Tuesday, 28 February 2012
The thing about working with
recycled glass bottles is that the glass was originally designed to stiffen very quickly, so
that as it came out of the mould it never 'slumps' out of shape. The problem
with working this glass is that it is too hard to produce elaborate work. This
is why most recycled objects are simple and rather 'rough' aesthetically. In
this experiment I have mixed one third of soda 'bottle' glass from different
sources with two thirds of lead crystal cullet from Dartington Crystal that has already been melted in my furnace and had
various colours added to it. The idea is to create a chemical reaction which
will result in a homogenous melt that will be workable and also allow colour to
be applied to the recycled glass. This melt will be 100% upcycled as all
coloured glass cullet left from the process of glassblowing generally goes to
land fill.
Ten green bottles. This is basically a starting point. I smashed the glass up and mixed it with coloured and clear cullet 1 part green soda glass to 2 parts lead crystal. The results were fantastic. Great workability and colour.
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