Glass Beads Workshop - Mértola

OBJECTIVE: Introduction of oxygen burner

TRAINER: Dörte Steingräber Gradissimo

Glass – its Arts and Crafts goes back for almost 6000 years, when first intentional mixtures of silica-sand, lime and soda laid the base of what over the past few thousand years became most appreciated and coveted: few knew its science and secrets. Nearly forgotten in the last century, it is now getting a new and well-deserved place in Contemporary Jewelry.

I work with glass from Italian Murano and CIM, but mostly my rods come from Lauscha and Reichenbach, ancient Boemia, where old recipes are the base of hand pulled glass rods: different, unexpected, unique…

each object is shaped by and in the fire, like our predecessors did for thousands of years, melting the glass with high temperatures near 1000º…

…up to you to take a bit of history with you into the present !

CONTEXTUALIZATION

The technique of forming glass beads on a metal mandrel has no age limit…. In Portugal, it certainly goes back to a distant past of at least 4000 years, confirmed by finds in Redondo and elsewhere, p. ex. next to the Tagus estuary.

Oxygen, originally supplied by bellows, now facilitates work from concentrators, which add this gas to a fire source and thus guarantee not only very high temperatures (up to around 1500º C), but also allow the oxides in the glass to reveal….

WORKSHOP CONTENTS:

Theoretical component (about 20 minutes)

- Short historical introduction

- Presentation of the execution phases and applied techniques

- Security measures

- Presentation of some literature

Practical component

- Prepare glasses and organize individual space

-  Execute several accounts, in accordance with the knowledge of each trainee and:

- Spacer, Gifts and applications, various shapes and sizes

- Tempering the beads in the oven / Kiln

Lunch

-  Remove Kiln / evaluation accounts

-  Introduction of new techniques

Scales / Dragonscale , Coated / encased beads, Bead construction

Hollow, shaping with instruments………………

parts cleaning

Materials / Techniques: One burner for each participant, glasses, silver leaf……

More information/ Registration: dorotea@sapo.pt or nadiaferreiratorres@sapo.pt