About My Work

My work is made of borosilicate glass.
Here is a brief history of borosilicate glass and how it has come to be what it is today.

I use a torch running on oxygen and propane to melt and shape my glass. The torch is made by Carlisle Machine Works and produces a flame that is about 5000 degrees F. Borosilicate glass melts at about 1510 degrees F.

Once the glass is worked in the flame, it goes into a kiln to anneal for several hours. The annealing process helps remove stress in the glass which could lead to cracks.
Here is a description of the annealing process.

I use many different glasses in my work. Most of my clear glass is either Simax or Pyrex. Colors in my work come from colored glass made by Northstar, Glass Alchemy, Momka's, Trautman Art Glass, and others. A lot of my work uses dichroic glass made by Coatings by Sandberg or Dichroic Alchemy. I also make a lot of use of a process called fuming where fine silver, 22k gold, or both is heated in the flame to the point where it vaporizes and the fumes collect on the glass. The fumes themselves produce the color in the glass.

Right now my main passion is making marbles. I also make a lot of pendants because my wife, and accomplished jewelry designer, used to give me a hard time about making marbles. She would say "they're pretty, but I can't wear them". I have developed a few techniques that allow me to take my marbles and make them into items to be worn.

I have recently started to play with more sculptural items like vases and bottles. I'm not quite where I want to be with them, but it has been fun experimenting with them. They are forcing me to think outside the box (or, I guess, outside the circle...).

This is a video of one of my demos at the Virginia Hot Glass Festival. The sound quality isn't that great because of all the stuff going on in the background, but at least you can see a little of what goes into making a marble.

©2010 Cosmo Glassworks