Member-only story

Weekly Design Inspirations #8 — Glass Sculptures Shaped by Gravity

Takuma Kakehi
4 min readJan 19, 2020

--

The original hand-blowing glass techniques from over two thousand years ago evolved to construct perfectly symmetrical glass objects. The free-blowing technique relies on centrifugal force from rotating molten glass on a metal rod in order to shape glass objects, for example. Later, the mold-blowing technique was invented, enabling more complex curves and shapes, in comparison to hand-blown glass. These techniques shape glass objects by resisting free-forming molten glass from deforming due to gravity. In this entry, I explored modern sculptors and artists who augmented glass forms with the aid of gravity instead — some forms are shaped by free-falling, some by intricate sculpting techniques, and others by juxtaposing different materials.

1 — Precarius by Héctor Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy, and Brian Thoreen

Precarius is the series of sculpture designed by Héctor Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy, and Brian Thoreen, for Noubel Limited in Miami Basel 2018, aimed to juxtapose materials that don’t seem to be comfortable together — glass on top of unstable metal pieces.

Precarius by Héctor Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy, and Brian Thoreen (Image source: designboom)

2 — Crumpled…

--

--

Takuma Kakehi
Takuma Kakehi

Written by Takuma Kakehi

An experienced product owner and interaction designer with a decade of versatile industry experience. Portfolio: www.ta-kuma.com

No responses yet