Bill and Jon Slade Gallery500 Handblown Glass

 

Gallery500
1870 Victory Circle, Suite H810

Daytona Beach, FL, 32114

(386) 262-1912

info@gallery500.art

Bill and Jon Slade

Handblown glass artwork by Bill and Jon Slade featuring their unique and one-of-a-kind layering technique that produces a dynamic, colorful piece with silver lacing design within the sculpture. This father and son team is based in Jacksonville, Florida.

More on their Artistic Process:

Bill Slade is both an artist and chemist when he creates his exquisitely beautiful paperweights and sculptures. To achieve this degree of total control, he must prepare each batch of formula by hand, carefully measuring and weighing all the dry ingredients. He then loads the formula into the roaring furnace, which is kept at 2400 degrees Fahrenheit. It is slowly melted down overnight, becoming pure crystal by the following morning.

Bill Slade then begins what he describes as his “Dance of Fire”. He gathers up the molten glass on the end of a long rod, one layer upon another. After every gathering of molten glass, Bill manipulates it with hand tools to create an ethereal design before encasing it in another layer of Silver-Veiled Glass. Some of his works have up to ten layers of glass (each with its own internal design) before he is ready to create the exterior shape. During this entire process, he must keep the glass molten by repeatedly going back to the furnace, for if it becomes too cool, he can no longer shape it and achieve his designs. At the same time, if the glass is overheated, it becomes too loose and will run off the pipe onto the floor.