Candone Wharton
I discovered glass after decades spent working in clay. Raku was the focus of my ceramic career until 2017 when I began exploring textured coils and unglazed surfaces. The move from colorful raku to black stoneware and porcelain allowed me to explore clay forms and firing techniques and find a new sense of raw beauty. After several years creating unglazed pieces, I began to miss the brilliance of my glazes but I knew that adding color to intricate clay vessels would distract from the beauty of the forms. Then I discovered cast glass and an inspired love of the material, along with that urge for color, gave my sculptural vessels a new life.
My relationship with the medium began over 15 years ago while working with a Chicago glass blower and was energized by a friend who works in cast glass. After taking a workshop with him, I knew it would be my path. Each piece is first hand built in clay from carved coils and fired to cone 6. A mold is then made from that, the piece is cast in glass using the lost wax method and old textures and forms are reborn into a thing of color and light.