Wired glass

I finally resolved what to do with the ends of wire for my recycled sculpture, I have always liked the kinks and irregularity of the wire as I unweave it from its original form. I am using chicken wire at the moment for these pieces, and I have made the lengths as long as possible when placing it over the frame in the kiln for firing. Strangely this seems to be the correct length to balance the whole piece.The beads on the ends are pieces I have scavenged from old jewelry and chandelier pieces, and they create the feeling of movement in the piece. The blue glass is from a wine bottle, whole piece reminds me of the windswept tree that you find on the coast.

The width of the weave of the wire, gives a different feel to the piece, and accentuates the color of bottle

Glass sculpture

I have finally resolved how to finish the wire strands of my pieces. I think the idea not only makes the work complete, but leads on the the next level of choosing what to put on the ends.

This piece is from a white standard lightshade from a demolished house and the drops are from an old chandelier. The loveliest surprise is that the drops capture the image of the honeycomb pattern of the wire frame.

This piece is from a little blue plate Liz gave me, the drops are crystals from a chandelier again. So the reflect the colour.

Green glass plates, go in transparent, and come out this lovely opaque emerald, these pieces are so fragile as the glass between the wire is incredibly thin, so it doesn’t stay unbroken for me. I think the only way would be to place the piece in a glass container straight out of the kiln and handle carefully. I am trying to find how to stop the glass from continuing to flow, after I turned it off when I reach right shape. I think I will have to be strong and crash cool until about 600 degrees or less.

Toyota Spirit Gallery

I’m in this years Toyota show with a some other great sculptors, looking forward to the opening

Emerald Green

It worked!!. I  used my last green plate my sister found at the Ocean Grove op shop and melted it through a hand woven frame with large holes for the glass to drip through. As you can see the results are exactly what I was hoping for.

I sent this image with a pic of one of my first sculptures using this technique into the Toyota Spirit Gallery Exihibition and both pieces got in. So I am a little bit excited!!!!

I went to the last exhibition and thought the works displayed were wonderful

http://www.toyota.com.au/about/toyota-community-spirit/gallery

Now I cannot  decide to do today, Liz gave me the best green plate completely different to any glass plate I have seen before, so I think I’ll weave another frame. This one I will use more threads connected from the piece to the frame I hand it from in the kiln. I try to be symmetrical, but it seems impossible, every thing I do has a lean. This can be amusing especially when I make furniture , as most men will look and ponder for a while and then proceed to tell me what to do to make it more stable. It would be great if one of them would volunteer to actually do the work. But I figure if I need a table I’ll make one, and if its slightly not level, its better than not having one at all.

Blue vase recycled sculpture

I have been getting rather frustrated with the development of the latest series of sculpture, as I realised that I cannot do much to develop the shape, The last large piece I made was from a large blue presentation platter I found at the Don Bosco op shop in Sydney road. After I fired it over the woven wire frame I found that the sandblasted writing for the prize was still visible. I feel a bit funny about this as I hope that S  would not mind her prize being transformed  like this. I wonder did S discard it or did her family when she moved into a smaller place, its kinda sad. I tried to cut the wire back to the edges of the glass but the glass is to fragile or I’m to clumsy, the glass edges chipped, so I think the less intervention the better, I will have to decided before the piece is for how long the wire will, I am going to coil the wire underneath the piece so it is hidden I think. I like the wire but Liz says when the wire is missing, it make you wonder how the piece was made intriguing. I still like the larger piece thoughThis little piece was made from a round blue vase I found in the Salvo in Smith st Collingwood that I went to with Maria. I cut it in half, and this is the top half of the vase with the lip stretching to form the delicate stem. I tipped the frame in the kiln hoping with would created a tilted shape, however the glass ran downwards over the frame without coating the edges which is surprising. It makes her look that she’s half undressed. I will polish the frame with the dremel to show the beautiful pink that copper wire goes when heated in the kiln.

With the bottom half of the vase I tried something different I love the stem, how it drops through the larger hole and supports the frame, so I looked at multiplying my favorite feature, this one I wove the frame with larger holes, to see what wold happen, I love it and can’t wait to do another larger one tomorrow

The blue of the original glass is fainter as the glass stretches through the frame, because it isn’t as delicate I think the whole piece should be bigger. I will be spending the next 24 hours thinking of how I can join circles of wire within a circular border     mmmm

Recycled glass sculpture

I finally got it together to make some more of my sculptural work at last, I have a show in December this year to prepare for. I have been working with copper wire weaving it into a lattice to melt the glass through. I want to make the sculpture less fragile than the pieces I have been making as they are so hard to transport and so fragile some of them only have a short life around me.

These pieces I have made were inspired by watching an orb spider weave her web by torchlight. This was entrancing to watch, and I went home and wove my own web like creation out of copper wire. The green glass is from some lovely glass plates my sister found at the Ocean Grove op shop.

The hole in the middle of the web allows the piece to be beautifully stable. These two pieces are quite small about 15cm across and 10 cm high, the woven wire much more organic than the wire netting that I have been using. I have made a larger green one but I haven’t got a good picture yet.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I was lying around thinking about the frame and made this piece, that is using wire netting given to me by Liz Walker, I cut the centre out of the wire netting, so the glass piece would be free standing. I used a glass plate with pink and green irridescent motifs, which has come out brilliantly crystal clear. I now wish I have saved it for something more developed, but thats always the way.

I have curled the wire under the piece. The wire left is something I have to resolve, as if I cut it off,  I take the chance of breaking the glass edges, which detracts from the piece. I like leaving the wire long, as this make the wire and the glass all one piece. I am going to try heating the ends into a bead next hoping the heat

 

of the flame doesn’t travel to hot and crack the glass with heat shock. I am going to weave a new piece today, as I found the most beautiful blue plate to use, its a bit nerve wracking hoping that it will work as I can never find the original glass piece again unless I’m lucky enough to find a set of glass plates. It’s so cold at the moment its really hard to get motivated to work in the studio, instead I fight the cats for room in front of the heater. I know I’m bigger than them, but they give you such a hurt look if you push them out of the way.

 

 

Fire Polishing

I have finished my final piece for the Heater show at the Yarra Sculpture Gallery , opening Saturday 25 July 2011. This vase is 25cm across and the large width in the rim allows me to really let the stem fall and slump further to create a stable but skewed base, as the rim is too big to slip through the ring mold like the others.

I have kept the ring at an slight angle by putting it inside my steel  frame with wire mesh supporting one side that stretched  in the heat,  rather than propping it up with kiln posts like usual, as I love the tilt of the rim. As I am still experimenting, I used a fused circle that I had made earlier, but had devitrified, making the surface cloudy and the colours less vibrant, but as I fired to 790 degrees, it fire polished the surface so all the colours are lovely and vibrant. Another surprise. Usually the devit appearance spoils the piece, except for white painted bowls as the cloudiness enhances the the colour and texture of the piece. I don’t make that mistake very often any more, since I worked out it was from having the tin side of the float glass up, when fusing and slumping.

This piece has crushed glass mixed with the paint to create the texture and spiral effect of the piece, and  this has created the streaks of paint on the stem as the glass stretched and falls to the floor. I fired some small circles with smaller rings and they hardly moved during the firing, even at that temp, so I’ll keep firing higher and higher until something happens, but I find this size one I would like to explore further by making the stem longer or heating it longer to see what shapes the base will make.