Got Glass?

Got Glass?

 

Yep ~ !

 

I've got almost 700 pounds of glass.

66 sheets of tetka.

 54 pounds of power & frit

& a bunch of misc "stuff" like stringer, confetti, & tip sheets.

 

 

Thanks Bullseye Glass Co!

 

This is a short post ~ I've got work to do!!

Aurora Fireweed

I'm working the Aurora Series Florals.

Here's a close up a fireweed panel.

(I'm too lazy to set up the photography equipment for a full shot)

More Aurora Ravens ~

More Aurora Series in the Ravens ~

Are you sick of it yet?

Each piece is different. 

Even if I use the same powders the watercolor effect looks different.

Glass is a liquid so as it heats up in kiln & melts it moves around a bit and flows

together creating a wash of color.

I've tried to cool the process down & not fire to a full fuse as a way

to get a little more texture in the glass.

That also seems to keep the images a bit crisper.

The ravens above are slightly more transparent probably due to less

powdered glass.  It's hard to judge how much has been sifted

onto the blank unless I weigh the glass first.

I think that's an unnecessary step.

No time for that!

Gaining Light ~ Glass Wall Sconces

I'm working on a set of glass wall sconces to replace the

glass from another set

 I had made in dark colors ~ see the glass above.
Transparent cobalt, sky blue, spring green, neo-lavendar & aqua. 

The glass base is an irid clear and if you look closely

you can see the diamond pattern. 

This really added a nice shimmer when  lit.

Although I love these colors they were dark & didn't let a lot of light through. 

Nice & soothing in the winter & beautiful on a cobalt painted wall.

BUT....it's spring time in Alaska

& I've been in a cleaning & painting mode.

The cobalt wall has been painted a buff color & with the trims white I wanted a lighter colored glass sconce on these fixtures.

The fixture hardware  is custom made & sold by Bullseye Glass Co. & sells for about $116 each ~  lamp fixture hardware (11.75" X 7.5").  This fixture hardware is made to fit the glass slumped over the lamp bender conic mold (#8740).

Here's a picture of the mold. 

 It's been brushed with kiln wash & is in the kiln ready for use.

I contemplated using many colors of glass but in the end decided to go with something light & neutral.  The glass base is clear tetka (3mm)  topped with white fractures, stringers (1mm & 2 mm in white, ivory, & transparent gold),  & frit in a variety of sizes & chunks. 

 I really like the bigger chunk effect.

Final glass after firing & slump firing.

Here's the glass mounted & lit. 

 I'm loving the color combo & the radiating light effect on the wall.

Glass Fusing ~ A Project for Kids Part 2!

Here's a shot pre-firing of some of the Halloween plates

we put together ~

The plate in the upper left corner is actually

yellow & orange powder that will strike (turn color) upon firing.

Here's the post firing shot.

You can see that some of the colors were transparent

so there's a bit of variance in the color.

To intensify the color the powder has to be put on thick & even.

These were done by a 6 year old & were his color choices so I think they look pretty good!

Glass Fusing ~ A Project for Kids!

Halloween is right around the corner & we're getting a jump on our holiday decorations. We typically have a gathering at our house for hot soup, cider, & magic & then head out into the night with all the ghouls for trick or treating. This year, William & I decided to make some special hordvous' plates for our guests.

William is designing & choosing the images & helping with the production....

oops, er creative process. (Old habits die hard!)

The first step is to trace the glass blank on a piece of paper. this gives you an idea of how much space you have to work in for your design. It's good to leave a half to full inch of space between the design & edge of the paper.

William wanted to make a bat plate so here's his basic drawing on paper. Then he traced it onto stiff tracing plastic. This is a plastic tracing stencil material used frequently for quilting. He traced the design on the plastic & then it was cut out.

When planning the colors for the piece you have to think in reverse order color-wise. We decided that a spring green background with a black bat would look best ~ high contrast colors between the base & image plus a little spooky-ookie for Halloween.

Using a Sharpie maker draw an outline of the bat/design on the glass so you know where the image & background colors will be placed. The background color goes on first so here's William sprinkling on the green Bullseye frit around the bat for the base color. We're using powers which are the finest ground (08 within the system). He's using a small sifter & gently tapping the side to evenly spread the glass power over the base. It's important to use a respirator so as to not breathe in any glass & to wear protective eye gear.

Next gently place the stencil on top of the base color ~ you should still be able to see the outline of the design that you drew on the glass blank so line up the stencil over your tracing lines. The Sharpie ink will burn off in the firing. After the stencil is placed you can sift on the black for the bat image. William went a little crazy here & even covered all of the pink stencil but you really just need to fill in the open areas of the cut out design.



After the black is evenly sifted on, gently lift the stencil off & viola' you have a bat!
Now comes the fun part of embellishing. William used larger chunks of frit (01) to add eyes, nose and mouth. Be aware when you're using other accessory glasses with the powders that they will either fuse in or give texture depending on your firing schedule. These will be fused at about 1435 degrees Fahrenheit ~ cooler than a full fuse but warmer than a tack. I don't want any red eye balls coming off in someones fruit!
OK! This is off to the kiln for firing.

Liquid Stringer vs Bullseye Glastac

I'm adding component parts to the Glass House project. Liquid Stinger is a product that's relatively new & I've only used it a few times but thought it might be perfect for this piece. The basic premise is that you add the liquid to ground frit to make a liquid-like paste that is piped out into shapes, words, outlines, & any other way you might want to use it!

When I've used the Liquid Stringer in the past I had difficulty getting the portions correct so it would flow smoothly. This time it kept "fizzing" & getting stuck in the squeeze bottle until "SPLAT" it would all spurt out into a big blob! You see a "blob" on the kiln shelf above in the upper right corner.

Getting tired of this, I decided to try to use Bulleye's Glastac instead. I have gallons & gallons left over from the store & even contemplated throwing it way instead of moving it but now I think I've found a new way to use it ~ it's my new liquid stringer medium & it works great!

I mixed up even proportions. Squeezed out my shapes. Let it dry & then put a second layer on top. Let it dry again & then fire. These were fused at about 1385 degrees as I wanted dimension.

Finished glass components & the finished piece with all the components fired into place!

There's a lot of dichroic components & images fused in too. Some of the images are of little alien faces peeking out of the window.
I'm glad to have this piece done for the Museum Gala!

Casting Blunder...er BLUNDERS!?!

My mini casting project is progressing albeit minor set-backs. It all started out OK or so I thought (false hope!).

Here's the next 3 small 2"x2" clay positives that I molded out of porcelain clay. I put them all together in one container to a make a larger casting mold...I'm feeling good about this!

Here's the casting mold after it hardened to a "leather hard" firmness. This is the drying state where you still have time to clean-up the edges & image before pre-firing the mold.

Still looking good with less undercuts from last time but a few more bubbles in the mix ~ which results in holes in the mold. I mixed the Master Mold a bit thicker after researching on line that it should be like "thick pudding." Now in hindsight, this was a mistake because I had a hard time removing the bubbles.

OK ~ so I cleaned up the mold, fired it, & then started to pack it with glass. This time I thought I'd try more of the powdered frit instead of the more coarser grind. Stacked it high....hmmm...thinking I'd get thinner discs that would flow into the 2"x2" square. Wishful thinking!

Post-firing. Little, beady, eyes!! Yep, the powdered frit shrunk into small cubes. The mold cracked right down the center, however, everything popped out pretty well so I think I can cast two more eyes.

Here's the four castings so far ~ I think I had beginners luck on the first eye. The other three need coldwork clean-up but they'll look cool incorporated into another larger glass piece.