Glass, a material 

Blowing, molding, sculpting
 

A glass sculpture is both material and light. The work draws this light from its immediate environment, and the invitation to turn around it, which is at the heart of the sculpture, seems to take on all the more meaning. 

In our workshops, glass is shaped in the molten state, and its consistency when it comes out of the furnace can be reminiscent of honey. The material is essentially composed of silica, and the pigments added to it are metal oxides. Resistant to high temperatures, they create colors and textures in the glass, and it's colored glass that's used in ceramic enameling!    

Since its creation, the Centre du Verre Contemporain has welcomed to Biot master glassmakers, designers and glass artists in all glassblowing techniques, who reinvent the forms and emotions of figuration and abstraction, and their dialogues. The CVC has a fusing furnace, where thin layers of glass are fused together, as well as a casting furnace, where glass is poured into molds similar to those used in bronze sculpture. Once the material has hardened, it is also sculpted in the original sense of the term, by removing the material. 

As a result, creating a work in glass is at once a poetic, technical and physical commitment. We understand that without team spirit, without harmony between its members, it would be impossible. Everyone here is a movement, like an orchestra, and there's a tempo too. Depending on the thickness of the glass, you have from 30 seconds to a minute to work. 

The team at the Centre du Verre Contemporain is unique in bringing together the two specialties of glassblowing and engraving, in addition to metallurgy. Here, techniques are passed on, rethought and reinvented, between moults and metamorphoses.