Glazing

Vitreous glaze is recorded to have been used in predynastic Egypt for coating stone. And then there are the glazed surfaces of our man-made stones, fashioned from clay, in the form of pots. Glazes in this traditional sense have been used for thousands of years to add luster, pattern , colour and make surfaces impervious to water, traits very useful to architecture.
Spaces and masses in the landscape can first be carved out and built up, or simply discovered, and then their surfaces glazed. The thin glass shells can be built up in layers and then hollowed out or left with solid backing.

 

  
 

Bay of Fundy Sandstone glaze test. A level area is carved into the soft stone and then the surface is melted with a torch forming a glazed skin, to give permanence to the space which has been made.