It is also considered an endangered craft. Some scientific instruments, if broken, cannot realistically be replaced in any reasonable time frame (or sometimes even at all).
People who take up glassblowing as a hobby are closer to being crucial to the world economy than most.
Just something to chew on.
It isn’t like mind blowing or anything. But it sure is something.
I had always assumed that this sort of thing was mechanized.
exactly! And some of it is to be sure, but the fact that we (Very much including myself) just assume stuff is an industrial mechanised process because of our modern age and because it’s intricate and then it’s not is what is interesting.
I feel like if a mostly self-sufficient and ecologically neutral economic unit were to be made, glass making would easily be in the top 10 most important occupations.