Notes from the Cold-shop

One of our current projects in Berlin is creating glass components for a designer who wants to pair them with carved stone bases for a lamp. The idea is for the glass to “ooze” downward on two sides of the stone.

Our first attempt was to blow the glass directly onto the stone itself, but it turned out to be too fragile. The stone started to peel and burn from the heat. So we moved on to making a mold instead — but now we are running into a different problem: the sides either collapse or fold in on themselves.

The next idea is to blow the basic shape first and then carve out the sides afterward. So this piece is essentially a mini test version. The final lamp shape will be different, but I found a blown sphere and thought it would be perfect for experimenting.

I used a saw to cut the initial opening and then spent the better part of the afternoon shaping it and bringing it to a 220-grit polish.

My first mistake was sawing all the way to the guide lines. Totally unnecessary. It only created deep saw marks that took forever to grind out — and honestly, I’m still not sure I removed them completely.

Anyhooo… I still think it looks great nonetheless, and I’m excited to bring it to a full polish tomorrow 😀