Glass
Glass can be textured by casting it into a textured mould, etched with acid, sand- blasted and cut with diamond tools. Depending on what is added to the glass it can become transparent or opaque, clear or coloured. Some colouring materials for glass are widely known. Perhaps the best example of this is cobalt blue, produced by adding cobalt oxide to the glass melt…
Read moreCeramics
Ceramics are typically very strong and can be found in watch parts, car spark plugs, electrical conductors, phone lines, appliance coatings, space shuttle & aeroplane nose cones. By artists they are used as their medium for their visual metaphor…
Read moreTextiles
Textiles are made from a variety of materials – they can be broken down into animal (Alpaca, cashmere, mohair, wool, silk), vegetable (cotton, hemp, linen, sisal), plant (paper, rayon, modal), mineral (glass fibre, metal) and synthetic (lurex, acrylic, polypropylene, lycra, nylon, polyester)…
Read moreMetal
Sheet, wire, tube, bars and nuggets are some of the forms that metal can be bought in today. Jewellers, blacksmiths and other metalworkers apply a variety of skills, techniques and tools to manipulate and shape the metal into a particular design. Some of these techniques include…
Read moreWood
To make furniture successfully it is important to know two simple facts, wood moves meaning that it takes in and releases moisture in its cells and swells or shrinks accordingly; this depends on the type of wood and amount of moisture in the air, it can be barely noticed or have a devastating effect on a piece of furniture. The second fact is that nothing can stop this movement; wood swells and shrinks across its width but not in length…
Read moreNew Materials
This refers to both synthetic raw materials and new technologies like laser cutting, water jet cutting, rapid prototyping, motion capturing, interactive magnetic wall coverings and site-specific textiles for walls and windows. Today’s makers are challenging our perceptions and expanding the potential of craft.
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