Hasta La Ideas

For butterfingered woodworkers, dropping a project on the shop floor can be bad. But just imagine if your materials of choice were crystal and glass.

Since 2004, California-based artist Jack Storms has been producing these rare “optic sculptures.” Created by precision-machining lead crystal and dichroic glass, a single piece can take up to 18 weeks to produce.

While Storms has advanced the art by inventing a lathe that allows him to turn glass like wood, he first learned the “cold-glass” process of joining lead crystal and dichroic glass from a glass artist in New Hampshire. “Working side by side with the artisan for over a year, Jack learned every component and facet of this incredibly challenging and rare art form and eventually was a strong enough sculptor to branch out on his own in 2004 and open StormWorks Studio,” reads the bio on his website.

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