Masterclass Dates for 2025:

This five-day course will be hosted over 2 weeks, with 3 days of class in one week, and 2 days in the week following:

20th-22nd OCTOBER, & 30th-31st OCTOBER

9am-4:30pm

Welcome to the Masterclass

If you’ve aced our other courses so far and are hungry for more, or you’re an artist with experience you want to expand on - this five-day hands-on advanced course will give you the skills you need to grow your sculptural practice.

This five-day introductory workshop will provide participants with a comprehensive overview of the ‘lost wax’ casting technique. Spaced over a two week period, students will be instructed in how to create their own highly resolved sculptural artwork, rendered in the beautiful material of lead crystal glass. 

Working from a found object or a small maquette brought to the first day of the workshop, students will learn a range of processes that take an existing object and transform it into glass. 

Techniques to be Covered:

• Building a ‘master mould’ of an existing object/model

• Creating a ‘wax positive’ from a ‘master mould’ and preparing it for investment

• Creating a refractory mould suitable for high-temperature firings

• Steaming wax out of a mould and preparing a casting mould for firing

• Setting moulds up in the kiln and packing with glass ready to fire

• Understanding firing schedules for casting and annealing of solid glass forms

• Divesting moulds after casting

• Cold working techniques for cast glass including shaping, defining and polishing

Workshop Preparation:

Each student will need to bring along a found object they would like to realise in glass. For those wishing to model something out of clay, wood, or plasticine, this is also fine. Clay models can be leather-hard or dry/fired. All objects can be a maximum size of 20 x 20 cm.

Drawings, sketches, research images and Ideas for forms you would like to model in class would also be helpful to bring along. 

Researching examples of 'Cast Glass' is a great way to broaden your ideas and understanding of what might be possible in this workshop.

A workshop preparation sheet will be provided 4 weeks before the commencement of the course to assist in your preparations and to provide more detailed guidelines on how to choose or prepare a good object for casting.