This practice-based research positions cast glass mirrors as expressive, conceptual forms that contribute uniquely to the fields of visual art and mirror-making, both technically and symbolically. The study offers new practical and material insights for artists to control the quality of investment cast glass surfaces, presenting a unique and diverse range of reflective and non-reflective mirror effects when silver nitrate is applied.
A desire to produce fully reflective, three-dimensional surfaces using investment core-cast glass fired at 790–825 °C (1454–1517 °F) initiated this project. Molten glass interacts and sticks to investment ingredients at high temperatures, producing satin, semi-opaque glass surface finishes. Rather than achieving a reflective mirror using chemical silvering, the cast surface is dull in tone, like brushed aluminium.
This led to a central research question: Can kiln-fired glass cast in an investment mould achieve a reflective mirror in which a viewer can identify themselves? With limited published guidance on controlling the surface clarity of cast glass or the application of silvering on cast surfaces, this research helps identify factors that inhibit and enhance the translucency and reflectivity of investment-moulded glass.
Over 200 samples were created across three phases of studio testing to examine how base models, investment materials, firing schedules, and acid polishing affect mirroring coatings applied to Cristalica, Bullseye, Gaffer, and Reichenbach glasses. Cast mirror effects were then selected to create artworks informed by the history and symbology of mirrored surfaces used in domesticity and contemporary art practice. These artworks act as case studies that extend the testing phase due to the insights gleaned from changing scale and form.
Historically, mirroring has been limited to blown and sheet glass applications. Although a reflective finish equal to commercial mirrors was not attained, a wide spectrum of effects was made that challenge the conventions of how mirrors can look and function. Original contributions are made in the advancement of cast glass mirror-making, technical insights giving practitioners greater control with cast-glass surface duplication, and a new body of artworks inspired by contextual analysis disseminated through international exhibitions, documentary photography, lectures, journals, and a written thesis.