The glass at Gleichenia is made using pâte de verre, a technique handed down since ancient times whose name means "glass paste" in French. Powdered glass is fused together inside a plaster mold, leaving fine bubbles on the surface and bringing out color in layers with a sense of depth. Rather than uniformity, the technique assumes the differences that arise as material and conditions overlap. The time and temperature required vary from piece to piece, depending on the properties and size of the glass and how the blended colors respond to one another. Each time, we adjust the conditions while watching how the material reacts.
Between Chance and Control
Though it is a traditional technique, our aim is not to follow a fixed procedure. We keep searching for methods suited to the material, without being bound by established ways of working. Every step of the process is, for us, both an experiment and something to observe. What emerges between chance and control, and the faint differences and fluctuations that appear there, is what draws us in.
