Daniel Clayman

Daniel Clayman works with glass casting processes in Providence, Rhode Island. Clayman, known for his large-scale meditations on form and light, has embarked on a new body of work inspired by pre-machine age imperfect forms. This is his first foray into design objects, creating a group of handmade ‘useful objects,’ the collection’s namesake. The bowls display the marks of the maker, with scars and scratches of use, and natural patina imbued onto the work through generations of toil. Each piece is individually cast and like the original inspiration, is hand honed and captures the history of its process.

The casting process used to create these objects is called “Pate de verre” or “Paste of glass” which utilizes plaster based investment molds for lost wax casting, a specialty of Clayman’s. For thirty-five years Clayman has pushed the boundaries of glass and these methods used to shape his unique pieces. He combines age-old techniques with a high level of technical precision to create one of a kind works.

The initial release in the Useful Objects series, The Cradles of Light, are produced in Clayman’s Rhode Island based glass shop in three sizes, two varieties of glass, as a limited edition of fifty in each style, each piece signed, and numbered by the artist.

“By casting these objects in glass, I have frozen them in time. The glass castings capture a story of a useful object - every line, divot and dent. Each object shares a story and includes hints to their use such as a leather staple holding a crack together, the repair lines appearing as scars in the glass. These unadorned bowls share a story of a handmade process of our past, halted in time like a photograph, a record and a relic, a piece of history.”

Daniel Clayman