Glass by Sally Eyring

     For three months this fall, starting in September, the unique glass work of Sally Eyring who uses the Pâte de Verre method of making decorative objects will be on display in the glass case in the solarium of the Acton Memorial Library.

      Eyring explains her methods: “Prior to the invention of glass blowing in the first century BCE, glass containers were often made through the difficult and laborious process of core-forming.   In one variation of this process, ground glass was packed around a clay core and then subjected to the heat of a kiln in order to melt the glass.  The heat processed the clay into a ceramic, which was then carefully chipped away from the interior of the glass.
     “The invention of glass blowing proved to be so much easier and faster for the creation of containers, that the old processes were abandoned.   And then, in the 1880’s, the French sculptor Henry Cross (1840-1907) rediscovered this old process through research and experimentation, giving it the name of Pâte de Verre.
      “In my work I use this lost and then rediscovered process to reproduce elements of the natural world.  In this way I attempt to capture the fleeting beauty of the natural world with a process that itself was once thought to be extinct.”

     Sally Eyring will hold a reception on Saturday, September 11 from 2:30-4 p.m. where she will demonstrate the Pâte de Verre process.

    The exhibition is free and open to the public.