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

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.

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.

Crash cooled creations

I have been continuing experiments with trying to make a kiln formed vase, and I made a couple, they are perfect, the paint effects are divine and I am really happy with them. Here is one that has two layers one painted blue, one pink I love the effect.

But the next time I made one, I made the original circle smaller and it fell right though the ring

Actually I had quite a few fall through which was a bit discouraging. So I slowed the temp rise down to 100 degrees/hour, and watched them through the peep hole in the kiln as the temp rose from 700 degrees up. This one is rather daliesque, and I keep feeling if I have to catch it as it falls off the table. I am always fascinated how glass creates such organic shapes it you let it free form.

Next try….

As I was watching, I saw the glass slide off the ring on one side, so I crash cooled the kiln, as I wanted to keep the shape it made as it slid off the ring. The colours are really vibrant. as I have used a paint called antique red which has gold in it.

I realised that if I crash cooled the kiln I could keep the shape of the piece just after it fell, but before it collapsed further.

So now I have something completely different to explore, as I love the moment when I watch the glass slide through the ring and fall to the bottom of the kiln. Its at that moment that you have to open the kiln and let the cooler air halt the heating process and fix the piece into that serendipitous form. Every shape is  different, here are some more…

Now I have the perfect work to put in the Heater show at the Yarra Sculpture Gallery in July. The show came about as the gallery is freezing in winter, and the curator started thinking about how artists would convey their ideas about heat. Well this is mine, it’s that magic moment when things start to transform from one shape to another. Especially how the original shape starts as ordered and simple and the heat always reshapes it into organic one, that seems to be captured in time.

Too Hot…oh no.

I have been continuing to experiment with drop through mould and painted float glass.

I have spent the last two days making little disasters in the kiln, and learning a lot from them

1. don’t watch a movie while your waiting for the kiln to hit 770. Stop and start action really loses enjoyment of the plot (not that there was one). Popping in and out, racing down to the studio, then back again, doesn’t really work, one needs to be there watching for the last 50 degrees. I programmed it to high and missed the peak, the results were obvious..

Way too hot!!!

2. after you have crash cooled the kiln, check what that naughty controller is actually doing rather than what you programmed it to do. I still not sure but I reckoned it heated up again, just because it could.

3. The kiln has hot spots, I have mainly fused plates on a flat surface at these temperatures, so the fact that kiln is hotter at the front, remained a secret until now. Here is one red vase, looking rather daliesque. It fell through the mold at 760 degrees, while the one at the back had only moved a few inches

Slid through and kept sliding

However I’ll not despair, as the paint effect on the back one, is the most brilliant pink and gold, so tomorrow I’ll try again