My current body of glass work is built on a combination of earlier experiments with both organic, hot-worked blown glass and the more precisely tooled, ground and carved glass. I start by blowing solid colored pieces from a colored glass pot furnace. My color goes all the way through the piece, not just a tiny micro-layer (veneer) of Kugler color concentrate under a thick layer of clear glass. I call these colored objects “blanks.” I have developed some favorite transparent tints from my years of chemical research while developing and melting colored glasses. I often achieve a shift in hue by varying the thickness of the carved glass.
Also, I create sharp edges for dramatic optical effects in addition to the color changes caused by variations in wall thickness. Hot worked glass, formed from the furnace, has rounded edges, no sharp angles. Sparkling optical effects are emphasized as the edges are sharpened and faceted like a diamond. Cold glass sparkles!
I am experimenting with a variety of ground surface textures: everything from as shiny as hot glass to the velvety smooth matte-look similar to acid-etched glasses popular in the early 1900s. The velvet surface help us to “see” the complete form more accurately since the surface does not disappear into a shiny glitter.
As with much of my oeuvre, I am influenced by historical glass objects, in particular medieval through Renaissance examples. See, specifically, the “Hedwig Beakers.” My current interest lies with stone wheel cut and carved glass more than the traditional copper wheel engraving.
Fritz Dreisbach