Glass Rave
Filed in archive Beads by Maggie MacLean on March 11, 2008
I was doing some research for a post I'm writing about Lampwork Beads when I found this website, and I soon discovered that it's about so much more than just lampwork beads.
Andrew Roberts at Glass Rave has been working with borosilicate glass for more than a decade now. This glass is distinguished by high refractive and transparency properties and superior durability.
Borosilicate Glass
Andrew uses various borosilicate glass mineral colors as well as fusing 24k gold and sterling silver overlay fumes to give unique appearance and appeal to his pieces. He then kiln fires the finished pieces for up to 15 hours for maximum strength and durability.
Frit Spiral Flower Glass Pendant
This hand blown glass pendant features multi green colored frit imploded and nicely spiraled.
Borosilicate glass was developed originally for cookware (trade name PYREX) and scientific glassware such as test tubes. This makes borosilicate glass much more durable than soft glass (soda lime) which is used to make most glass beads, art glass vases, ornaments and paperweights. The durability of borosilicate glass makes it a great product to use for glass beads.
Pink/Purple/Blue Pulled Style Blown Glass Pendant
This hand blown glass pendant features a blue and pink color scheme in a raked swirl pattern. This piece was worked at high temperatures and pulled into shape. Comes with a colored loop.
Andrew's Story
Andrew developed an early fascination to the form, learning as a child that glass is a liquid and formable when heated to higher temperatures. His introduction to lampworking (torch glassblowing) came naturally in 1996 in Boulder, Colorado, where a small growing number of lamp workers were gathering. He is thankful for the opportunity to make things of value for people who appreciate artistry and glass work.
Andrew creates out of inspiration gathered from both the solitary pace of nature and opportunities presented in modern life. He believes his true glass purpose will come in the future, that he is just beginning to create out of sole artistic inspiration, his technical skills adding from every torch experience.
Andrew Roberts has been working boro glass on and off since 1997, with a little soft glass thrown in. He currently works from a studio in Southern Minnesota.
Cane Work Rings Pendant
This hand blown glass pendant features handmade color cane laid into the piece hot in ring patterns, creating a unique look and appeal. This piece was worked hot at high temperatures and melted into a round optic.
Artist Statement
Lampworking 101
What is lampworking? Lampworking is a type of glass work that involves using a torch as a heat source to melt, work and shape the glass as opposed to hot glass blowing or furnace glass work which uses a furnace to keep liquid pooled glass hot. Lampworking is also referred to as torch work.
What kind of stuff do you make the designs in the glass out of? Designs in glass are usually made from small layers of gold or silver or colored glass, which is made from regular glass and metals and additives. But sometimes we put other materials inside like sulfide or meteor glass.
How do you make all those designs? By hand or with a machine? Yes. By hand, it takes some imagination. You've got a substance that can flow like honey, can become sticky or brittle, you can condense
and twist and pull and add and shape. Think 3 Dimensionally on a hollow ball, and how that shape could be condensed into a thicker solid form.
Do you really blow the glass? Yes, when we work with a tube of glass we condense and expand the glass, which we do by using gravity and blowing of air. When we blow air into a hollow closed off ball of glass, the air pressure forces the glass ball to expand.
Want to learn more?
Watch the Twisted Cane Glass Video Tutorialor read the Dot Implosion Tutorial for a visual explanation of how Andrew does his work.
This is beautiful stuff!
Andrew Roberts at Glass Rave has been working with borosilicate glass for more than a decade now. This glass is distinguished by high refractive and transparency properties and superior durability.
Borosilicate Glass
Andrew uses various borosilicate glass mineral colors as well as fusing 24k gold and sterling silver overlay fumes to give unique appearance and appeal to his pieces. He then kiln fires the finished pieces for up to 15 hours for maximum strength and durability.
Frit Spiral Flower Glass Pendant
This hand blown glass pendant features multi green colored frit imploded and nicely spiraled.
Borosilicate glass was developed originally for cookware (trade name PYREX) and scientific glassware such as test tubes. This makes borosilicate glass much more durable than soft glass (soda lime) which is used to make most glass beads, art glass vases, ornaments and paperweights. The durability of borosilicate glass makes it a great product to use for glass beads.
Pink/Purple/Blue Pulled Style Blown Glass Pendant
This hand blown glass pendant features a blue and pink color scheme in a raked swirl pattern. This piece was worked at high temperatures and pulled into shape. Comes with a colored loop.
Andrew's Story
Andrew developed an early fascination to the form, learning as a child that glass is a liquid and formable when heated to higher temperatures. His introduction to lampworking (torch glassblowing) came naturally in 1996 in Boulder, Colorado, where a small growing number of lamp workers were gathering. He is thankful for the opportunity to make things of value for people who appreciate artistry and glass work.
Andrew creates out of inspiration gathered from both the solitary pace of nature and opportunities presented in modern life. He believes his true glass purpose will come in the future, that he is just beginning to create out of sole artistic inspiration, his technical skills adding from every torch experience.
Andrew Roberts has been working boro glass on and off since 1997, with a little soft glass thrown in. He currently works from a studio in Southern Minnesota.
Cane Work Rings Pendant
This hand blown glass pendant features handmade color cane laid into the piece hot in ring patterns, creating a unique look and appeal. This piece was worked hot at high temperatures and melted into a round optic.
Artist Statement
The individually created blown glass pendants and focal glass jewelry pieces for sale here are made out of durable borosilicate glass. Some of the ingredients used for our hand blown glass jewelry and lampwork pendants are .999 pure silver and pure gold and colored borosilicate glass. All glass items have been properly annealed in a digitally controlled kiln for maximum hardness.
As with all of the glass on this site offered, our standard blown glass pendants are brought to you at prices greatly reduced from retail, because you are buying from the actual artist created and self-run website which offers the lowest retail environment pricing. Thank you, and I hope you appreciate my work - Andrew
Lampworking 101
What is lampworking? Lampworking is a type of glass work that involves using a torch as a heat source to melt, work and shape the glass as opposed to hot glass blowing or furnace glass work which uses a furnace to keep liquid pooled glass hot. Lampworking is also referred to as torch work.
What kind of stuff do you make the designs in the glass out of? Designs in glass are usually made from small layers of gold or silver or colored glass, which is made from regular glass and metals and additives. But sometimes we put other materials inside like sulfide or meteor glass.
How do you make all those designs? By hand or with a machine? Yes. By hand, it takes some imagination. You've got a substance that can flow like honey, can become sticky or brittle, you can condense
and twist and pull and add and shape. Think 3 Dimensionally on a hollow ball, and how that shape could be condensed into a thicker solid form.Do you really blow the glass? Yes, when we work with a tube of glass we condense and expand the glass, which we do by using gravity and blowing of air. When we blow air into a hollow closed off ball of glass, the air pressure forces the glass ball to expand.
Want to learn more?
Watch the Twisted Cane Glass Video Tutorialor read the Dot Implosion Tutorial for a visual explanation of how Andrew does his work.
This is beautiful stuff!
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