Master Class 10: Eggshell Thin Pâte de Verre with Shin-ichi Higuchi (Trailer)

Pâte de verre is a kiln-casting process in which colored powdered glass is packed into a plaster mold, then fired at a high temperature. The result is a relatively thick, somewhat opaque object. This complex method of glassworking is shown in great detail in our earlier video Master Class Series IV: Pâte de Verre with Shin-ichi and Kimiake Higuchi. Here, Shin-ichi Higuchi shows us something similar, yet very different indeed. After years of research and experimentation, he shares with us his rediscovery of a late 19th-/early 20th-century pâte de verre process for making eggshell thin, translucent vessels. Deeply inspired (and challenged) by the work of French Art Nouveau artists François-Emile Decorchemont and Albert Dammouse, Higuchi reveals his creative voice in a very challenging medium.

Filmed at the Higuchis' studio in Japan, Shin-ichi Higuchi methodically leads us through this painstaking, but beautiful process which invites exploration by other contemporary artists. See more of Shin-ichi Higuchi at http://www.cmog.org/bio/shin-ichi-hig....