“Founded in 1826, Saint-Just Glassworks is the last production house specialized in colored-glass for modern architectural applications. Saint-Just is particularly renowned for the restoration of Matisse, Chagall, Miro and Léger stainless glass windows as wellness monuments like Palace of Versailles. Solid tinted glass is placed in the furnace in the evening as to reach the correct temperature for work at 6am the next day. Gatherers then accumulate incandescent glass with a blowpipe and begin forming the material-making a cylinder while blowing and swinging the tool simultaneously. They then open them up with a blowtorch creating a cut along the shape’s length. Reheated and flattened, the glass is re-fired to reduce tension and prevent breaking.”

Source Coirier, Lise and Madlener, Adrian 2015. Glass Is Tomorrow. France: Archibooks.

As I approach the collection of coloured glass samples, I feel like a child who enjoys seeing light playing with colour through the transparent material. Even in our technological era, magic still operates like in the medieval times. ––AZ