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About my pieces
My work has two main characteristics:
- It is made using hand hand made colors
Colors are made with naturally occurring substances such as copper, cobalt, manganese, etc.
- It is made using recycled glass
For most pieces I use discarded window glass. For some sculptures I use shattered car windshield or bottles
Making the colors: colors are made with pretty much the same techniques used by the European glass masters of the XV century and a special understanding of chemistry.
In the XVth century, with the advent of mass production artists started specializing in either making colors or designing the work; and many artists gradually lost contact with an important part of their craft. As a result, some of the ancient practices were lost. Among them, the art and science of making colors for glass. Today, this knowledge is almost lost and only a few glass artists have kept this tradition.
When making colors for glass I feel like going back in time, when art and technique were integral. It is inspiring to revive old methods and ancient practices, while at the same time applying them to contemporary designs.
Recycling glass: I get my glass from contractors and window shops. Whenever they replace a window or door pane, they bring back with them the “old” glass. For them, the only part that is worth recycling is the aluminum frame. The glass is discarded because glass from windows does not get recycled (see “why window glass doesn’t get recycled?” below). If they didn’t give their glass to me, they would be dumping it into a container, where it would end in a landfill. A special thanks to "Ron's Glass and Window" from Somis, CA, for recycling glass with me.
How colors and glass come together in the recycling process
Because I make my own colors, I do not need to buy commercially colored glass. And because glass does not lose its quality when reprocessed, I can recycle window glass that would otherwise go straight to landfills, since window glass is one of the few types of glass that does not get recycled.
With these techniques, I am able to transform clear sheets of glass into contemporary, functional and unique objects of art, which are also environmentally friendly.
Why doesn’t window glass get recycled?
When working with glass there are several technical issues that need to be considered, the most important being the Coeficient of Expansion (or COE), which is the rate at which the glass expands with heat and contracts as it cools down. Two pieces of glass that have the same COE are called compatible. Different formulations of glass have different COEs. When glasses with different COEs are mixed, the final piece can crack or break.
Technically speaking, both glass from bottles and glass from windows have the same chemical composition (soda-lime silica), so in theory they are compatible and could be recycled together.
However, glass recyclers do not know if a window glass has had anything added to it in a post-production process, such as wire melted between glasses (to prevent frosting, in commercial refrigerators) or additional coatings that may have altered the original glass composition, and therefore, making the glass incompatible.
If the batch contains incompatible types of glass, the whole batch is compromised, because the end products made with it will be prone to cracks or breakages, and manufacturers cannot afford to run this risk. This is why window glass does not get recycled. In the case of bottles, because manufacturers know that bottles have not had any post-production alteration, it is safe to recycle.
It should be noted that the quality of the glass does not get compromised through the recycling process.
Because window glass goes straight to landfills, projects that recycle this type of glass are important.
Making the pieces
I pick a piece of glass (as you know by now, I use exclusively discarded window glass) and cut it to shape. Once all the pieces are cut I clean them, because fingerprints do not burn off with the heat. Other organic materials do, but not the grease from fingerprints.
Because even the brightest of blues looks grey in its “unfired” state, I have a palette of “fired” color samples to help me decide the colors/color combinations I will use for the piece. The color samples are little rectangles of 1-1/2" x 3," similar to the paint samples you get from the store.
I paint the piece and let it dry. Once dried, the piece is ready to be fired in the kiln.
Depending on the size, thickness and type of piece, I need to adjust the firing “schedule”, but a typical firing will gently climb up to 1500F and last for 7 hours after which the kiln shuts down. Because the kiln shuts down at 800F, I need to wait for another 7 hours for it to cool down to room temperature (or under 100F) to be able to open it without stressing the pieces. Glass is very sensitive to heat and if it is exposed to sudden changes of temperature (such as contact with outside temperature when kiln is still hot) it creates stress that may damage the piece, creating cracks or even breakage.
After the piece is fired, sometimes it needs further polishing of the edges, which I do with a wet grinder. Some pieces need further assembling, like the placemats or the jewelry pieces.
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