Woollahra Small Sculpture Entry

Working with glass is constantly surprising and challenging. Opening the kiln is always a pleasure but I do not always get what I expected. I have been happy enough to concentrate on fusing and slumping glass into prepared moulds and have produced some really fabulous functional ‘homeware’ pieces.

Recently though I have begun to experiment again and attempted more sculptural pieces. The first involved slumping glass over a porcelain mould of a woman’s face. I made two panels, one in the colours of the Aboriginal flag and one in the Australian flag colours. “Sorry, I can’t hear you” is in some ways a political statement about (the lack of any true) reconciliation but also was a great way to feature the slumped faces. The two panels are mounted in a red wooden frame set at right angles to each other.

Encouraged by a friend I entered the piece in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. This is a highly prestigious exhibition and only 41 pieces will be shown in 2011 from more than 540 entries! So, fair to say that I was not expecting to get in to the final forty on the first attempt. Even though the piece was not successful I will continue to explore glass sculpture. I have made moulds of shells and coral to experiment with pate de verre casting and have a few ideas around the theme of water and boats. My local Vinnies is a rich source of potential moulds and vessels.

My first boat experiment resulted in a rather solid and discoloured piece that resembled a thunder egg. Interesting but almost unusable. The Boron nitride I used to prime the steel mould melted into the glass and the frit collapsed. I probably overfired the piece so next time will try a tack fuse schedule and hope for better results.

I do keep technical notes and must get them all in one place, or rather on one page. My notebook is full of notes, ideas, suppliers, client numbers and lists of themes. I really should get a divided notebook and start again or sit at the Mac and type it all up. Maybe there is a book in there too!!

Pot Melt Result

Well the first pot melt experiment went better than expected. The piece is a touch too dark and was not entirely circular. It was also smaller than expected. A good learning experience though and I have fused the melt onto a blue transparent circle as above. It will need to be ground and polished before slumping or displaying in a stand. It looks a little like the earth in motion or a butterfly's wings.

The great thing is that having done one melt I now know what to change for number two – less colours, more transparents and clears, more glass (up to 3 kg even!) and longer hold time at 899°C to allow more melt and a wider spread.

There are several glass artists in the US who do nothing but pot melts to incorporate into their works. I’m not sure I am that hooked but it is a cool technique to add to the others I have learnt. Plenty of others to try so best get fusing!!

Pot melting

My latest experiment in the kiln is a pot melt. The idea is to fill an Italian (higher quality) terracotta flower pot with glass scraps and raise it off the kiln shelf using mullite (kiln shelf material) strips. Heat the kiln to 899°C and hold for 90 minutes. The (hopefully) molten glass flows through the holes in the base of the pot to fall and spread over the prepared kiln shelf. I did build a dam to form a 34 cm circle to hopefully avoid glass spilling over the kiln shelf edges.

I used 1.5 kg of scrap glass which should form a 30cm circle about 6mm thick. Two problems; too much black so what glass I could see flowing was very dark and too many strips of glass too long for the pot so as it melted it spilled over the pot edge. 

Pot melts can produce the most amazing patterns as the glass spreads out and reforms. I am hoping for a nice circle to mount in a stand as a sculptural table centrepiece or backlit on a sideboard. Worst case I will cut the result into strips like a pattern bar and refuse into other plates. 

One of the great things about working with glass is that every seeming disaster can be recycled and incorporated into another piece. I love the fact that there is very little waste as even the smallest scraps can be sprinkled over pieces or ground into powders to use later. The only problem is finding time to plan and make pieces as well as preparing moulds and recycling glass. No wonder all the best artists have assistants to do all that for them so they can concentrate on being creative.

Darling Point Installation

I am lucky to have a great network of friends and professional contacts who are willing to embrace glass art and recommend my pieces. At the ZimSSEF day an architect friend saw the range of pieces and thought that some glass panels would be perfect for an installation at a client’s apartment.

The apartment is in Darling Point with unobstructed views to Bellevue Hill. The rear balcony is huge and framed by a large grey wall. S & A commissioned me to produce 6 panels a tad larger than A4 size to be fixed outside and provide colour, texture and a feature for the wall.

All six panels are three or four layers thick (8-12 mm) with flat ground edges. The designs were selected by the client and were quite a challenge. Two are of cityscapes, two representative of water, one abstract curves and one Mondrian-esque abstract straight edged shapes.

A great number of hours went into the glass cutting and positioning and each panel spent 14 plus hours in the kiln. They will be affixed to the wall with a yet to be selected glue/cement and hopefully will give their owners and guests many hours of pleasure.

I really enjoyed the challenge and the working relationship with the architect and his clients. I am hoping that it will result in a few more commissions and make it to the practice’s website.

Supporting ZimSSEF

On June 5th Cranbrook School hosted a Zimbabwe Street Soccer Tournament and Savitrine Glassworks was happy to donate a $300 slab plate for the raffle prize and set up a market stall for the day. The day was very successful and we sold 9 pieces for a total of $800, 10% of which was donated to ZimSSEF. A huge thank you to all the buyers, fellow stall holder and everyone who dropped by to have a look at my work. Oh and Marcus' team came third, losing to the eventual Zimbabwean winners. Good day all round.

You can check out Street Soccer at http://vimeo.com/5316153 and donate at http://www.zimbabwestreetsoccer.com A documentary by James Maiden was screened on SBS in 2010.

Pattern Bars

Another technique is creating a glass colour/pattern bar which can then be sliced with a diamond saw and either incorporated into a slumped vessel or framed alone as I did for the TAP Gallery group Spirit exhibition.

The pattern bar is made up of strips of glass plus stringers, noodles rods, frits and powders. The results are not always predictable but always a joy to see complete after over 22 hours in the kiln. In designing pattern bars it helps if you can think upside down and in a mirror because what you will use is a cross section or slice of the bar and hopefully side-by-side they are symmetrical.

First, again, are the design and the colours then cutting strips of glass the right length but of varying widths. The strips are laid flat and vertically in the colour combinations you want. The key is that as the glass strips melt to form a slab or bar the glass flows and slides. This means that you can create curves and more interesting effects as wider strips melt and reform around narrower strips and rods. The strips are laid direct onto the primed kiln shelf and a dam wall is built around them to ensure the result is a slab and not a puddle.

After firing the slab is sliced and the bars polished with diamond boards or paper. They are a lot of work but well worth the effort and spectacular to see in a final piece. Below is "Wheels of Life" from the Spirit show.

Savitrine Glassworks begins....

So let’s just go back a little and start the story. I am lucky enough to have a printing press, a kiln, a workable studio area in the roof space and time to indulge in exploring my creative side. I have always painted or made prints and have enjoyed it immensely. I was given an opportunity to do a glass fusing course two years ago though it took a year to get onto a suitable course. I attended a one-day session with Dagmar Ackerman in May 2010 and became hooked. After some experimentation I have developed an affinity with glass and it is now my medium of choice. If confirmation were needed it came at a three day intensive master class with American glass legend Patty Gray in March 2011. Patty is knowledgeable, patient, inspirational but above all generous with her time and feedback. She has given me the confidence to experiment further and to just get on with it!

Appropriately for kiln fired glass work Savitrine means "of the sun" in Sanskrit and is also a (terrible) play on words. Sa vitrine is "his shop window" in French. Kiln fired glass started as a hobby, became a passion and now a business.

I entered two pieces at the RAS Easter Show and two more at the Sydney Family Show. No sales but my pieces held their own and it was a great opportunity to hear some feedback and confirm that my pricing was right. Out of the blue the Spirit exhibition at TAP Gallery in Darlinghurst came up as an opportunity to show four pieces. Again no sales but fantastic feedback from other artists and the gallery manager who suggested holding a solo show later in the year. Add to that two commissions from a very special friend and muse and I am off on an exciting journey.

It wont be easy and I will have to balance the necessity to sell functional plates and bowls with more creative art glass. The Savitrine Glassworks business plan is almost done and there are many challenges ahead but I am confident that I can supplement my income from the farm and earn a living.