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Christina Dembinska is a glass artist, working mainly with English antique glass made in England. Currently making stained glass windows that are installed in derelict buildings she is also interested in using the cullet from the process of making handblown architectural glass to make functional objects and has been making bowls and buttons from the English glass.

This is a limited edition of 100 bowls made from the muff tops, pieces left over from the process of blowing muffs for architectural glass sheets. These are the last of the hand-blown glass muffs made in Birmingham by English Antique Glass as when they move site shortly, they will no longer be making architectural glass due to the amount of room needed for the various equipment required for that process.

 

The muff tops in their raw state are very thick at the blowhole end and thin at the curved edge with a hole in them. I have been experimenting with ways to use the beautiful glass as a functional object. Having found a way of grinding them to enable them to stand flat, I then fuse them flat and fill the holes, at first with circles but recently with different pieces, I then made some plaster moulds on a turntable and from these I made slip cast stoneware moulds that could be used to slump the fused glass into bowls, The process throws up other challenges as air becomes caught when the sides fold and resulting bubbles of air can break open forming holes , these I now fill with clear glass .The series is numbered 1-100 and engraved with the number in roman numerals on the base .As they settle in the process at 6mm thickness they are very durable and also frost proof.They are all unique.

  Glass  2022

17x3x23cm