The present invention provides a method of drawing nanowires, comprising sealing off one end of a glass tube such that the tube has an open end and a closed end, introducing a nanowire material inside the glass tube and evacuating the tube by attaching the open end to a vacuum pump, heating a portion of the glass tube such that the glass partially melts under the vacuum such that the partially melted glass tube provides an ampoule containing the nanowire material to be used in a first drawing operation, introducing the ampoule containing the nanowire material into a heating device, increasing the temperature within the heating device such that the glass tube melts just enough for it to be drawn and drawing fibers of glass clad nanowire material. The invention further provides a method for bunching together such fibers and redrawing them one or more times to produce arrays of nanowires clad in glass.