Bringing the Mold-Making / Mold-Blowing technique to university students in Berlin

In our ongoing effort to make our programs more accessible, we applied to the Alexander Tutsek Foundation for support to provide stipends for eight students to participate in four mold-making/mold-blowing workshops between Fall 2023 and Summer 2024. These courses were designed especially for sculpture students from UdK and Weißensee universities and offered a rare opportunity to delve deeply into the process and create glass sculptures.

Berlin Glas is the only place offering a workshop of this kind, and since 2014 it has been our most popular. The course begins with an introduction to the fundamentals of mold-making — understanding an object as a negative form. The technique of mold-making for glassblowing is over 2,000 years old and has changed very little over time. Molds can be made from a wide variety of materials, from the original terracotta blow molds to wood, metal, found objects, and the plaster we use in our teaching.

What makes mold-blowing so special is its efficiency and versatility: an object can be replicated, and if it is large, blown directly into the mold — saving the glassblower time and effort in free-form shaping. We have found that this method is an excellent way for students to become familiar with glass as a material without first spending hours learning the full process of glassblowing. For complex sculpture ideas, this method can also make translating them into glass more cost-effective. Since molds can be reused, participants have ample opportunity to experiment with colors and surface effects.

The popularity of the workshop speaks for itself: each call-out receives more than 20 applications, making the selection process challenging but also very rewarding. We tend to favor students without prior glass experience, while also encouraging those who are not selected to apply again.

The program proved to be so valuable, we successfully applied for the 2024-2025 academic year. As a result, eight more students were able to gain practical experience, expand their artistic practice, and gain lasting impressions for their further creative development.