Gillian Preston
"As a glass artist, it is my focus to create beautiful, tactile objects that capture the magic of the material. To do this, I rely heavily on my ability to work with CNC driven machines alongside this incredibly traditional material. Using these machines, I’m able to cut shapes from the glass that would otherwise be impossible to cut by hand, therefore creating forms that can be entirely new to the medium. I feel like I’m racing to discover what’s possible, and I find that infinitely motivating."
Broken Plates is a line of contemporary glass wearables that combines traditional blown glass techniques with modern CNC technologies. Using either colorful blown glass or tints of translucent plate glass, she plays with form and light as they interact with the contours of the body.
Initially focused on using hand blown glass plates (their namesake) to create their line of contemporary glass jewelry, Broken Plates jewelry was almost exclusively cut from the surface of their colorful hand blown glass plates. Over time, they have grown to experiment with form and color in a way that has led to incorporating all kinds of glass, from blown to cast and even reclaimed architectural scrap glass. Each piece of jewelry starts in a molten form to be cast, hand blown, or rolled into a flat canvas from which they cut their digitally designed shapes and sculptural forms. A CNC driven waterjet is their most used piece of equipment, cutting their intricately shaped glass components using a stream of highly pressurized water. These individual glass pieces are then sorted, sanded and polished before assembling into their final wearable form.
Gillian Preston is a classically trained glass artist who earned her BFA in glass from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2009. Her sculptural glass works were featured in New Glass Review 29 and 31 before she transitioned from large scale sculptural installations into jewelry starting in 2013. Her line of contemporary glass jewelry can now be found in galleries, museum stores and small boutiques internationally.
Broken Plates is a line of contemporary glass wearables that combines traditional blown glass techniques with modern CNC technologies. Using either colorful blown glass or tints of translucent plate glass, she plays with form and light as they interact with the contours of the body.
Initially focused on using hand blown glass plates (their namesake) to create their line of contemporary glass jewelry, Broken Plates jewelry was almost exclusively cut from the surface of their colorful hand blown glass plates. Over time, they have grown to experiment with form and color in a way that has led to incorporating all kinds of glass, from blown to cast and even reclaimed architectural scrap glass. Each piece of jewelry starts in a molten form to be cast, hand blown, or rolled into a flat canvas from which they cut their digitally designed shapes and sculptural forms. A CNC driven waterjet is their most used piece of equipment, cutting their intricately shaped glass components using a stream of highly pressurized water. These individual glass pieces are then sorted, sanded and polished before assembling into their final wearable form.
Gillian Preston is a classically trained glass artist who earned her BFA in glass from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2009. Her sculptural glass works were featured in New Glass Review 29 and 31 before she transitioned from large scale sculptural installations into jewelry starting in 2013. Her line of contemporary glass jewelry can now be found in galleries, museum stores and small boutiques internationally.
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