Archeologists trace the beginnings of glass manufacturing to Mesopotamia, about 5500 years ago. However, the word glass is of Roman/Germanic origin, and dates to the later part of the Roman Empire when they discovered the method to make it clear.
The earliest known glass objects were beads. I like to think that our ancestors treasured these beads as both a decorative and rare material. Long before people started glass production, Nature was already 'manufacturing' a beautiful crystal glass called obsidian. Our Stone Age ancestors recognized that obsidian's naturally occurring sharp edges would make good knives and spears. Obsidian is so sharp that until today we still use it to make the scalpel blades used in surgery.
Glass is naturally colored depending on the amount and type of minerals present in its composition, and early manufacturers' originally made only colored glass. The colors differed according to geographical location. Ironically, in the modern day decorative glass providers actually work in reverse with our efforts to add color to glass, whether it is by painting on, coating on or by printing on!
15th century glass production was the preserve of the large palace industries of states in Western Asia, Crete and Egypt. It was prized as a luxury material, and only in the 9th century, when artisans discovered the techniques for making colorless glass did it become more accessible to the common people. In the later Roman period glass blowing was discovered, and new recipes for its composition eventually led to the advent of clear glass. For the first time glass vessels became cheaper than pottery vessels and soon the Romans began to make flat sheet clear glass and use it for architectural purposes - window panes.
Since then it has become a fundamental building material, but even so clear glass has never totally supplanted the colored variety as a premier interior decoration. For the construction of churches and monasteries colored pieces were used to create the most beautiful of stained glass windows.
I went through a stained glass phase as well in my early work with glass, until those products, lampshades as such; being an expensive hand crafted affair, ended their limited commercial run.
We cannot go backwards; only forwards and colored glass today needs to be different from the past. Hence when a process was developed that succeeded in adhering the printing of full color images on this material, it was an exciting contribution to the history of glass.
Painting glass with acrylic paints is an endeavor of limited aesthetic and commercial success. We have created one-of-a-kind hand crafted art pieces but sad to say this method is labor intensive, low production rate and time-consuming. The worst drawback is that the paints fade over time due to light exposure.
The silkscreen method uses ceramic paste/pigments to mimic stained glass; the drawbacks are this is also hand done, limited to laying single solid colours only, gives low resolution results and NO full colour images. It also needs OVEN firing to fix the colors.
Glass paints were developed about 20 years ago and are used to lay single homogenous color, opaque or transparent finish, without OVEN firing at high temperatures. This has been a much cheaper way to add single color to glass and is still a popular product used in homes, kitchen splash-backs, and in commercial buildings as wall cladding.
The patented print process which combines paints together with digital UV inkjet flatbed printing is a new avenue for us in our quest to produce high quality decorative glass for interiors; and to successfully change functional glass into beautiful art for the home or office.
Ashley John is an inventive, imaginative entrepreneur who pioneered the decorative glass industry in Malaysia. He invented a simple three step process that uses UVi GLASS proprietary primers to successfully print on glass and other rigid substrate materials, which is now a patented solution. Ashley is now establishing his company, UVi Glass Sdn Bhd, on the international stage with licensees in five countries in Asia.
Find out how you can also become an international licensee here, http://www.uviglass.com
Find out how you can also become an international licensee here, http://www.uviglass.com
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