Fritted glass
and its use in architectural glass art applications
Amongst the architects enamelled
glass is often called ‘fritted glass’.
Fritted glass is where an enamel image has
been fired into the surface of glass. This
firing process will be often done while the glass is being
toughened, creating normal structural
glass as used in to construct of buildings all over
the world.
All toughened
glass can have images printed onto its surface. To
print one image on one piece of glass is
a relatively lengthy process, but the repetition of images
greatly reduces costs. The opportunities this process offers
architects are enormous. Solar gain and glare
can be hugely reduced by enamel on glass. Fritting
does not imply white dots or white squares, any more than
manifestations to prevent people bumping into glass have to
be dots or squares. As we see in the ensuing pages almost
anything is possible, and a whole new language is becoming
available in terms of the form and visible texture of the
façades of buildings. It may not always be
possible to clad a building in titanium panels, but the illusion
could be added to the glass to create a three dimensional
image on the two dimensional plane.
The use of enamels
on glass by artists has been a central
part of the tradition of stained glass. In
traditional stained glass, mostly opaque enamel is used to
modulate the tones of the coloured glass. But recently artists
have not only moved away from leaded glass,
but are increasingly using these enamels on float
glass. There are three basic methods of transferring
the enamels onto glass: painting,
air-brushing and screen-printing.
The purpose of this evolution has been to achieve large structural
glass units that can easily integrate into contemporary
building structures.
View
glass art projects by Andrew Moor Associates by clicking here,
or contact
Andrew Moor for more information about fritted or enamelled
glass and its applications in architectural glass art.
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