giorgio biscaro: yalog wooden moulds

unwrapping one vessel of the ‘yalog’ series by giorgio biscaro

following a similar production process as the ‘scolyt’ series by marco merkel that designboom published earlier, whereby the german designer uses hollowed out rotten trunks or fallen trees as glass blow moulds, is giorgio biscaro‘s ‘yalog’ collection.

though the two projects utilize wood as moulds for blowing glass, merkel’s work explores the idea of uncontrolled / uncontrollable process and the idea that we should embrace the defects and imperfections of production, whereas biscaro’s approach and reasoning to using wood as a mould differs. instead, the italian designer turns to history and how the natural material was once always used to make moulds way before the cold precision of metals reduced its employment. in the glass blowing process, wood is always sacrificed to accept the burning mass only to disappear, never revealing its contribution to aiding in the resulting smooth surface of glass. with this, biscaro wanted to celebrate wood and have it disclose itself through the actual blown glass works by transferring its rough textured surface to that of the vitreous material. with ‘yalog’ biscaro has reinvented the wooden mould, making it even more primitive, giving birth to a full range of new objects, where glass is turned into a medium for emphasizing the nature of the timber. for ‘yalog’ biscaro arranges branches and logs into vessel-like forms, whereby the molten glass is blown downwards into the moulds, capturing the wood’s appearance onto its surface.

during milan design week 2012, biscaro presents ‘yalog’ at the ‘padgilioneitalia’ exhibition in via privata oslavia, 1.

the texture of the wood is transferred onto the glass surface

the ‘yalog’ collection

‘yalog’ table works

production process of the ‘yalog’ collection: preparing the molten glass

expanding the glass ball

setting the mould to fire to increase texture on the surface of the glass

the hot vessel

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions’  feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.