AhnWu

I carve and sculpt custom glass, stone and wood artworks.

I have always been fascinated with calligraphy. My introduction to art happened when I saw a hand written poem on a large piece of parchment. The words were written in a flowing calligraphy style. Gold ink written over by green ink. It was the most exotic thing I had ever seen. I knew the poem, yet because of how the letters and words were written, it took on greater meaning. And at that point I understood that it was not only the word in isolation which held meaning, but it was the word in concert with it's shape that told the story. Fonts, symbols, glyphs all carry tremendous meaning and importance. From ancient Celtic knots, to the beauty of written Arabic to the underlying meaning of a symbol of Japanese Kanji, all these symbols and many more appear throughout my artwork. It's said that the "color palette" picks the Artist and in this case it seems that the symbols have picked me.

How I work.

I use one of two types of glass. Either fused glass which I cast myself or crystal purchased from Polish glass foundries. Polish crystal is some of the purest in the world. It carves beautifully with sharp clean lines. Almost all of my glass artworks are specifically designed to be illuminated. They either come with a standard LED illuminated base or I build a custom LED lighting element specific to the artwork.

My glass is carved using a number of different techniques. Technique 1 is called sand carving also improperly called sand blasting. Sand blasting is something you do to remove graffiti from concrete. Sand carving doesn't use sand - it uses silicon carbide as an abrasive. This abrasive is pushed out of a tiny 1/16" titanium nozzle under pressure. This pressurized abrasive grinds away the exposed glass. The action of carving is very similar to air brushing a T-shirt except rather then paint you use an abrasive.

Technique 2 uses a pencil shaped pneumatic grinder with diamond and silicon carbide bits. Think of this unit as a dremel on steroids. A dremel is electric and spins at 50K rpm. My pneumatic grinder spins at 400K rpm. If you ever seen heavily engraved guns or elaborate carvings on gun stock - it was done with this type of unit.

Any of my copper and glass designs where the copper is structural or cosmetic are made in one of two ways. Either the copper is electro-formed using a lost-wax technique or the copper is electroplated. Almost all my copper and glass designs use both approaches. The copper, once the final patina or luster has been applied it sealed so the finish never changes or oxidizes.

Although I primarily work in glass, I have also created artworks in onyx, alabaster, jade, obsidian and hardwoods for guitars.

A thousand years from now, the artwork I create for you, will still exist.