Dean Smith of Carma Glass

is experimenting with fused glass to create his line of products with color and depth. Today he is sharing his bowl with us here at Wissmach Glass. 

15″ Screen Melt using Wissmach COE 96 Glass and Large Round Cone Bowl Mold

I to set out to make a large bowl from a screen melt and initially planned and chose Wissmach sheets with “light ‘n bright” in mind. White Opal, String of Pearls, Oyster Pearl, lots of clear, Turquoise Green, Midnight, Deep Sky and Sapphire blues and Peacock – in other words, too much glass! After the initial shock of seeing the deep dark reactions (I forgot Oyster Pearl for sure would react with blues and turquoise) after the screen melt had cooled I started to really love the flow and the movement within the piece and I was really loving those deep dark reactions. I decided the most interesting side was the shelf side and cold worked both surfaces to a fine pre-polish along with the edge all around – I didn’t want to fire-polish in a separate firing so I spent more time cold working and it came out of the mold with great clarity / detail and a high gloss finish. Next I think I am going to try again for the Light ‘n Bright version I originally thought I was making! It will be interesting to see how I like it – the current deep dark reactions bowl is very satisfying.