Diamonds for shaping Glass

Glass is a fragile and hard material, which is most often manipulated in the hot stage where it is soft and malleable.

But cold shaping glass (cold working) allows us to reveal different qualities in the glass for breaking and reflecting light. To shape the hard glass we use diamond wheels and a lot of water.

We work with several coldworkers, but here we are showing the work of a couple, Dana & Pavel, who work from their ground floor studio at home. Pavel is a glass cutter by training and his wife Dana sections and marks up the glass for him.

Some cutting processes are organic, but even then the patterns have to be tracked on the round body of the glass, therefore it is useful to have pen markings on the surface. We usually work with a mix of rhythmic patterns and directional cuts that are freehand ground on the diamond wheel.

The glass is cut on a spinning diamond wheel, kept wet with running water to clean the wheel and cool the glass.

It is a true mastery of the skill of cutting to work on such big pieces as we produce , the pieces are slippery and heavy and need to be held in the air for a long time. In addition to this the wheel is behind the piece, so the cutter needs to work by looking through the glass and judging distances and positioning by experience.