It’s easy to see the beauty in the Gil Reynold’s plate shown here – but anyone who’s into glass will want to know just what techniques Gil used to achieve these incredible results. (In the photo at right is Gil, himself, explaining it all at the at the AGSA show in Chicago this summer.) Here’s a breakdown of the tricky parts.
- Swirls: The bands of swirling colors were created by slumping a stack of glass over a box shape. As the glass melted it fell into the box and folded in on itself creating a block of glass with the swirling pattern. Gil cut cross sections of the block exposing the pattern and laid the pieces end-to-end (mirroring the design on each side) to create these bands.
- Yellow speckled band: This was created using yellow and clear alternating glass, stacking it so that the colors are offset in a "checkerboard" pattern. This was heated and pulled into a thinner, longer piece which resulted in a more irregular look when cut into cross sections and laid into the band.
- Mottled Band: Gil used System 96™ glass to blow his own confetti (ultra-thin shards of glass). He layered the shards with clear glass resulting in what might be considered the most intriguing band in the piece. It has surprising depth and a wonderful organic quality that contrasts to the more geometric look of the rest of the plate.
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