Dalle de Verre (“slab glass”) set in lead cames was uniquely a technique of the Rault studio of Rennes (Brittany) between 1935 and about 1980.
2 cm dalle de verre set in .5 cm lead cames. Flat chunks of “slab glass” were sculpted as jewels with small silver hammers to shape them and enhance colours and light transmission. Simple figures or symbols could be added, but the medium is often a grid of several colours.
The studio smelted their own dalle de verre outdoors every autumn, for safety reasons and air. Deeply coloured batches of molten glass were made from sand in large cauldrons fired to 1500 Celsius, burning natural gas from Algeria. The Raults would sometimes toss in trace minerals which produced random colour trails in the finished glass: fresh stock for the upcoming year.
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