So last year a group of my friends went to Burning Man and I made about 100 hearts for them to trade and give out to people that they met. When they returned they told me so many stories of how much people loved receiving the hearts, so this year I’m creating a new token for them and learning about another aspect of glass at the same time.

There are many ways to shape glass, and a mold is one of them. Then again there are many many types of molds. Some you drop the glass in, others you clamp down, and some you stamp into the glass.

My idea is to make necklace pendants out of glass that have the symbol of burning man stamped on them.

So the first thing I did was carve the symbol into a piece of graphite:

Burning Man symbol carved in graphite

Graphite is a friend to glass! It can take a lot of heat and not leave any residual marks on the surface of the glass.

Next I hastily built my own handle out of some scrap wood…and voila! I have a stamp:

The first stamp

Now I take a really fresh hot glob of glass and drop it onto a steal plate and then stamp the symbol in!

Burning Man Medallion first attempt

I initially like how it looks, but I am going to construct another stamp to get an even better design. This has been really fun so far and I’m looking forward to doing these in a lot of different colors!

I will keep you updated on the progress of this project and if you are going to Burning Man and would like some medallions of your own…don’t hesitate to email me: dreaperglass@gmail.com