Over the last few months, I was fortunate to be able to take part to a new masterclass organised by Narcissus Quagliata, one of the most significant contemporary artists in glass. My participation was generously supported by a Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) Continue Creating 2022 grant managed by the Moreton Bay Regional Council, where I live. The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Moreton Bay Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

This 12 weeks intensive course focused on non-traditional painting on glass, using glass frits, powders and sheets in new ways. The course went through a number of key techniques to combine glass into unique creations. In this series of 4 posts, I will share some of the techniques I have experimented with and some of the first pieces I created combining these techniques into my artistic practice.

During the course, I experienced creating stackers and sliders: putting glass on top of glass and fusing them in the kiln (for sliders, this involves getting the glass to flow once hot). Key to the creation of stackers and sliders is the creation of movement, to make the glass come alive. In the gallery below, you can see some of examples of the stackers and sliders I have created. These make perfect premade material to use in new creations. I will show you how I end up using some of these pieces in the last 2 posts related to this class.

Another technique I learned is how to create laces. A lace is created using glass frit. The frit is first placed on a kiln shelf accordingly to the effects we want to create: this includes both varying colours and composition, and varying dimensions of the frits and thickness of its application. Then, the heat in the kiln and the laws of physics (including the fact that glass, once heated up, tends to aggregate and stay at a 6 millimeters of thickness) do the rest.