"From pieces of broken glass I hand facet miniature glass sculptures using a few primitive handmade tools and the same techniques used for thousands of years. These unique icons are presented to you as pendants, custom gaming pieces, worry stones and personal totems for you to purchase and enjoy."
Rick Steckel
Miniature Glass Scuplture
Here in rural Colorado and most other parts of the country up until about 1960 or so many folks had a place where they put their discarded cans and broken glass. Private dumps, if you will. Sixty years and more have transformed this rubbish of the past into chunks and bits of raw material waiting to be put back into use. Linking the past with the present and the present with the future, I hand facet simple modern artifacts from materials previously used for living. It is satisfying to create beautiful and interesting things from the discards of the past; old broken canning jars, milk glass lid inserts and electrical insulators, broken stained glass from repaired church windows or sometimes oddments of contemporary glass.
Antique Milk Glass
Antique Window Glass
Antique Glass (Canning Jar)
Thunderbird Pendant
Gold Buffalo
Modern Glass
Brown Arrowhead
Modern Glass
Blue Spade Arrowhead Pendant
White Owl
The art of knapping...
Flaking or knapping has been used for thousands of years as a method of shaping stone into useful items. I use tools made from copper, wood and leather to transfer these ancient techniques to the making of glass sculptures. The primary method I use is called pressure flaking, which is done by placing the copper tool on the edge of the work piece and applying pressure until a small flake pops free. This is repeated until the desired shape is achieved.
Vintage discarded glass: broken canning jar, lid insert (often made from milk glass), electric insulator, kerosene lantern or beverage or apothecary bottle. This glass was generally discarded between 1920 and 1960.
Vintage sheet glass: broken glass from stained glass church windows repaired at K Dahl Glass Studios. The glass was manufactured between 1904 and 1908.
Caught Knapping...
From 20 years as a glassblower and glass artist comes this body of miniature sculpted glass. It is taking on many forms and purposes, from personal icons to custom game tokens to jewelry pendants. Glass is such a beautiful material, I hate to see any of it go to waste, hence this series of work.
My work may be puchased on Etsy.com, in my shop,
TheOldGlassChipper
Thanks for visiting my site!
My main focus is my work with my wife and business partner of many years, Kathy Steckel and our business K Dahl Glass Studios. Please visit our website at
www.kdahlglass.com
to learn more about our work.
Also, visit Kathy's fine art site,
www.kathysteckel.com
to see a wonderful array of pastel paintings and giclee prints available for purchase.
Modern glass: manufactured within the last 30 years that I found to be particularly appealing.
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