Bluebottle Glass

In a very troubled week, please let me introduce you to this creme brulee trio in glass. Comfort needed for many!

Frustrating evening, after a good Grand Prix. Time to demould my project of the week, but unfortunately, I didn't fire long enough! Pate de verre can be tricky!

If you can’t see, it a pair of knickers for part of a sculpture I’ve been discussing with Georgia and feminism. The bottom is not intact!

How long to hold glass at the working temperature is the key to a successful PDV project! Glass & it’s appropriate heat work can be achieved by a combination of temperature and time, so 1 hour at 750c may have the same effect same as 780c for 10 minutes.

This is a difficult project for a number of reasons.

It was a large test, and I deliberately chose black and white as these are two difficult colours to use together as the viscosity changes at slightly different temperatures (black absorbing the heat, white reflecting it). Black was in the more difficult topmost position in the mould where it would get more heat. I wanted to test glass both ends of the spectrum. The mould had a number of difficult undercuts to reflect the stretched tension in the material and the glass was deliberately thin, to reflect fabric.

On this occasion the length of the hold at 760c for 1 hour 30 minutes wasn’t long enough for the thickness of my mould and the glass in the bottom didn’t melt and remained powder in places. Had I have gone hotter there was a real risk that the black glass would have worked its way off of the top of the mould as could the white at the undercuts. I could have been left with a glass puddle. The glass would have collapsed into the bottom of the mould. I got the undercuts fused which is a real achievement, but the bottom of the mould was still powder.

A longer hold next time.