Daum glass making: Pate de verre is a labour-intensive form of glass making that dates to around the second millennium B.C. It is thought that the Mesopotamians were the first to leave written records of this glass making process which they used to produce glass beads to decorate jewellery with and for making glass sculptures.
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It is thought that the
Mesopotamians were the first
to leave written records of this
glass making process which
they used to produce glass
beads to decorate jewellery
with and for making glass
sculptures.
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Improvements to this glass
making technique were
introduced by the ancient
Egyptians, by using pate de
verre in intricate mosaics and
to create storage and drinking
vessels between 1500 and 1000
B.C.
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But it was the re-discovering of
pate de verre by French
archaeologists in the
nineteenth century that made
art glass making what it is
today.
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Although pate de verre is one of the oldest and
simplest of glass working techniques it is at the
same time, one of the most challenging to be
used correctly.
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Glass is a magical and somewhat mysterious
substance, and this form of glass making is an
intriguing way to manipulate glass into stunning
crystal figurines or decorative art glass vases.
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When used in conjunction with
coloured crystal, metallic salts
or oxides, a glass sculpture,
crystal ornament or crystal
vase made by the pate de verre
process is an outstanding and
dazzling work of art.
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The great advantage to using this
glass making technique over other
glass manufacturing processes is
the ability for precise placement
of particular colours in the mould
before firing.
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In traditional French pate de verre, the artist
mixed crushed glass with enamels or paint to
form a paste that was carefully placed in a
mould and then fired.
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Other ways of filling the mould with
coloured glass often result in shifting
of the glass when molten from
where its original position prior to
firing, but the pate de verre process
helps to control this shifting by
starting out with a glass paste rather
than individual glass beads.
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It was a French glass making
company called Daum that
put art glass sculptures and
crystal vase making back in
vogue by combining this glass
making process with moulds
created from using 'Lost Wax'
techniques.
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Basically each piece starts as a
wax sculpture. The wax is then
encased in a plaster mould and
then expelled, "lost," by being
steamed out of the plaster
mould this leaves a negative
which is filled with the coloured
pate de verre paste and heated
in a kiln until molten.
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Once cooled to room temperature, the
mould is removed from the kiln and the
glass sculpture or crystal vase is carefully
removed from the mould and polished
ready for display.
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Pate de verre is extremely difficult
and time consuming to create and
can easily be ruined during the
heating phase of creation. Due to the
delicate nature of this type of glass
work, pieces are generally restricted
to being only ornamental in nature
such as glass wall art or art glass
vases.