Paper short abstract:

In this paper I will describe the process of bringing a facet of glass to a high shine, exploring how this entails a requirement to attend to the material's relation with light.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will share experience from my research as a student and apprentice glassmaker in the Czech Republic. Although much of our modern experience of glass (as windows, camera lenses or screens) is one of transparency - in which we seek to see what lies beyond the glass rather than the glass itself - what often counts for glassmakers is the material's nuanced relation with light. By harnessing the unique affinity of glass for light they learn to enfold light into the emerging glass forms so that the glowing material shifts and changes according to the motion of the world and the movement of the viewer. It is as though they were carving with light itself.

Beginning with the process of polishing a face of glass I will explore one way in which a glassmaker becomes attuned to the light about them, namely by traversing the surface as it is crisscrossed with wheels of differing grades and materials. In the process, the maker becomes immersed in an expansive atmosphere, as the face of glass is transformed into a landscape of shifting light. From moment to moment, what is inside seems to rise to the surface, or to recede, until - in seeking to create a particular polish - one can hardly tell what is present within or without.