This workshop will demystify pâte de verre techniques while introducing participants to innovative approaches that merge traditional craftsmanship with contemporary exploration. The course makes this historically rich method more accessible and flexible, encouraging participants to combine technical precision with conceptual creativity. Through hands-on practice, participants will gain both practical skills and a deeper understanding of glass as a material of fragility and transformation. 

Pâte de verre, or the glass paste technique, has long provided artists with a distinctive way to shape and color glass, yet the process can be time-consuming and complex. This class will explore a method that simplifies production while preserving expressive potential. This approach enables the creation of thin-walled works using a straightforward process with fine glass powder, paper, sand, and containers for kiln-firing. 

Having taught this masterclass worldwide, including at the Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass, Saman will focus on demystifying pâte de verre techniques while introducing participants to his latest research, which streamlines traditional processes into more accessible, flexible methods. Accessible and sustainable, the technique opens new possibilities for exploration.

This basic-level workshop requires no prior glassworking experience. Participants will develop individual projects in consultation with the instructor, while learning the use of provided equipment and essential processing techniques. Participants will leave with original works and a broader vision of pâte de verre today.

Schedule

Day 1: Introduction to the artist, glass, and contemporary art. Laboratory activities with paper textures, small moulds in wet sand, glass shards and powders, and the first firing.

Day 2: Exploration of recyclable materials, kiln loading, and use of metal moulds.

Day 3: Creation of larger works with sifted shards and colored layers; firing.

Day 4: Development of individual projects, multiple firings, sandblasting, cold working, and finishes.

Day 5: Discussion of firing programs, technical processes, and evaluation of results.