Making Glass Sculptures with Bronze

Dana Robbins really explores his imagination with his signature single edition bronze and glass sculptures. He enjoys the creative challenge of combining two contrasting materials into one work of art. 

When designing these pieces, the rendering process begins with a sketch and a theme idea is rendered on paper. The first step in the production process is creating the glass. Depending on the design a vase is either hand blown or cast from molten hot glass. After the glass vessel is rendered, the bronze imagery is designed and sculpted in wax or clay. By shaping wax around the glass, waxes are custom fit around the lip, the body and the base of the piece.  Dana sculpts elements and characters out of wax, and casts them in bronze using the “lost wax” process.

After the major elements are cast, some additional decoration is fabricated and soldered to the sculpture.  This allows Robbins to add finishing touches to the work and to create the perfect one of a kind sculpture.  Once all the metalwork is created, Dana may go back to the glass and change the surface by sandblasting designs on it.  A rubber resist is used to cover the surface and a pattern is cut, creating a stencil to sandblast.  After the sandblasting is completed, the resist is removed and a deep carved design is revealed.

Dana completes the final design by painting the sandblasted areas with oil paints.