Why Glass as a medium for Art?
Glass is a unique material. Man has been melting sand to form it for five thousand years. It was regarded by the ancient Phonencians and Egyptians as a highly precious material comparable to gold. Its unusual properties has fascinated people for millennium and still does .
As well as its transparency and ability to distort light and colour it is also an amorphous material. This means that the normal molecular rules which bind crystalline materials such as wood, metal, plastic and paint do not apply.
Glass molecules are completely random in their structure with no pre-set pattern or order. They are the anarchist of the molecular world.
This quality allows glass to behave entirely different to other materials when heated. There is no specific melting point as there is with metals which go from a solid form to liquid almost instantaneously. At normal room temperature when glass is in its solid form its molecular structure behaves like a stiff liquid and as such is often referred to as a supercooled liquid.
When heated it goes through a number of transformations. Between 530 and 930c glass transforms from a solid state into a material that can, at different stages of viscosity, be bonded, slumped, fused, cast, blown and raked.
All these alluring properties make glass a fascinating and almost seductive medium . There are no limitations on its use except the artists imagination.
This site will allow you to view some of the individual glass works which I have made over the past few years.
About the artist
I hold no formal qualifications in art unless you count the GSE grade 1 certificate I received for pottery when I was fifteen.
I learnt the basic skills of stained glass window making at an evening class organised by Bristol City Council many years ago.
I later attended different courses in glass fusing techniques at Warmglass UK, and Creative Glass Guild; both of who I could recommend for any persons who may wish to take up glasswork. Art and sport were my only interest in school. My art teacher attempted to encourage me to apply for a place at art college but construction was to be my calling and after 30 years of running a successful business I return to what I love most, art in all it’s forms.
