“Spinning a Platter “

The very last step in making a glass platter is spinning it. To be able to “spin” the platter I have to reheat the glass until it is really hot and soft ( around 1250 C ). The fast “spinning”  allows the outer rim of the platter to open up fairly quickly.

It is still a very enjoyable process everytime I do it.

“Sand Casting”

Sand casting is a totally different process than glass blowing. Preparing the design in the sand can be very delicate and time consuming. The final result depends on the small details and patterns pressed in the sand. The casting part is fairly quick as the glass flows freely when it’s hot enough. This is a very good technique to achieve deep and precise textures .

“Glass colours “

Glass colours come in many shape and forms. Glass rods around 40mm in diameter are made by highly specialised manufacturers. These rods can then be crushed down to several size chips. These chips can be ground down into a powder. Personnaly I like using powders more than rods, it allows me to get more tone variations by building up layers of colours that interact with each other in the blowing process. Most of the time I use a combination of rods, chips and powders to get the fine details in my designs.

” Sand Casting ” in my home studio.

I really like the feel of casting hot glass into a sand box.

I have been sand casting small component for scultures for a long time.

A  few years ago I participated in a sand casting workshop in Sweden, I have been converted ever since.

At 1200 degree C the glass is becoming very fluid, flowing out of the laddle like honey on a hot day, it will take whatever shape I’ve put into the sand.

It’s a great technique to bring out textures and depth into the glass.

The frosted sand texture offers a great contrast with the fire polished side of the cast.

The larger the piece of cast glass, the longer it will take to cool down without cracking.