More Pate De Verre

 Last week I tried a little Pate De Verre – and I did admit it wasn’t my most favourite technique…. but today I found myself wanting to have another go.

First I made a couple of moulds.

The first dish was made using a wax cast from a silicon mould.

The second piece I wanted to be a cone shape to represent a Moroccan sugar cone, so I hand built a cone shape out of clay.

Once I had the wax and the clay I made a plaster mould around them. Using the recipe 1lb each of plaster and molochite to 1.5 pints of water.

Once the moulds were dry, I melted the wax out of one, and dug the clay out of the other.

Then I mixed frit glass with a mix of 50/50 glasstac and water into a thick paste.

I pressed this into the moulds, then packed them with a pre-fired plaster powder so the glass didn’t collapse back into the middle.

Then off to the kiln to be fired at 765 degrees for an hour.

Quite happy with the results of these…

A very untactile little dish and a white cone that actually does look like sugar!

First attempt at Pate De Verre

 

Todays demo was on Pate De Verre (Paste of glass)  and I thought I would have a little go myself!

What you need for this is a plaster mould, a teaspoon, some frit (fine or powder is better) and a mix of 50/50 Glasstac and water.

You mix up the frit and glasstac mix to a thick gritty paste, almost like sugar topping.

Then you take the teaspoon and press the paste into the mould, compacting it as much as possible.

 

I also added a little blue glass mix at this stage too to make it a little more interesting.

Once you are happy with the thickness of the glass paste, you pack the remainder of the mould with a pre-fired plaster to stop the glass collapsing during firing.

Then off to the kiln to be fired at 765 degrees for an hour.

When it is cold you shake the powdered plaster out – wearing a mask so you don’t breath in any nasty particles.

Then you can carefully chip away and break the mould off to reveal your glass work underneath.

Not bad for my first go.  Not sure it will be a favourite technique as it’s not hugely tactile to tough and hold, but I enjoyed trying the process.