Paté de Verre

Paté de verre is generally coloured glass which has been ground down and refired in a mould. It often has the appearance of precious or semi precious stones. The big advantage to paté de verre is that it allows for precise placement of particular glass colors in the mould.

The paté de verre technique has been around since Ancient Egypt – at least as early as the XVIIIth Dynasty (1570 B.C.). Many of the pieces that were made using this technique were relatively small, elaborately decorated, and required more than one firing before they were complete.  

It really came into its own when French sculptor Henri Cros (1840-1907) adapted it to make large reliefs and then later by A-L. Dammouse and F. Decorchement who used the technique to produce glass vessels.

In traditional French paté de verre, the artist mixed crushed glass with enamels or paint to form a paste that was carefully placed in a mold and then fired. Many of the pieces that were made using this technique were relatively small, elaborately decorated, and required more than one firing before they were complete.
  
The modern equivalent builds on this traditional foundation. Generally the paté de verre process involves creating a paste from frit (small particles of glass). Frit of any size may be used, but most good glass pastes require smaller sizes (even powders) to be used. For this reason (and because the smaller the pieces of frit the more opaque the casting), paté de verre castings tend to be translucent (or even opaque).

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