It’s really busy here in Basel, with a combination of assisting with the glass making, sanding, silvering and cleaning, and all that for a single sphere. Each one is labour intensive! The spheres get a complete care package right from their conception from the furnace. Firstly, they are blown with the pipe in four different sizes and many different colours. Once they have all survived the cooling process overnight, they are precisely fitted to the metal frame, with help of a saw, a belt sander and a good eye, so that each one sits perfectly.

Then the fine tuning begins; the edges are rounded off and any matt spots are polished, so that they are in perfect condition ready for silvering. Before that though, to ensure each sphere is perfectly clean they are brushed with a toothbrush, some ammonia and special sand, the combination of which regularly brings tears to your eyes. Afterwards other substances are sprayed into the sphere, whose true effect is only revealed after a gentle shake. Bit by bit the sphere will turn silver. So that this is fixed and the gentle shaking wasn’t a waste of time, a coating is added and the sphere is left to dry in peace.

The next morning the spheres are cleaned of any unwanted marks of silver or coating and checked for any areas which may need re-touching are marked.  After that they are threaded as a trial onto the metal frame and only when all 250 spheres or more are on the frame (depending on the size of the piece) and fit perfectly, can you walk away. If it all fits, they are then carefully removed and sent once more for a polish to get rid of any previously marked areas. Before they leave the care of the studio, they have to be cleaned once more and carefully packed up ready to be sent.