One of our favourite “glass masters,” Joel Berman of Vancouver-based Joel Berman Glass Studios, has come up with another winner: Salt, a new category of flat glass surfacing for interior and exterior architecture and design. This innovative granulated material is made from new or recycled glass cullet — that has been coloured with pigments and fused to sheets of flat glass to form dyed glass panels.
Available in four different grain sizes and 32 intermixable colours, Salt works well as exterior cladding for building walls, and its natural slip resistance makes it an excellent surfacing material for floors. Panel thicknesses vary from 6 to 22 millimemetres, depending on the grain size selected. Shapes can be arranged prior to firing for custom designs. Script and logos can be either placed in raised forms or integrated within a single plane.
“Salt offers a colourful way to communicate in glass,” says Berman, who has been a pioneering artist in glass for more than 25 years. “The granular structure mutes the surface and extends an alternative to glass’s usual glossy sheen.”