Re(Calibrator) phase14

The biggest concern  at this point was to source a kiln. After countless meeting, letters with suggestions and  numerous debates, I had to give up on the idea of installing a kiln in the Bartlett workshop. So what next? This unleasant limitation  pushed me towards an  improvised slution ofusing a gas torch to slamp certain kind of glass on the negative moulds i have created based on the positive CNC  milled pieces.

glass and lead model

Above is my latest test with slumped glass flakes and molten  lead.
But before I got to this piece, I went through series of experiements with different glass.
First I tried glass pebbles and the results were rather innsignificant.

Glass peblles

Firing the glass pebbles

Apparently my handheld torch was  not powerful enough to affect the strong structure of the pebbles. Next I tried frit glass.

Glass frit firing

With the glass frit I soon realised that some kind of binder is required  in order to keep the granules from being blown away by the heat.  I tested few binder liquids, including gum arabic, corn starch etc.  and they gave various results.

Glass frit  with gum arabic

Glass frit with UV glue

Afterwards I have tested glass flakes of various sizes and thicknesses.

Firing glass flake

One of  the biggest isssue with hot glass is the anealing, the gradual decreasing of the temperature, to espcape cracks and breaks, therefore after firing i was expecting this fragile piece to collaps shortly.

The Glass flakes holding on the shape

But however the  cracking and  breaking  did not happen. Hence I decided to proceed  with building up on this technique as it seemed to be the best materialfor conveying the initial design idea.

Glass flakes  build up on  the mould piece

During this  process, I have re-introduce the notion of the bodily  gesture. While working on these peices i have been controlling the hand held gas torch in certain ways, always changing my direction and shaping the piece to my desire. This gave me an  immese freedom which i would  have not had, if i was to use a kiln!

glass  flakes  fired with  a UV glue

the design intent

Glass test piece reflecting the digital intent above

There were still many issues to consider; the right binder, the weight and the  gravity, was  the piece going to  collapse under its iwn weight? What is the right mechanism to perhaps link the different pieces together? There are many question yet to be explored, however I feel that this is the right route and perhaps at some point I could take the physical model back to the digital world by  scanning it in and observing the differences.
I  decided to introduce a heavy metal to the process, to see if there was a potential to it and just to be away from glass for a moment.

Lead model  showing the convex side of the mould

Lead model showing the concave surface of the mould

Again I was  able to control the torch in such a way, that with one hand I was feeding the lead wire and with the other hand melting it into the chsen areas of the mould. It was quite incredible how I was directingthe flow of the molten metal, and yet  I did not have control  over the exact shapes and details that  it was forming due to its physical characteristics.

Lead embracing glass

The above test model is a speculation on how the glass could communicate in the organic cage of the lead. There is still more experiments to follow, with bigger scale.
There are few things I intend to do from here; scan the model into a digital software and place this structure into various suggestive environments.