Glassmithing
"You no not force the glass into submission, you instead must help it to find its shape. Feel the sand, sense it, and then let the echo of our people in your blood sing to it. Only then can you strike the glass and have no fear of breaking it." - Kilem Gupla of the Pale-sand-walkers, Speaking to her new apprentice.A strange art only practiced by the half elves of the desert folk Glassmithing is the art of taking desert glass and shaping it into other objects. These Glassmiths treat the glass as a blacksmith would metal, forming it to shape with hammers and heat. But there is more to it than that, if not done by a Jun'Bok'Jun the glass smashes and is useless or it refuses to change shape at all. One of the hardest materials on Spindle the desert glass will only allow itself to be worked by those of the desert.
Utility
To date the art has only been applied to weapon smiting, there are however many practitioners who are pushing the boundaries of what is possible, especially with the discovery of the different kinds of sand glass.
Access & Availability
The ability to Glassmith is not guarded by the people who do it, they are happy to demonstrate how and what. But the technique is not something anyone can learn. Only the Jun'Bok'Jun are able to acheive it, the assumption being that the combination of the Human sand rage and the elven bloodlines.
Discovery
Discovered by Kilem Gupla a Jun'Bok'Jun (half-elf) of the Pale-sand-walkers the story goes that she was out collecting desert glass, as is normal for the Vu'Ko'Kita, when she cut herself on a sharp edge. reeling back from the pain she is said to have pushed out with her other hand and watched the glass itself shift slightly away from her. Intrigued at this strange occurrence she experimented further and over the course of a few seasons developed the glassmithing technique that is used today.
Related Species
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This was a super cool read, and I love the concept behind the article. Glasscraft is super important to one of the regions in my world that I explored during SummerCamp, and this article is a reminder that I should dive further into the techniques they use to create their works! The discovery summary you wrote in the sidebar could make for a really cool short story, too, I think. :)
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Thanks so much for the kind words, I have actually started writing an account of how the technique was discovered as an in-world piece!