GASnews Summer 2019

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MATERIAL MATTERS: SAND AND ASH, SILICA AND FLUX by Phoebe Stubbs Though we all know that glass is comprised largely of silica and flux, in a contemporary glass studio it’s possible to imagine that the raw material for glassblowing is simply a uniform, man-made element divorced entirely from a geographical place – a glass batch. We have little cause to give thought to either the geological or historical conditions required for glass’s existence, or its complex material relationship to place. Recent archeological theories about Roman glass production suggest that, rather than using local sand from the myriad sites where glass kilns have been unearthed, the Romans had several centers for cullet or batch production on the Eastern Mediterranean where the clean white sand was optimal for transparent glass. The sand was then traded all over the Empire to glassware producers who heavily recycled the glass. Even 2000 years ago, glass as a product was quite divorced from the places from which its materials derived.1 Several contemporary artists and designers are turning their attention to connections of resources and place in making work that deals with the raw materials of glass. Two projects that investigate the key components of glass manufacture, silica and flux, are the work of Atelier NL and Anne Vibeke Mou, respectively. Their works act as reminders of the complexity of place in glass related to the earth’s resources we share. Atelier NL, design duo Nadine Sterk and Lonny van Ryswyck, has a deep engagement with raw materials. An ongoing project addressing glass uniformity, called ‘To See a World in a Grain of Sand,’ asks global participants to collect small bottles of sand in places local to them, and send it to Atelier NL, who work with glassmakers to melt it, creating a library of samples. The color palette produced from the different sand types demonstrates that sand is anything but uniform. When melted, these samples produce little pools of color and

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A collection of bottles sent by participants in the project To See a World in a Grain of Sand by Atelier NL. Sand samples from different geographical locations demonstrate the huge variations in the material. Photography (c) Blickfänger.

A selection of melted 'wild glass' samples, made from sand samples collected by participants in Atelier NL's project To See a World in a Grain of Sand.

texture varying from pale turquoise to dark brown. The collection represents mineral and metal deposits, painting a geological picture of the earth. We don’t think of sand as a depleting resource, but as Atelier

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NL’s project beautifully illustrates, that is because we tend to misunderstand the complexity of the material and the scarcity of locations and types of sand used for the glass we melt.

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