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.
