Developing Pâte de Verre Glass Art through the Chinese Philosophy of Wu Wei

This research focuses on ¿pâte de verre¿ glass art inspired by Wu Wei. Pâte de verre, literally ¿paste of glass¿, is a process of filling refractory moulds with crushed glass and fusing this with heat to make objects.The Chinese philosophical ideas of Wu Wei, literally ¿doing nothing¿, is fundamental to Tao and means natural action. This research explores and demonstrates how Wu Wei might be applied to pâte de verre practice. Contemporary pâte de verre art is well known and developed in the West and Japan but less so in China. The contribution to knowledge of this research is a chronology of pâte de verre history useful for glass practitioners and students; a description of current situation of Chinese pâte de verre including possible problems and ways forward for pâte de verre in Chinese glass art. A new body of artworks has been made that illustrates aspects of Wu Wei and how this might be incorporated into contemporary pâte de verre through integrating it with paper, porcelain, and water jet cutting. This research then offers glass practitioners an integrated body of historical, contemporary and practical knowledge relevant for pâte de verre glass making.