Blog Interior Scholarship

Blowing Glass – Lara Grandchamp, Stipendiatin 2019/2020

List of emotions

Blog Interior Scholarship
Bloggerin: Lara Grandchamp
“Blowing Glass”

This semester, along with nine other master students, I got the opportunity to design and realize a project using a beautiful but highly complex material: glass. This workshop was made in collaboration with a small glass factory (with two glassblowers) based in Switzerland, near Bern, called Niesen glass.
Having only a couple of days to complete the project, we had to dive into the different methodologies of the making process, so as to understand all of the taking and ending required in the making before designing the pieces. Glassblowing is a very ancient technic and hasn’t changed much over the centuries.

To know more about the glassblowing history and method, check the following page:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassblowing

 

Concept of my work

Intrigued by the fact that glass holds a memory within its material, I decided to push the definition of memory further.

Personally, I approach the notion of time as having no begging nor end, but rather a build up of layers (memories), which are intrinsically linked, to emotions. Through one’s life, one gathers its own, personal, collection of emotions; which defines their life’s journey, their identity.

 How my personal collection would look like? ? What if each of them would be gathered together, such as a Wunderkammer?

Going through the important events of my life, and defining the roles and repercussions each of them held, I started to play around with sizes and shapes. I found it more appropriate to start off with rather plain shapes, ones that evoke somehow playfulness albeit a certain preciousness. As for their general size, I wanted their shape to be agreeable to be held in one’s hand. Like holding a precious charm that one could carry around in his pocket.

I also found it interesting to bring together with these pieces different technic to render glass. For instance, some of the pieces were first casted into red sand. This process requires first producing the shapes of the pieces (I used clay) to imprint them in the sand. Once they are taken off, the hot glass will be poured into their print left hollow. As a result, the side of the piece facing the sand has got its granular feel on its surface. The other side, were the glass was poured, is smooth and uneven, bearing the marks of the scissor’s cut. The colour’s powder is laid first on the surface of the sand, as it isn’t possible to mix it with the clear glass beforehand. For some pieces this process worked well, for some not. That’s part of the learning process.

Another piece was done using the “cracked” process (plunging the hot glass into water before reheating it). During the first try, it exploded. The second worked out perfectly.

I wished I had had more time to make more pieces, as the more time I spent in the factory watching the glass blowers working, the more I got to understand their working method. However, I am pleased with the result we got.

 

 

Weitere Blog-Einträge von Lara Grandchamp

Urban dovecote – Lara Grandchamp, Stipendiatin 2019/2020

Blog Interior Scholarship
Juni 2020
Blogger Lara Grandchamp

This term, I had the opportunity to join a workshop led by a group of researchers who investigate new ways to produce wooden façade using advanced digital tools. I purposefully chose to work on the dovecote for two reasons:

The first one is that, originally, dovecotes had a strong historical statement of local craftsmanship. The second is that I wanted to tackle the problematic of the overpopulation of pigeons in cities and think of a concept that would provide them a safe and healthy place to stay as well as using it to control their population. In short, bringing the use of the dovecote (also called pigeon loft) back to a contemporary and this with the help of a new technology. A perfect fit to this workshop’s tasks.

Lara Grandchamp

Blog Interior Scholarship
November 2019
Blogger Lara Grandchamp

This term, my group of study is giving a closer look at the eclectic collections of objects gathered over the years by the The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH).

The Swiss TPH was founded in 1943 by the famous Basler zoologist Dr Rudolf Geigy[1].

Over the years, Dr Geigy and his fellow scientists colleagues have brought back different objects and art pieces from the countries they have stayed in mainly western Africa. These objects have since taken random placed in the TPH’s building, with no particular care in terms of display setup. It was rather amusing to see wooden mask and spires casually hanged beside the printer and the bathroom door!

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