Topic: The next big things? ...water jet cutting? Inkjet pate de verre?

[Frank]

Water jet cutting is a remarkable technology that proves water is as good as diamonds. Currently it can work on glass of 250mm (10 inches) thickness and can manage just about anything that the imagination can turn into a computer model. Most machines are limited to vertical cuts but as tech improves so undercutting can be added to the list... mass produced cage cups anyone  

It could probably at its present capability reproduce the finest cutting that can be done by hand, though it might still be cheaper to use the copper wheel!

Can our google hungry membership hunt out people/artists that are doing the really remarkable already? Will there be a renaissance in cut glass design as a result of this technology and can the copper wheel engravers stimulate enough trainees to keep the craft alive in the face of this technology?

While you are out their hunting perhaps you could also see if anyone has started to use 3d inkjet printing technology to create 'pate de verre' using the glass enamel inks developed for the container industry?

Both technologies have the potential to alter the glass art landscape but few seem to have really used it yet.. unless you can find the pioneers!

Wikipedia 101 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_jet_cutter

[vetraio50]

Hi Frank!

Last year at the Object Gallery here in Sydney Australia I saw an exhibition called Inside Out - 3D Objet printing exhibition.

The objects were small prototypes created using Objet 3D printing technology.

"The exhibition is an exploration of contemporary artists in the developments of computer visualisation and integrated digital technologies - giving new insight and opportunities to create objects and forms which were previously impossible to produce.
 
The exhibition is the result of collaboration between the Art Technology Coalition, the University of Technology Sydney and RMIT University in Australia along with De Montfort University, Manchester Metropolitan University and Dartington College of Arts at University College Falmouth in the United Kingdom."

http://www.formero.com.au/news_details/20
 The 45 objects can be viewed at:  
http://formero.com.au/photo-gallery/photos/12

I was amazed! I saw the potential for the creation of objects in a variety of ways and surely "pate de verre" will be one of them.

If you see these prototypes, I agree with you the potential for extraordinary objects is now possible.

One of the NAMES is Maria Cardoso.
The art world is starting to realise the potential of 3D printing technologies to create unconventional and innovative pieces of work.  Blazing the trail in this respect is Maria Fernanda Cardoso, with her extraordinary exhibition, “IT’S NOT THE SIZE THAT MATTERS IT IS SHAPE”.  
http://www.formero.com.au/Maria_Cardoso
http://arcone.com.au/index.php?navi=Artists&navj=Profile&aid=25&navk=MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO

Her work at the moment is in resin, though some are enclosed in mini glass domes.

I suppose some of the 'names' of the future may lay among those artists who created the 55 objects in the Inside Out - 3D Objet printing exhibition!

regards

kevin Gummer

[poppyparker]

Galil Motion Control were the first digital motion controllers ever and apparently are still the best.

[Frank]

Well found Kevin and a few of those artists shown an appreciation of the possibilities that cannot be done easily in any other way. Potentially moving parts and electronic devices can be printed at the same along with photovoltaic features to provide the power, Art that follows the sun across the walls  :girlcheer:

[vetraio50]

Hi Frank
 I note that there is only one glass person amongst those involved in the exhibition : Michelle Brown
Michelle Brown  UK
Check out her site for her current work.
http://micheglassdesigner.com/#

Golgi

This morning I checked with a well-known Australian glass artist at a market we both frequent here in Sydney and mentioned this discussion to him. He told me that he had not yet heard of any work being done with "pate de verre".

Perhaps there are others who know of developments?

regards

Kevin G

[Greg.]

Link below for Vanessa cutler who has been researching, and looking at the uses of water-jet cutting since 2000. ...

http://www.vanessacutler.co.uk/pages/profile.html#

From looking at the site I see 'New Technologies in Glass' is due to be published next year.

[Frank]

Great links, it is always interesting to look at niche areas and see what people are doing in them....

I don't know if 3D printing using the enamel inks developed for the container industry would create viable 3d structures but I guess it remains a possibility. Pulverised glass is already being used in 3d printers but not designed particularly for creating pate de verre. As the 2d inks are UV curing it may be they are not suitable for fusing by heat and of course heat and glass do sort of go together. What is intriguing about that technology is that the multiple materials can be be used at the same time. It was being suggested that this capability would allow the creation of fully functional machines and that a target market was the toy industry... where a kid goes on line, designs a toy and has it mailed to them adds a battery and vroom.... But cannot see much sign of the technology having quite got there yet. There does seem to be a lot of emphasis on creating manufacturing prototypes of complex moulded structures. It is this very nature that provides a cost effective tool for the artist and clearly the company linked above has seen the benefit of letting artists loose on their machines.

Some wil decry the loss of craftsmanship but craftsmanship is just one example of human ingenuity, technology is another. There are not many technologies, like these two, that allow individual expression to be exploited. Sure once the computer model has been created any number can be produced... but so with silk screen a comparable but somewhat older technology that is an accepted art medium.

[flying free]

'Some wil decry the loss of craftsmanship but craftsmanship is just one example of human ingenuity, technology is another. '

 
your first comment was exactly my first thought, you second my second 
Progress is always exciting and can be good.
That said, I don't see many people collecting laser paperweights yet... or at least, not the ones that are mass produced.
From my point of view as a collector, I covet and relish inviduality and the unique, but I can understand how this can be an exciting development.

There are not many technologies, like these two, that allow individual expression to be exploited. Sure once the computer model has been created any number can be produced... but so with silk screen a comparable but somewhat older technology that is an accepted art medium.
 

Silk screen may be an accepted art medium, but again, as a collector, unless it is a signed very limited edition it still has much less appeal to me than the original.
m

[Frank]

Silk screens are invariably limited edition as the screens get bu ggared and need to be re-made if you want more prints, no two screens are the same and no two prints are 'quite' the same. But with robot controlled technology there is a precision that guarantees exactness of reproduction far beyond the most skilled artisan. The sensible artist will make each 'print' unique by numbering and tweaking each image data file and simply deleting the 'model' once the run is complete. As the 'model' would have been crafted by hand on the artists computer it can never be duplicated. Mass production is not likely to happen with these technologies for a long time - both are really quite slow. With water jets it does not matter how hot your technology is, the speed of production is limited by the physical rate at which a jet of water can cut the glass. 3D printing will obviously get faster and faster but is also physically limited by the time it takes for the 'material' to set. UV setting enamel inks can be 'fused/cured' at incredible speeds but this would be slow in terms of other materials that can even now be processed by 3d printers. Obviously the UV exposure can be given for each layer and possibly even be following the print head/s but still it will have a chemically imposed speed limit.

It is worth checking out the videos of water jet cutting on You Tube, it is quite astonishing technology when first seen.

From an environmental viewpoint both technologies are a positive impact too, greatly reducing the energy costs for the industrial tasks for which they were developed. That they may also provide glass artists a route where they do not need to expense of buying and running a kiln, all the better but hopefully others will continue to use the hot route and conventional forms of engraving.