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Cold Work
refers to methods that work with the glass in its cold state (not molten
or moving). The commonly used cold work is
Sandblasting,
Engraving, Etching, Cutting, Grinding,
Polishing,
Painting, and Bonding.
Each of these allows an array of possibilities, and are very important
steps in finishing work that begun in the molten state
Sandblasting
(sand carving) is a process where the glass is textured or removed
by blasting it with sand under high pressure. Hand grinding to a
buff surface differs from sandblasting in that every edge is defined
rather than rounded, and that the surface will not absorb oil from
the hands. However, it is very time consuming. Christine Barney did
it for her
Passage
Sculpture (p 31). The buffing results in a delicate satin like
surface. In the
Overlay
two bubbles are blown and one is rolled over top of the other to
create overlapping layers of color. Think of starting with an inside
out sock and rolling it onto your foot.
Cameo glass
involves carving part of the outer layer to make the second color
surface. The Romans were making very sophisticated cameo glass in
the first century AD. Eric Rubinstein used a variation of this
technique for his award winning
Multicultural E.
After Steven Gillies blows a vessel overlay, his wife Kate Jones
prepares a design with thin strips of masking tapes and sand carves
it out. The result is their signature work of streaming textured
lines, well illustrated (above) with the sculpted vessel,
V is...
Battuto
(Italian for beaten) is a process where the glass is roughly faceted
with grinding wheels.
Incisura
is a form of engraving where the glass is incised with a diamond or
metal tool.
Etching
usually refers to an acidic chemical process where the acid it
applied to the surface of the glass to frost it.
Lampworked
Glass
is a method of manipulating small rods and tubes of glass in the
flame of a torch (hence the other appellation,
Flamework). The glass used
to be heated over small oil burning
lamps,
hence the appellation Lampwork. In the fifteenth century a kind of
soft glass was developed to
melt at lower temperatures in order to accommodate this technique.
It was used to make small-scale sculptures, and commercial glassware
without the overhead expense of glassblowing. Today, Lampworking has
become an important facet of glass art. Unique Work is created with
torches that burn oxygen and propane and can produce much higher
temperatures, and a larger flame. Artists as well as blowers of
scientific glassware, use a glass made of a
borosilicate
base (hard
glass, Pyrex), which was
developed in the United States in the 20th
century by Corning. It can withstand higher and more drastic
temperature changes without cracking or boiling.
Several of the
participants in the ABC exhibit have used lampwork to demonstrate the
limitless potential of this technique. Using soft glass, Mauro
Bonaventura combined the realism of the human figures with the
abstraction of their setting
Bonaventura's Ulysses (above left) illustrate the use of bright
colors, typical of soft glass.
Recently, however, bright colors became available for borosilicate glass
(Mickelsen's M, above right).
The subtle colors in borosilicate glass are illustrated in David Willis'
Flower Form (above center)
With this hard glass, Bandhu Dunham created a
Kinetic Sculpture.
Julius Weiland’s
Jin
is made of fused borosilicate tubes used for scientific glassware |
