When you think of glass making you may think it’s a very energy hungry process and not terribly environmentally friendly. There are areas that may surprise you though.
The main manufacturer of the glass I use uses a lot of recycled glass in their production. They also use a continuous ribbon process of production which means the glass is more uniform in finish and results in less wastage.
The kilns I use are super insulated with fire bricks which means that very little heat is lost and the thermocouple and controller can work together to ensure the elements only fire in short blasts of a few seconds at a time. The energy consumption per firing is actually very low, even over a firing of up to 48hrs.
Added to this, I always ensure my kiln shelves are as full as possible when I fire. This may mean a short wait for your order while I fill the shelf with other work but ensures I am using as much of the energy as possible. Even small shelf gaps are filled by making dots for later projects, small experiments and tests or little suncatchers, earrings, fridge magnets, key rings etc.
All orders are sent using repurposed packaging. I wrap each piece in newspaper before packing. I have a box stash in my shed and I save all the air wrap my supplier packs my sheet glass in. This ensures your glass art will arrive with you in the best condition as well as reusing these resources.
All my wooden stands are hand made by my Pops and me from reclaimed antique French oak floorboards; offcuts from his past life. Some are pretty beat up before we start work on them but turn out gloriously when we’ve worked our magic.
And I keep every single offcut of glass; from large part sheets to the tiniest of chips. All are sorted by colour, opacity and size so I can put my hand on the perfect piece for your project. I store them in take away tubs, spice jars, pots and jam jars. Friends and neighbours collect these as well as newspaper and boxes and pass them on knowing I have a specific use for them. I also have a cullet box of broken and failed pieces that will be repurposed and reused in future work. These make some of the most unexpected successes.
So hopefully you can see that glass art can actually be a kinder medium than on first thought. It also never never fades. It won’t go mildewy if it gets damp, it won’t be nibbled by little beasties and won’t go brittle with age. It will outlast you and me! It’s a great medium to invest in as well as being totally beautiful.
