Glass Apples

Introduction

This project was part of a class that I took at Mass Art, Form to Fire. I decided to pursue an independent project in mold-making modeling apples. In this class, I did training for the Hotshop, the forge, welding, sheetmetal cutters, mixing and packing resin sand, and plaster mold making. This class inspired me to re-start up the glass club at Olin.

Solid glass casts of apples made for a previous
experiment.

Experimenting with Glass

Products of my lamp working practice.

Photos taken in the Mass-Art glass studio during Form to Fire

Before this class I had not worked with glass a sculptural medium, so I took the lamp working introduction to familiarize myself with the material. I ended up using one of my torch working models as a leaf for an apples later on in the project.

In the hotshop, I learned how to make an orb. I watched the professor gather and my partner blew to help create a bubble while I turned the punty. I created the jack line to separate the piece from the punty once it is time to put it in the kiln. This experiment was also to study the colored frit available in the hot shop.

Researching Blow Molds

Photos of low mold process taken in the Mass-Art glass studio during Form to Fire

In class, we got to see examples of blow molds. The orb is squished by the walls of the mold to make the shape. The examples were welded sheet metal blow molds. Since my goal was as an organic shape, I decided to cast my apple in plaster to create a 2-part blow mold.

Process

I learned to make plaster molds for this project. The blow mold needs a wide mouth for the glass bubble and punty to enter so that sprew was created using clay.

Before casting I dusted my mold with graphite powder. A molten glass bubble was created so that my elements would be hollow.

I had my partner blow into the bubble while I held pressure on the mold.

Results

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