Reflections with: Lorena

Becoming a detective of the material 

Reflections is a quarterly series of interviews in which we look back with a Make adviser specialising in metal, glass, graphics, or CAD/CAM. We review special projects, gain deeper insight into specific techniques, and learn more about what advisers truly value in the creative process. Next up: Lorena Miguel, Glass Adviser. 

Written by: Pleuni van Keulen 
Photography: Ruud Hermans

From small detail to big challenge 

Working with glass comes with many variables. It’s exactly what makes it so interesting, according to Lorena – and why the glass department at Make can almost always find an interesting angle or experiment in basically any project that comes into the workshop. “Maybe it’s the type of glass or a difficult shape. Size is also an interesting factor to take into account. You can have a familiar technique and a basic project – something you’ve done before, but it will still challenge you”, Lorena says. 

Slumping – heating and reshaping sheet glass into moulds – for instance, can be a very easy process. But going from a small slump that fits in a small oven of 60 x 60 cm, to a 2-metre plate? That can suddenly become a big challenge. Lorena: “How will you load the oven, what thickness of glass will you use, how deep is it going in, how will you take it out, how will you move it, how will you store it. So many factors to take into account!” 

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Mistakes that lead to new directions
In the world of glass, one can never really know everything. There’s simply too much going on. “There are so many branches within this craft”, Lorena says, “Therefore, each project becomes a learning process, not just a production task.” And that’sexactly what fits the DNA of Make.  

Lorena continues: “It’s very normal for us to say: this hasn’t been done before at Make, so the outcome is uncertain. That can be a hard pill to swallow for some people. But in glass, you really learn by doing.” Not controlling the outcome of the process becomes part of the process, too, in a way. “Mistakes can be frustrating, but they can also lead to a new attempt or a new direction.”  

Trust the process and surrender to the result
Lorena talks about Guillaume Sasseville’s project as a great example of handling an error and making it work. His project involved multiple techniques in one single firing: fusing, stretching, slumping. A lot of checking was necessary:  to open and close the oven several times, heat it up, lower the temperature, to check it and anneal it before ultimately cooling it down. 

“The first time we fired this project, it didn’t work at all. The temperature was not right, the moulds were not right. I could see his disappointment, but he turned it into something positive and said: we now know the temperature the timings and how to improve the moulds; we know it’s best to just use 2 pieces in the oven. We both learned a lot those days. He trusted the process and really confidently surrendered to it. This ended up in great results.” 

Workshop as a place of trust 

Working with glass is not just trusting the process, like Guillaume did. According to Lorena, the whole workshop is built on trust. Trust in the material and equipment, trust between the artist and the adviser, and trust in one’s own judgement.  

Someone who put a great deal of trust in Make’s facilities and expertise is artist Sanya Medic, one of the first Mondriaan Fonds residents. During the summer break, there was one employee still working tirelessly: the oven, slowly and steadily heatingSanya’s warrior faces of glass. Lorena: “Her designs were very thick pieces with varying thickness, up to 20 centimetres, which turned into a long firing and annealing, to not get cracks from thermal shocks. These pieces were in the oven for 4 weeks. I went to check every now and then. When it was at casting temperature, everything went well, no moulds were leaking, no weird pieces on top. After a few weeks, they were done. No cracks!” 

Cross-pollination between glass and metal
Another interesting project was Sifra Coulet’s. “She’d worked with metal before and she felt her bronze pieces were missing something: glass.” But metal and glass don’t like each other. “They shrink differently at different temperatures, and then the glass will crack.” Sifra made a mould of her hand in different positions and then turned it into cast wax to eventually cast it into glass. The hand was supposed to hold a bronze piece. 

“In the first test, we covered the metal and made a mould around it, so the glass could be cast around the metal without sticking to it. So, it becomes kind of a construction. It was nice to see the glass casting work.  And I was very excited when I opened the mould. The bronze had reacted to the heat – it had lost its goldish colour. So, in the end Sifra decided to take a different approach – to cast the hands in glass in a position forming a stand for the metal piece. Still interesting and it’s cool that she combined metal and glass like this. We definitely encourage cross-pollination between techniques and departments.” 

A relationship with the material 
When something goes wrong, you can’t afford to wait. Often, you have to respond right away and improvise a solution. Intuition plays a large role, because glass often behaves differently than expected. Lorena describes it as a healthy obsession: “You’re building a relationship with the material. You learn to accept its cracks, surprises, and behaviour. And the material is very surprising. You think you understand the process, you fire it, and it gives you a completely different result. So, you investigate: what happened here and why? You become a detective of the material and retrace your steps to understand more.”