An Italian glass artist who believed the transparency and beauty of glass could be exploited in the warm, bright light of the Caribbean founded Glass Island Ltd. in 1997. After a long period spent on Princess Street, the studio was transferred to its present site on the Circus, at the centre of Basseterre and is easily accessible.

The studio’s main activity is the production of fused glass objects for both the local and tourist market and consists of artistic tiles for windows, panels, decorative platters, gifts, frames and jewelry mounted in refined sterling silver findings, etc.

Firing glass with particular technical characteristics at a high temperature produces fused glass. Rate of expansion, opacity and pigment all play a role in the decision as to what will achieve the desired effect. The process takes place in a kiln that can reach a temperature of 1500°F.

Glass Island is not only a place for the production of beautiful objects, but also a contact point for the achievement of other artistic products like stained glass, mosaics, etc. Stained glass is a very ancient art that developed in Europe around the 10th-11th century and has changed very little since then.

Since setting up in St. Kitts, Glass Island has been able to provide a series of windows with religious subjects to the Catholic Co-Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, The Methodist Church on Seaton Street, the Cathedral of St. George, and is now working with the Church of “Christ Church” at the Village for the design and creation of a stained glass window for the apse.

The work on a religious project starts with a church, its ministers and the library. Following the results of this research, the artist executes a sketch respecting the iconography of the character to be represented and the indications of the client. Once the sketch has been approved, he draws a life-sized cartoon that will be the guide for the following phases. The master craftsman chooses the sheets of coloured glass, and cuts the tesserae. The artist paints the glass pieces with grisaille enamel and silver stain in a process that sometimes requires up to four successive coats of paint on the same piece.

The painted tesserae are then fired a gran foco (very high temperature) according to the medieval terminology until the grisaille and enamels vitrify, becoming indelible for hundreds and thousands of years. After the firing, the glass pieces are fitted together and framed in lead. The frame is then soldered and the panel is cemented and cleaned, ready to be mounted in its host window and offered to the daylight, illuminating the church with colour, images and significance.

The same technique is used to produce panels with secular subjects, some of which decorate houses and private collections in St. Kitts.

www.glassisland.com is our “virtual window”. Its scope is to display our products through the web.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 12:08 pm and is filed under lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.