Glass casting

Imagine you have a fun toy that you want to make a new copy of. But this toy is made out of glass, so you can't just use a normal copying machine like you could with a piece of paper. Instead, you need to use a special process called glass casting.

First, you take the original toy and create a mold around it. A mold is like a special shape that will hold the glass and make it take on the same shape as the original toy. You can make a mold out of things like sand, clay, or plaster.

Then, you melt some glass in a special oven called a kiln. The kiln gets really, really hot and the glass becomes a thick liquid. Think of it like melted cheese on a pizza!

Next, you carefully pour the melted glass into the mold around the original toy. The glass fills up the mold and takes on the shape of the toy. You might need to let the glass cool down a bit so it won't break when you take it out of the mold.

Finally, you take the glass out of the mold and polish it to make sure it's shiny and smooth. And just like that, you've made a new glass toy that looks just like the original!