Friday, June 17, 2011

From time to time we’ve been featuring pieces from the Carder Steuben Exhibit held at the University of Southern Indiana last summer, along with the copy accompanying each piece as prepared by Susan Colaricci Sauls, Art Collection Registrar. Here’s another.

Perfume Bottles with Floral Stoppers:

Mirror Black and Turquoise

Gold Aurene and Cinnamon

Blue Aurene and Turquoise

These perfume bottles are not only beautiful to look at they are also functional. The colorful floral stoppers were created using a casing technique. Casing is the layering or “casing” one color of glass with another. In order for this technique to be successful the glass being layered must have a similar expansion rate when cooling, this can be discerned through a “pull test”.

Technical Note: The pull test that Carder would use is this– create a rod one-quarter inch in diameter and 6 inches long of each layer of glass; the two rods would be melted together; as they cooled the laboratory technician would note whether or not the rods remained straight (signifying compatibility) or if one rod would bend more than the other (signifying incompatibility). Depending on the results of this pull test, the glass formulas would be adjusted and production could continue.

www.cardersteubenclub.org

2011 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 15-17, 2011.

Any opinions expressed by participants to the Gazelle Gazette e-mail newsletters are the opinions of the authors and are not endorsed by or the opinions of the Carder Steuben Club.©