SPIRALS

My earliest works in glass were all projects that could be done quickly, here, the effort of putting glass parts together quickly so I could keep track of the various bits of color that piled up and become invisible as they melted down.  I liked molds that could be assembled fast and that were generalized shapes.  Things that stand up catch the light, the higher they go.  Not sure how I came up with rolling ceramic fiber into a spiral.  I poured hot glass into the first few molds.  That only sort of worked!  The glass leaked and created a mess in the kiln. The fiber, while it comes off cleanly from fused glass, the higher temperature of hot casting did not leave such a clean surface.  Eventually, I came on a hybrid method where previously made trails would be suspended from the sides of the molds hot clear glass and possible other bits would be added.  As the glass cooled it sealed up the mold.  The suspended trails protected the fiber from the searing temperature of the molten material. The process was highly experimental!  The shape provoked thoughts of towers, maybe Ur or Babel, or Tatlin’s Tower.