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Silica Studio
Dierk Van Keppel
"Welcome to Silica Studio, where our small team of skilled glassblowers transforms molten glass into stunning, handcrafted creations. Our process is dedicated to celebrating and preserving the tradition of glassblowing by creating modern techniques to innovate our production process sustainably."
Cast iron blow-molds can produce thousands of the same glass forms before the end of their lifecycle, becoming increasingly important in the history of the glass industry during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, by the end of the 20th century, many hand-blown and pressed glass factories had succumbed to economic failure, largely because of cheap glass produced offshore. Subsequently, as factories defaulted and their cast iron mold resources were put up for auction, the remaining factories would often purchase and consolidate molds from other factories into their production lines. Two of these factories – Fenton Glass in Williamstown, West Virginia, and Southwest Glass in Fort Smith, Arizona – were known to possess vast inventories of cast iron molds.
Understanding the historic and aesthetic value that these cast iron molds hold in American decorative glass history, Dierk Van Keppel, owner and glassblower at Rock Cottage Glassworks, made the decision to salvage as many cast iron molds as possible.
Silica Studio was founded soon after in 2019 as a part of Rock Cottage Glassworks to repurpose these decorative blown-glass molds into ready-made lighting solutions. Today Silica has amassed over 250 glass molds from factories that no longer exist, striving to celebrate and produce these precious artifacts from a bygone age in glass art and design.
Cast iron blow-molds can produce thousands of the same glass forms before the end of their lifecycle, becoming increasingly important in the history of the glass industry during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, by the end of the 20th century, many hand-blown and pressed glass factories had succumbed to economic failure, largely because of cheap glass produced offshore. Subsequently, as factories defaulted and their cast iron mold resources were put up for auction, the remaining factories would often purchase and consolidate molds from other factories into their production lines. Two of these factories – Fenton Glass in Williamstown, West Virginia, and Southwest Glass in Fort Smith, Arizona – were known to possess vast inventories of cast iron molds.
Understanding the historic and aesthetic value that these cast iron molds hold in American decorative glass history, Dierk Van Keppel, owner and glassblower at Rock Cottage Glassworks, made the decision to salvage as many cast iron molds as possible.
Silica Studio was founded soon after in 2019 as a part of Rock Cottage Glassworks to repurpose these decorative blown-glass molds into ready-made lighting solutions. Today Silica has amassed over 250 glass molds from factories that no longer exist, striving to celebrate and produce these precious artifacts from a bygone age in glass art and design.
