Recycled glass art.

Although my initial starting point to get involved with glass has shifted from beads to other methods of working with warm glass, I have kept an interest in beads, as I can see their use in combination with other glass techniques.

I've also had an interest towards sustainabitity and was (and still am) always looking for projects that could be developed into community based job creation projects.

On one of my many researches into sustainability and ecological responsiblility I started getting various information about beads made from recycled glass.

Although there are many websites that sell the recycled glass beads, one of the most informative sites was the eshopafrica where they actually take you step by step through the process how various sorts of recycled glass beads are made in the typical West Africa tradition.

In Swaziland, South African, a glassblowing hotshop Ngwenya Glass (the Siswati name for "crocodile") uses only recycled glass to create their enchanting glass animals.

My husband and I saw a similar set up on the Island of Mauritius, where glass blowers were also making a variety of products using only broken coke bottles. I couldn't resist the glass dodo's!

For the people in these communities, the hot shops are the lifeblood and offer not only job creation and skills training , but also focus seriously on preserving the environment and creating a sustainabille industry for the future generations.

Glass is Glass is glass is glass.....?

When I first started being interested in glass, I bought several books, subscribed to magazines AND hit the thesaurus / dictionary button on my computer. It became very clear very fast that one needed first to get to know glass properly before attempting to start working with it.

One of the great producers of art glass is Spectrum and they have extensive knowledge of not only the different types of glass but also the background, technique how these particular glass varieties came into being and application.

ANTIQUE
Term applied to art glass produced by the historical mouth-blown cylinder method. The craftsman blows a glass cylinder which is annealed and cooled. The cylinder is then scored lengthwise, separated, re-heated and folded out into a flat sheet. Common characteristics include attractive linear striations and a very pristine surface.

BEVEL
Cold glass (usually clear, thick plate) with edges that have been ground and polished to an angle other than 90 degrees. Transmitted light is refracted and a prism-like effect results. Bevels are available in a variety of sizes, shapes and geometric configurations (called "clusters") for incorporation into leaded glass work, as this example shows of Shengda Glassware Products.

BILLET
A glass ingot, similar to a dalle, used in glass casting.
CATHEDRAL GLASS
Describes transparent glass that is monochromatic -- i.e., single color sheet glass, with smooth or textured surfaces.
CATSPAW
A surface texture resulting from the chilling of hot glass on a cool table. The appearance is likened to the paw prints of a cat.
CONFETTI
Paper-thin elements of glass that can be incorporated into a fused or blown glass design. Also called "shards."
CRACKLE
The hot cylinder of glass is dipped in liquid, causing radical, random fissures in the glass. The cylinder is then reheated and further blown to heal the surface fissures.

DICHROIC
Commonly used term to describe glasses that have been coated with one or more ultra-thin crystalline layers of transparent metal oxides designed to enhance reflections at specific wavelengths of light. The process occurs in a vacuum chamber at elevated temperatures. The resulting effects are striking and brilliant color reflections at varying angles of incidence.
FLASHED
Glass of one color with a very thin layer of another color on one side. Flashed glass is often used for etched or sandblasted glass art. When sections of the thin color layer are removed, the base color shows through.

FRIT
Ground glass, ranging in particle size from gravel-like to a fine powder. Frit is sometimes used as a raw material in glass manufacture, and sometimes as a coloring agent or for decorative effect in hot glass crafts like blowing and fusing.

IRIDESCENT
Surface treatment in which a layer of metallic oxide is bonded to the hot glass surface just after sheet-forming, resulting in a colorful, shimmering effect.
MILLEFIORI
Italian for "a thousand flowers." Commonly refers to glass objects made from masses of murrini slices, sliced from a cane.
CANE Glass cylinder consisting of groups of rods of different colors, which are bundled together and fused to form a design that is visible in cross section.
MURRINI
A thin slice of complex glass cane that can be used as a component in another glass object.

cane, murrini, millefiori

NUGGET
A small, irregularly shaped "glob" of glass, flat on the bottom, rounded across the top. Nuggets are made by literally dropping a small amount of molten glass onto a flat surface. Frequently called "globs," they are often incorporated into leaded glass artwork.

OPAL or OPALESCENT
Said of any glass into which a material has been introduced at the raw materials stage (usually fluorine or phosphorus) which causes a degree of crystallization to occur, and creates opacity in the glass. Reflected light is colorless, therefore white. The degree of opacity (and "whiteness") is variable depending upon composition and temperatures used in the manufacturing process. Commonly then, white glass is called "opal."
RODS
Used to describe cylindrical, pencil-thick sticks of glass used primarily in flameworking and glass bead making. They are available in a wide color range and many expansion coefficients.
STRINGER
A spaghetti-like glass shape used as a decorative element in the hot glass arts.

The other 2 giants specialising in fusible art glass are Uroborus and Bullseye Glass , who have developed glass with the studio artist in mind and also offer a wide variety of glass products, machinery, tools and more.

Glass and Fire

When I first saw a Chihuly chandelier (be it on a picture) I fell in love with contemporary warm glass there and then.

In the past few years I have been working with warm glass and learned to apply various techniques in order to create what was in my mind.

I still battle with them and it made me realise even more that working with glass is more than just bringing the image in your mind to life in a tangible form. To work with glass is so much more than expressing your creative inner self onto canvas with paint or other media.

To work with glass requires a serious degree of technical knowledge of the glass, the equipment and the temperature have to be perfectly insync. What is thermal shock? Wat is devitrification? Why is it important to know what COE means? Why is annealing crucial? I found lots of valuable information on the Warm Glass website and only one glimpse at the table with the various kiln forming processes and their respective temperatures gives an idea how one has to keep a cool head with kiln work. Another Q&A website is Glass Fusing made easy, which also looks at q&a when things go wrong. The Glass Art Techniques website elaborates on both hot and cold glass working techniques, the last one not only used to shape a work in its own right - even if no hot working techniques were applied - but also indispensable in many cases for the finishing touch of the work.

In other artforms, the artist can choose the time spent on the work, go away to reminisce and reflect, come back to add a detail or change colours or images, sometimes taking months or years to bring the work to completion.

With warm glass, one has to visualise the finished work and travel back in time to the starting point. From the initial creative idea, before you even start cutting, there is more technical planning and execution involved than I think in any art form. If one piece of glass is cut wrong, ... if it was from the wrong sheet of glass with a different COE, .... if the temperature has been too high, low, fast, slow,.... These are only some of the factors that can make or literally break the work.

Even though there are many books, websites, courses, etc that teach you step by step, it eventually comes down to test runs and punctual record keeping. If you know how the various techniques like slumping, fusing, tack fusing, casting work , refine the techicallities to suit YOUR kiln. A difference in make, year of fabrication, size of kiln, all play a vital role in the particular work performance of your kiln and to get to know this like it was another child will ensure less frustration in the future.

This is an example of a plate where I found out AFTER the firing that some of the Bullseye glass used was a striker glass - one that changes colour during the firing process.

Only when the kilndoor opens, you know if all the steps you planned were right.