Create beautiful thin-walled vessels and delicate sculptural objects with subtle translucency using a glassmaking technique known as Pâte de Verre. Pate de verre is a widely varied art form. The glass kiln casting technique of Pate de Verre, translated from French, means glass paste.
In this class, you will be introduced to the pâte de verre process, starting with creating color samples using a range of grades of frit to experiment with color mixing and blending to produce a palette of unique hues and tones. Next, we will discuss various intuitive ways to fabricate positive models, including flat and 3-dimensional molds. This may include, but is not limited to, modeling in clay, plaster, foam, paper, card, and wax. You will produce one flat refractory mold, and one 3-dimensional negative refractory mold from your model that are ready to be packed with a paste of crushed glass frit and powders mixed with a binding agent.
You will also learn how to pack, program, and fire kilns for pâte de verre and the coldworking process.