Anchorage Museum Gala ~ Donation Time!

Every April the Anchorage Museum hosts its Annual Gala.

We're lucky to live in a city that has a museum that brings exhibits such as "Star Wars," "GOLD," "Andy Warhol," & this spring a collaborative exhibit with the American Museum of Natural History called "The World's Largest Dinosaurs."  Of course it takes lots of money via memberships, sponsors & fundraisers to bring such blockbusters to Anchorage.

Here's the piece I'm donating to the "Gala" party 2011.  Check out the Anchorage Museum site for current & upcoming exhibits!  See you at the Gala!!

Size: 16" X 22" finished in iron stand

Materials:  Bullseye Art Glass, iron oxide text transfer process,

kiln fired at 1500 degree Fahrenheit

Milleforie Revisited ~

When an artist works in glass the

techniques & possibilities are endless!

People always ask me about "stained glass" or label "fused  glass" (kiln-fired) as "stained glass."  I've never done stained glass or really have a desire to do it.  I crack up when people say..."oh, you must have patience to do this..."   PATIENCE? 
 Ahhhh, that would be a big negatory people. 
My Mom's mantra to me as a child was...."patience, child, patience." 
I consider it my good karma to not be drawn to stained glass work.

I appreciate it ~ I just don't want to do it!!

 I originally worked in hot glass which is glass processes in the 2000 F (1093 Celsius) degree range which includes glass blowing & torch work.  Warm glass is in the 1000 to 1700 (537 - 926 Celsius) degree range.  Actually, anything up from room temperature is considered "warm".  Cold working glass includes stained glass & finishing techniques such as grinding, sanding, cutting, etc.  Often pieces are hot or warm worked ~ then cold worked & then fire polished....which typically means putting it back in the kiln & "warming" the little sucker back up to about 1000 degrees to smooth & make the edges shiny. 

OK ~ a little background. 
Since I used to work exclusive in hot glass I'm pretty comfortable around torches & furnaces.  I used to make lots of beads & then as I got into fusing made lots of component parts on the torch for my fusing & glass blowing.  I love to make murrini & do mini roll-ups.  It's like quilting...making all the component parts, re-cutting & combining to make more complex & intricate pieces that give the "wow" factor in your art.

One technique on the torch is to "pull cane" or build "milleforie."  There's ways to do it in fusing.  One technique is the "rod pod." 

Here's a picture of the "rod pod"  mold. 

A mold is a bisque form layered with glass wash to form warm glass.

Here's a side view. 

 It looks like little troughs that you fill with glass & then fuse together into rods & then the rods are cut cross section.  Each little cross section are their own little art piece & these can be built together into larger more complex pieces.

Here's an example of torch worked milleforie.  Many people recognize "milleforie" as an Italian word.  It means "many flowers" & in reality is just a technique for layering glass.  It's not strictly a technique owned by Italian glass workers. 

The Italian's have just popularized it & made it recognizable.



Here's how to do it in the rod pod. 

 I usually cut some lengths of glass ~ rods & stringers in about 6 inch lengths.  This length fits in my rod pod & if I don't like the combination I don't have hundreds of chips to use.

Quick shot of a rod in the center with 1mm stringers around the rod & then a layer of larger 2mm rods.  I tape them in place using this "satin" finish tape.  It disappears during the firing.

(that's worth a post in & of it's self ~ note to self)

Here's the roll up in the rod pod...taped up like a mummy!

Four different colored rods taped together.  After taking this photo I noticed ~ for the first time ~ that one of the rods has a blue center!   Geez.....what a loser I am!

That's important as it adds another dimension to the finished piece. 

Here's a few roll ups in the rod pod fired at 1400 degrees Fahrenheit.  They are

 ...just.... starting ....to ....stick... together ...

but there's still lots of distinction. 

 I was worried that if I tried to cut them apart they would break into pieces....so...

 

Here they are fired at 1425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Melted together but still good color distinction.

The following are three separate pieces that were created from milleforie.

FLOWERS

 

STARS

My Favorite ~ CIRCLES.

Glass Suncatchers!

It's a beautiful sunny day so it got me thinking

I should be cleaning my windows before it gets too cold.

But that's crazy talk!!

So instead of doing that I made some new glass sun catchers!

These turned out cute!

Small & colorful with a copper silhouette between layers of Bullseye glass.

They're finished off with a copper hanger & bead accent.

I think I'll make more in other sizes & styles to

brighten up my windows before winter!

Textures of Hawaii

It's hard to believe a month has passed since we were in Hawaii. The studio has been crazy busy with shipments going out everyday, accordion gigs, honey bee checks, spring gardening & getting ready for an exciting trip to Denali park for work & family fun!

After going through my Hawaii pictures I thought I'd post a few that I took while hiking with my family. I found these images very inspirational. I've always loved photography & in the past even had my own darkroom for developing black & white photos. Textures, tints, & shadows are also important in glass ~ these were / are ideas to incorporate into my work.

Footprints. I love the grandules of sand...looks like frit.

Tire tracks. The sand looks so creamy.

Lava rock. Bubbles & shadows.

Pod cluster. Interesting group. The ridges look like a ladder.

King spider in web. This was so beautiful as the morning light sparkled on the

web ~ it looked like glitter. I took a whole series of photos as the light

changed.

My darling child surfing!

Glass on the Edge

Here's a new glass technique inspired by Cynthia Morgan a glass artist in Portland, Oregon. She's a casting & warm glass expert who is very open & willing to share her techniques. When I left a comment on her blog she left me some very helpful suggestions regarding open casting using Luminar ~ a material that I've had in the studio & hadn't had time to experiment with in the past. I believe she's in the process of moving her studio so some of her recent posts have been about having a glass garage sale & using up all the scrap glass she's accumulated.

Glass scraps are like fabric scraps if you're a quilter or paper scraps if you're a scrapper. It's hard to throw away even the smallest piece of material but as you are working more & more pieces are created. Then there's the dilemma of how to store & organize all these small pieces??? I could relate to her comments about the volume of scraps she had in her studio & her upcoming move since I had just moved my studio in January. I had large plastic bins (& bins & bins) of scraps all organized by COE, color & transparency, & thickness. These bins were HEAVY & I actually thought about tossing a few of them into the dumpster but I knew I'd regret it later so when the moving guys were in the studio moving all the heavy furniture I had them move the scrap bins.

I'm all about using up my glass bits & pieces so I thought I'd play around with this a bit. It's like putting a puzzle together or piecing a bargello quilt. Quite time consuming but meditative & calming. I decided to set-up a prepared mold or two on the cutting table & randomly fill them with scraps as I was cutting glass for other pieces.

I started by choosing a standard 3mm thickness of glass that I would use throughout this project. Then cutting the glass into thin strips of about 1/4" wide. After I had a small pile of strips I put them on edge & started stacking them together & alternating where they started & stopped ~ sort of like putting in a wood floor. Alternating the strips would ensure strength as they fused together during the firing.

I had decided to use clear Tetka as my primary color with a strip of fractured white for interest. I worked width-wise & length-wise as I went & occasionally would push a whole length down to adjust the design pattern or placement of the strips. The mold I chose worked well as it is an elongated oval & has a gradual dip into the bottom. An easy shape for a first time process ~ I'm all about success & reinforcement for myself!

Here's a look at the filled mold prior to the firing. It looks pretty already! You get an idea of how the edges of the clear glass will reflect the light. The photo below is a side shot of the mold & gives a little perspective of the depth of the piece. It's subtle.

Ready for the kiln. I used a tackfuse schedule but modified with a longer annealing time. For a schedule like this I usually start the kiln at night so it runs at night & then has a gradual cool-down. That way I'm also not tempted to open the kiln early to check on things & risk shock.

I think the end result is cool & I love how it looks & feels. It has possibilities for sconces & components for sculpture but for now I'm going to finish filling up the other mold on my cutting table. This is addictive.