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Building · Smelting · 1.21

How to Make Glass

A furnace turns the cheapest block in the game into windows, lamps, and stained-glass that paints the floor in colour. It all starts with a pile of sand.

From sand to glass

Smelt sand, or red sand, in a furnace. One piece of sand, one glass block.

Sand
🔥→Furnace
Glass

Sixteen colours

Ring eight glass around one dye for eight stained glass. One recipe per dye, sixteen in all.

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Glass panes

Lay six glass across the middle and bottom rows for sixteen thin panes, perfect for windows.

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x16

Tinted glass

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One glass and four amethyst shards make tinted glass: you can still see through it, but it blocks light completely, unlike normal glass.

Keep the block

Glass and panes shatter into nothing when you mine them by hand. To move a window, use a tool with Silk Touch and the block drops itself intact.

Quick answers

How do I make glass?
Smelt sand or red sand in a furnace. Each piece of sand becomes one glass block, and any fuel works.
Why did my glass vanish when I broke it?
Plain glass and panes drop nothing when mined normally. Use a Silk Touch tool to recover the block itself.
What are glass panes for?
Thin glass for windows and railings. Six glass make sixteen panes, so they stretch your sand a long way.
How do I colour glass?
Surround one dye with eight glass to make eight stained glass of that colour. There are sixteen colours, one per dye.
What is tinted glass?
Glass crafted with four amethyst shards. You can still see through it, but it blocks all light, unlike normal glass.
What needs glass?
Beacons, daylight detectors, end crystals and every window you ever build. It is one of the most-used crafted blocks.

Smelt it in a furnace, look up glass, dyes and amethyst in the items database, or open the crafting recipes for panes, stained and tinted glass.