For a couple of years, on and off, I have been dabbling in glass as an art form. Mostly, I had been trying to use glass from the dump, uh, transfer station, to make giant catalpa leaf plates. I felt like I was finally making progress understanding glass when my house burned down, and I lost everything. My idea was to melt shards of recycled glass to make giant leaves which I was going to mount and then back light the leaves.
In order to do that. though, there are number of steps. First, you have to get the glass. Luckily, I don’t live far from dump, so one evening, while the dump was closed, I went over and climbed into the bin and scooped up colors of glass I wanted. I ended up taking home one of those giant 5 gallon pails full of glass. Getting in and out of the bin was tricky, and for a minute, I was thinking it would be awfully embarrassing if I got stuck only to spend the night in the bin.
What I learned over the coming months, is that not all glass melts at the same temperature. Even bottles which have the same color may melt at different temperatures. If they melt at different temperatures, you can’t melt them together, or the piece will have cracks. Took me a while to figure out a solution to that. I ended up making melting pots, into which I could put the pieces of glass, and as they melted they would leak out onto a mold below. While I was just beginning to get to the point where I was having some success, I lost my entire studio, including all the melt pots I had made, and molds, and glass…
So, now I am in the process of rebuilding my studio. While I was in the restaurant business, over the last two years, I saved bottles with the color of glass I wanted. I just finished making another melt pot, which is in the kiln waiting to be fired. But, to make the molds for the leaves, I will have to wait until the summer, when the leaves are full grown and I can use them to make the mold form clay.
In the meantime, while I wait for summer to come, I have been trying to figure out other ways to use recycled glass to make plates and bowls. Store bought glass is so expensive, that, in order to make any money, you have to charge an inordinate amount of money. It has the advantage of having the same melting point, so you are less likely to have cracks…but, as I am learning, nothing is fail safe! If you look on the website, you will see one dish I made from store bought glass. That dish uses about $15 worth of glass – not even counting the time to make the dish, or the timer it took to make the design, or electricity, or overhead. It is expensive.
My newest idea is to paint pictures, and then melt those pictures between layers of window glass, and then melt it into a form. Attached is a picture I painted of a house I have always loved. It is the most curiously shaped house. Located on the thoroughfare on North Haven, Maine, when I was a kid growing up, it had some great parties. It is my first attempt at this process, and using glass paints in this way. Unfortunately, I did not fire it hot enough, so it needs to go back into the kiln. I fired this to 1500 degrees fahrenheit, I think it needs to be another 100 degrees hotter. All part of the learning process! I think it is going to work, and eventually be really cool. When I was cutting the glass, I managed to break the glass which is why it has a line running through it, but I am fairly certain if I fire it to a higher temperature, it will all melt together. Today, I made a clay soap (or wedge of cheese) dish form , into which I will slump the glass. With a layer of kiln wash, the clay and glass don’t stick together, so I should be able to use the mold over and over.
Working with glass has my brain on overdrive as I think about things I want to make, and then try and figure out how to do it. Having access to clay to make molds, makes it a lot easier, but I am still learning what the glass can and not do. Wait until you see the tree I want to make!
