Series Alpha
This set of 3D printed glass panels is controlled at a “pixel” level, creating texture from grayscale images. The panels serve as experiments, opening up a new way to use glass printing.
These panels were the first tests of printing texture from an image — the approach that later carried into Phase Change and the portraits. A grayscale image sets the machine’s behavior, and the surface holds the result.
The printer holds glass at more than 2000°F. It flows out through a ceramic nozzle, one line at a time. I write the path it follows: where to go, how fast, how hot. The nozzle traces that path, leaving a bead of glass behind it, and the object grows layer by layer.
When a print is done, we cut it free from the stream. It comes off the machine close to 900°F and goes into another chamber to cool overnight.
None of this replaces glassblowing. It builds on it. People have been forming glass for thousands of years. This is one more way to do it: material, machine, and the person running both.