For my first project at my internship, I was assigned to a "casting" project. Casting glass is the process of designing a clay model, pouring plaster on top of the piece, and then filling the plaster mold with molten glass to create an exact replica. I was given a full bag of recycled clay and began brainstorming ideas. Jason, whom I intern for, presented his pieces to me and they were very inspiring. Working with ceramics in the past, I was excited to be able to incorporate this with glass.

For this beginning assignment I decided to design a plaque type of piece. It would have a sturdy base and be manageable to finish in a short period of time. I continued on with an abstract and tribal idea I once had, and came up with this. I didn't like it after a couple hours because it seemed like a lot of different styles. So I continued on another direction.

The ending piece will resemble something like this. Casting is a very unique and different way of creating glass pieces, and it was a great way to start off my exploration in blown glass.