Darwin Glass with Man-made Glass

Tasmanian faceted Darwin glass, found antique glass, sterling silver.

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Darwin glass, found in Tasmania, is the product of a giant meteor impacting the earth’s surface approximately 800,000 years ago, turning quartz silica into this green bubbly glass found in Western Tasmania near Mt Darwin, known as the Darwin Crater.

I paired this naturally formed glass with a similar colour man-made glass I had collected a shard of amongst remnants of very old historic household rubbish dumps. I cut the glass into free formed shaped cabochons, slightly different lengths and widths to suit the slightly different measurements the faceted Darwin glass. This was a challenging and enjoyable project to make them look imperfect but work perfectly also. It also challenged me to work in a much finer gauge metal than I usually do. I wanted the settings to be minimalistic and also protect the outer edges of the fragile gems. And the tiny claws to be gentle near the many bubbles in the Darwin Glass.