The Tumbler

One of the consultants for the piece was Emilie Ledieu. She works in mosaics and has a lot of experience working with glass. She suggested "tumbling" the broken glass to make it like sea glass. The tumbler works like a cement mixer. You put water and sand in with the glass and plug it in. The longer you tumble, the smoother and more frosted the glass becomes. Some batches we tumbled for a few hours, some for a few days.

Glass

I started spreading word I was looking for green glass. People came over with wine bottles and beer bottles and we smashed them. Everyone was really getting into it. I think it was cathartic. We were using hammers and this big wrench. You have to hit the bottles harder than you think. It was funny when a bottle wouldn't break. The person would get embarrassed and go at it again much more aggressively.

Green Monochrome Story

I have been collecting material that documents the construction and presentation of the Green Monochrome for 3rd Federal Bank. I want to start posting it now. The process of making this piece was different from the last. The collaboration was broader and looser in concept. It involved more consultation. For example, we ended up focusing on glass as a material. And glass proved itself to be challenging and needed to be talked about. We also broadened the form of the piece with multimedia components contributed largely in part by the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush. We started an online art magazine called "Chartreuse." Students wrote and performed a song based on the project. We were also on TV.