The "Peace" of Glass

By diderot

April 13, 2019

aybe it happened like this—we can’t be sure. 

Twenty-five million years ago, a gargantuan meteor hurtled toward Earth, violently sizzling as it raced through our atmosphere. The searing heat and pressure were too much—the meteor exploded like an atomic bomb, propelling huge slabs slamming into the Sahara Desert.  At impact, the fire and force created cauldrons in the sands beneath. And thus, something entirely new was created. 

There was glass.   

It wasn’t until 1932 that a British explorer noticed something crunchy underfoot as he walked across Libya.  He sifted the sand and surprisingly found yellowish green fragments that came to be known as desert glass.  He believed he had “discovered” this astounding substance…but in fact, identical glass adorned a necklace worn by King Tut when he was entombed three thousand years earlier.  Human fascination was not new.      

Glass is a substance for which there is no substitute.  It transports; it transfixes.  It can be transparent or translucent or opaque.  When it’s ground precisely, it improves our ability to see around us…across the heavens…or into minute worlds otherwise invisible to the naked eye.  It lets us view the weather outside while protecting us from it.  And it helps us see clearly in another way; if it’s silver-backed, it mirrors the inerrant truth of how the world sees us.

Through recorded time, glass has remained a preferred method of projecting both image, and self-image.

Utility

When man first figured out how to fashion molten glass, he employed it both for practical and decorative purposes. It was also a staple of early commerce.  This glass bead, found in a 3,400-year-old tomb in Denmark, was fashioned by King Tut’s personal artisan 2,000 miles away.

Homage to Heaven

The exorbitant cost of early glasswork meant only the wealthiest could afford it. Thus, along with master stonework and word carving, it served to impress (here, reflection inside the Church of St. Cirq Lapopie, central France).

Homage to Nature

As the Impressionist painters moved their easels outside to portray earthly subjects, it inspired glass artisans like Tiffany and Mackintosh to do the same.

Pure Imagination

Pacific Northwest native Dale Chihuly shifted the focus of glass art fully into the realm of pure fantasy. His works adorn museums around the world.

Image for our Times

In mythology, Narcissus stared into a still pond and was transfixed by his own reflection. As modern architecture moves increasingly toward mirrored exteriors, we employ a design approach that is perfect for our times--a blend of self-conceit…and secret surveillance.

Drop a glass on tile and it shatters.  If those shards are thrown back into the kiln, they can melt and be reformed.  But left alone, no one knows how long glass will last.  It has never decomposed.    

Our connection to glass defies scientific or psychological explanation.  It offers fascination, permanence—and an eerie form of peace.

Glass is our window to forever. 

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