Using Negative Space - Segment Slabs

Well this is a slab of glass!! About 12 mm thick and 310 x 185 mm in size. It's not a complicated process but it is time consuming and needs three kiln firings and a glass saw so the final piece isn't cheap.

It's another Bullseye Glass technique which they have called a Segment Slab, a variation on the pattern bar technique. The segment slab is composed of sheet glass strips that are tack-fused together, cut into cubes, arranged with space between them and fired within a containment system until the glass flows and forms an internal pattern.

The key to the technique is arranging the cubes of tack fused glass within the stainless steel ring mould to take advantage of the fact that glass melts, flows and 'wants' to be flat. You can see in the bottom left how the five cubes have flowed into each other (the middle cube was placed rotated 90 degrees to the four surrounding it.

It's a cool technique but better suited to a commission statement piece than one offs because the price of the above plate is $200. Not high if you say it quickly!!

Venice - Piazza San Marco

Yes it's a glass plate showing the piazza San Marco in Venice. The terracotta 'bar' is the campanile (bell tower) and the San Marco church is in the centre.

It was done using sgraffito - scratching out the buildings from a thickish layer of Glassline paint and powders. Happy with this first attempt and will do more.

Pattern Bar Plates for Rose Bay

I will be at Rose Bay Markets in late October so needed to get some stock made for the occasion. Last year I made a load of Chrismas decorations (trees, baubles and snowflakes) but this year I can't get excited about Christmas in October!

The pattern bars were made with Patty Gray a while ago and these six are the last of this pattern. Almost tiger like and the duck egg blue works well. I have dozens of pattern bars in the studio and will incorporate them into plates in the coming weeks. I am thinking of only displaying a limited range of techniques, colours and 'look' at Rose Bay rather than trying to be all things to all people.

Wagner's Tomcat, Satie's Gymnopedies

"I love Wagner, but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws"

Charles Baudelaire

 

Well I haven't tried Wagner nor Baudelaire to inspire me when designing a plate but I have tried Erik Satie. There is something about Gymnopedies' tempo that lends itself to splashing coloured frit onto stringer staves! 

It does not seem to work with rock, country or pop but classical, jazz and even techcno are great inspiration. Perhaps I should plan one a week for a year and see what happens - a musical show in late 2015??

Hot Combing

Hot combing is one of the few techniques in warm glass (kiln fusing) that is similar to hot glass (furnace blowing). It's quite an exciting way to manipulate glass but you need to have the right equipment, clothing and courage to take it on.

Strips of glass are arranged vertically and dammed with ceramic fibre. Tight lines and limited colour palettes work best to get the patterns and 'look'. The glass is heated to about 900 degrees Centigrade at which point it has the consistency of toffee. The kiln has to be turned off to eliminate the possibility of electrocution! Metal combing rods are used to pull through and push apart the glass strips. You have to be quick because as the glass cools it stiffens. After the first combing the kiln goes back on to 900 degrees and then the kiln off and combing process can be repeated. Once the pattern is as you want it then the kiln is taken back up to 900 and held until the glass surface is flat. Then flash cool to 590 and start the annealing process - 6 hours at least and then turn the kiln off and leave to reach room temperature.

You really do need welder's smock, gloves and helmet/glasses and make sure not to wear artificial or synthetic fibres. It's hot and not for the faint hearted!! It's worth the abandonment of OH&S rules though to get the finished product which can be used as a centrepiece in other pieces.

Bluegrass Panel

 

Trying out a few different techniques to make panels that can be incorporated into new pieces. I can hot comb in my small Skutt Firebox kiln but I am still trying to figure out the manual controller, particularly for the annealing schedule periods.

The Bluegrass panel central panel was made using powders sifted into a clear glass box. An easy technique but a little time consuming. The finished panel will become a pot trivet when framed up.

The glint of light on broken glass....

"Don't tell me the moon is shining: show me the glint of light on broken glass"

Anton Chekhov

Well it wont be broken but cut glass glinting in the light. I have finally upgraded from my tile saw to the Gemini Apollo Ring Saw and picked it up from Gordon and Sally at Divine Glass, Canberra. It is long overdue as I have lost (wasted) about a third of my pattern bar blocks because the tile saw blade is almost thicker than the bars I am cutting. It was also great to finally meet G & S - a really delightful couple and I would recommend their store unreservedly.

So, now I need to get cutting, re-fusing and slumping. The piece below is from the Spectrum website and is a really beautiful inspiration. I may not make a patterned fish for a while but the Apollo is flexible enough to free-form cut so no reason why I shouldn't have a fish on a plate!!

The Markets buyers will certainly go for pattern bar pieces -  they are actually a very discerning lot. 

I am hoping by end June to have pattern bars, pot melts, reactives, glass 'etchings' and "Australiana" making up over 75% of the pieces for sale. I'll explain Australiana in a future post....not as kitsch a it sounds!! I think that offering out of the ordinary functional and aesthetic pieces will keep the sales ticking over. So far it has been a good start to the year.

Cheers!!