelor of Interior Design at Louisiana State University in 2017. She is NCIDQ Certified and is a registered interior designer in the state of Louisiana. Her research explores the intersections of art, design, and technology, exploring how digital fabrication can support traditional glass forming.

1. Respirator

   Small particles of glass can be very harmful to breathe in and can even lead to a condition known as Silicosis. Anytime I handle glass frit or even powdered plaster silica, I always make sure to protect my lungs.

2. Metal Bowls

Metal bowls are great! You can never really have too many. They are great for breaking, sorting, or washing glass and you don’t have to worry about small plastic particles contaminating your material.

3. Vintage Glass

   I like to find ways to give old glass new purpose. I go to a lot of estate sales and often come across old vintage glass that is scratched or chipped. Those sets often don’t sell and end up in the trash, so when I see vintage glass left over on the last day of a sale, I make sure to get it.

4. Nitrile Gloves

Hand oils can create impurities in your glass. Gloves are great for preventing this!

5. Strainer

All of my glass gets washed before I put it in the kiln. This is to remove any small contaminants that might lead to impurities in the glass. Even small contaminants can leave visible marks.

6. Welding Gloves

These come in handy when the parts inside the kiln are not fully cooled after the firing ends. Even when a kiln is off, it can take hours (or even days) to cool to room temperature. You never want to take glass out of a kiln if it is still too hot, because you don’t want to cause thermal stress in the glass. Once the kiln gets down to 200°F I often go ahead and open it.  You don’t need gloves to be as long as these ones are, but I often have to reach far into our kiln and don’t want to risk burning myself.

7. Face Shield

When you break a lot of glass you quickly learn that tiny shards can fly up at your face and be quite a nuisance. I like to wear this face shield when I break or grind glass, just to be sure not to get little cuts or splinters on my face.

8. Scrap Fabric

Fabric scraps from old clothing help a lot anytime you have to break a glass bottle. I like to wrap my bottles in fabric before I break them so the shards stay contained. I also use fabric scraps to protect my skin when I break a glass billet in my hand.

9. Safety Glasses

Almost every stage of glasswork calls for eye protection! When I’m not worried about tiny shards hitting my face (or when I am wearing my respirator) I wear these safety glasses to protect my eyes.

10. Torch Lighter

    A very concentrated flame can help make a clean break in a scored glass bottle. This technique is called Hot Popping!

11. Claw Hammer

I use this hammer anytime I need to carefully break a mold away from a glass piece. (I usually use this in combination with a flat metal pottery tool – similar to a hammer and chisel!) Or just for general smashing.

12. Ball-peen Hammer

This hammer has a rounded side that is essential for getting a nice break along a score mark in a glass billet. The rounded shape allows for more force in a concentrated spot as compared to the flat side.

13. Water Level

Anytime I put a mold in the kiln, I like to make sure that the mold is level. This ensures that the bottom of the cast object is level.

14. Paintbrushes

These are helpful for placing and shaping glass frit. They can also be helpful in retrieving tiny pieces of glass that may fall into a hard to reach part of a mold. And they also help clean plaster silica off of little nooks of cast glass objects.

15. Glass Cutter

These allow you to make a scored line in the glass. The score mark may just look like a scratch, but it actually helps to guide the breaking of a piece of glass.

16. Pistol Grip Glass Cutter

These do the same thing as the previous – they are just a bit more comfortable and help keep a steady hand on longer cuts.

17. Abrasive Disk

These go on a lapidary wheel and allow me to grind down my pieces to have flat sides. By working my way from a rough grit to a fine grit, I smooth the glass to prepare it for polishing.

18. Post-consumer Bottle Glass

This has been my biggest obsession – and research topic – of late. So much glass material does not get recycled and ends up being wasted, but I see so much potential for reuse. I work together with a local bar – they save certain bottle types for me, and I pick up the glass to use for my research.

19. Glass Frit

Glass Frit is essentially crushed glass. It comes in different sizes ranging from coarse (the size of pea gravel) to powder (the size of flour) and in many different colors.

20. Metal Pottery/Sculpting Tools

These are the multi-tool of my studio. I use them to shape my clay positives, arrange voids within frit designs, and for chiseling off stubborn pieces of plaster silica. They do so many different things – far beyond what they were originally intended for.

21. Grozing Pliers

    These are used for snapping/breaking off small pieces of glass after cutting. Sometimes the actual break may not follow your score exactly, so you may need to use these pliers to clean up the shape a bit.

22. Running Pliers

    These are used to make a controlled break along a score in a sheet of glass. They gently bend the glass to encourage it to break, and if all goes well, that break will follow the path of your score mark and leave you with a nice clean cut piece of glass.

23. Metal Angle Ruler

This tool is really useful when you are grinding your glass down and want to make sure that different planes stay square. (Or – to make sure the planes stay crooked!)

24. Metal Measuring Spoons

I use these to help me place frit, or to measure quantities for my research experiments. Metal tools are best for working with glass because they greatly reduce the number of contaminants in your material – and unlike plastic, if you’re worried you might have metal contaminants, you can always pass a magnet over your material to be sure!

25. Sheet Glass

This is COE 96 sheet glass. Most people recognize sheet glass as a material for stained glass, but some sheet glass can also be used in the kiln. Because this glass has a specified COE (coefficient of expansion) it can be fused to any other glass with a matching COE number.

26. Glass Billet

A glass billet is essentially is an ingot, or brick, of glass. This manufactured glass is great for kiln casting and can be combined with other billet glass for multi-color designs without devitrification (aka cloudy streaks) occurring between colors. Its shape is sturdy, sometimes withstanding several hammer strikes without breaking. This makes it more resistant to breaking during shipping, but can make it a challenge to break for projects. With a clean score and a carefully placed hammer strike, you can get an incredibly clean break and a satisfying *tink* sound.