the last piece for my exhibition

this is what i have done so far on the last piece for my exhibition.



it is called "food for thought" and it consists of 5 cane bowls, and 14 single cane cups.

i wanted this piece to make you think about what you are eating and what goes into your food without making it preachy, or negative or so direct.

then the idea of setting the cups and bowls up referencing a table setting and replacing cutlery with garden tools came along. i think it suggests the ideas well, and is interesting to look at.

i still need to etch some imagery onto the cups and the bottoms of the bowls, to link it with the rest of the work in the show. that will happen later this week.

in the exhibition this work will be displayed against a dark background, making the cane and the images really stand out.

i can't wait to see it all finished and installed.

cane tumblers, finally on show

i am finally showing and hopefully selling some of the cane tumblers i had been making last year in the exhibition that opens tonight as well. here are some of the professional images i had taken of the work before i delivered it to the gallery last week.

professional images really are worth it,
they just look so great.

the show opens tonight,
for more details on the exhibition go here.

cups and what i should do next.

so here are the cups i made 2 weeks ago. i also made some plates to try and work out a new idea but they didn't work out so well. i really like these cups. i think i might use them at my place eventually one day.



but now i am in a dilemma. my wrist has been aching and hurting for roughly 4 weeks now. i did not blow glass last week, and have been to see a physio and get some acupuncture done. i need to figure out how to stop it from hurting. the hard thing is my wrist hurts so much i think i should stop blowing glass for a while to rest it and get it feeling better.

the shitty this is that mentally i feel like i am just about to start some new work. like i have the ideas and they are gelling and i could be onto some good new work. but my wrist is getting in the way. i guess i can still draw and plan and do tests while i take it easy.

the other issue is what to do with my cups. i had been thinking of applying to an artist run space somewhere to have an exhibition. the idea was to display all the cups i have made in a space and instead of them being for sale they would be there for trade. i would man the space for the duration of the exhibition during set times and at these times people can come and trade me something for one cup. i would document this trade and put on display in the spot where the cup was a photo of the cup and the thing it was traded for. so the space would be changing and interactive. i just want to get away from the idea of making work to sell, get away from the consumer world and trade some skills. i have been making the cups as a skill building exercise and i know some one will want them but i don't want to sell them in a traditional craft shop or show. i want to see what people will put up for trade for these objects and what value is placed on them by others. as well i want to see what is traded; i would hope it would not be just other objects but perhaps a gesture or action or moment. i hope that the public will stretch the limits of what can be valued and traded. so the issues now are where i can show this? obviously not a commercial gallery. is this a good idea for a show? is it contemporary art practice? anyone who has any opinions on this please share them with me i am not sure if it is a good idea or not.

i will try blowing glass again next week and if my wrist hurts worse or it is too restricting to make things with my bad wrist then i might need to put it all on hold for a while anyways.

my last two blowing sessions

so over the last 2 weeks i have blown glass i have been working on a few new things, but nothing i am yet ready to share with the world. So i am still making cups but also devoting some time to do a few new things still using canes.

this is a collection of cups i made from the canes i had that were taken from the blue pot glass. i think they look really great together like this.



these 2 cups are also favorites. i am inspired by a cup a friend gave to me that has a similar white twisted cane on it. i just think it looks really great and classy. i am definitely going to make some more of these, i think i want to have a set in my house to use.

these last cups are also really fun, i think the colours are what make them seem fun. i should also make a yellow one to complete the set. these are a bit more challenging to make but can usually work. If the cane or colour is too think then it makes it almost impossible to blow out a nice bubble to turn into a cup.

I am still working out my idea for what to do with the cups and am writing/thinking about it, but don't want to talk of it yet until i can get the idea clearer in my own head. but iw ill share with you soon my plans and hopefully get some useful feedback as well onto the logisitcs of the installation i want to undertake.

but for now; what would you do if you have 100 cups made?

how many cups have i made so far?

not enough.



ok 47 so far. but really i have visions of my studio being so full that when people walk in they go "woah! look at all those cups!" but that isn't happening just yet. and now that i am scheming to actually do something with them i need many more.

and if you can believe it i am still enjoying making them. there is a simple satisfaction that comes from making such a useful and small object.

my glassblowing session last week.

every week i have a four hour glassblowing session on friday afternoon. it feels like i haven't had a session dedicated to making only cups for quite some time, so last friday i did just that. these are the eleven cups i produced in those four hours.


and here are a few of the favorite ones from that group.

i really love the colours in this one. these canes were made when the studio was melting a furnace full of hot glass colour. this is a real treat for us glassblowers. now i have heaps of canes to use in these beautiful blue colours.

these two cups are made from some canes that a friend of mine was giving away beacuse he thought they were not good enough for him to use. i think they were too thin for his purposes. so i turned around and made two fo the nicest cups yet. i think the colour combos in these cups are really great. i will have to remember to ask what colours they were.

and finally a tall glass that uses some blue coloured canes from the furnace and some twisted fancy white canes. this glass just looks like it would be really nice to drink from. it certainly is nice to hold.

still making cups

ok so for about 2 weeks now i haven't blown glass for various reasons, my assistant being out of town, or me being too overwhelmed with things to do. but last week i did and i had a good session and made a few cups. this one is made using the canes "i invented". ok i probably didn't but i have never seen this pattern before. so i made this one. it has that american pride feeling to it due to the colours but i think it is ok. not my favorite but definitely worth looking at in the studio. it could be the start of something great...

the inside view and the side view. i do like the sketchy line quality it uses, and want to pursue the use of this pattern in something else, just not sure what yet.

the challenege

i am not sure if i ever really explained it on my blog and to tell you the truth i don't actually remember when i decided to do the challenge. the challenge i have set out for myself is to make cups for a year.

i think it started because i didn't know what to make, i was in a slump. yet as part of my pay at my work is one four hour glassblowing session per week. i wasn't using this and decided i needed to or i would surely regret this when i no longer have this job. so i decided to start learning how to make different canes. as a result i would need to do something with the canes. the easiest and funnest thing to make in my opinion with canes are cane tumblers or cups.

so since about march i have been making canes and cups each week. i am loving it. and it seems that now when people ask me what i am making i explain my project of making cups. then someone asked me why i was doing it and i said it was my goal to make cups for one year.

here are last week's cups.

and this one too.

i have always liked the idea of time based projects and have been wanting to think of a great one for myself. as it turns out i kind of stumbled across this one and i am really excited about it. i look forward to looking back in a year at all my cups, seeing the progress and seeing where it leads me.

i read the blog take a ball of thread and think it is great. the project here isn't time based but it certainly is contained by the material used. i recently saw the exhibition of some of the works and they are so lovely.

making a collection of cups is not foreign to me, when i did a residency in the UK for 3 months during my stay i made a cup a day and each cup had a drawing on it for that day. it was a visual diary of my stay.

so who knows where this project will take me, but i am certainly enjoying myself, making for no other purpose than the want to make and the pleasure of it.

2009 the year of the cane tumbler

this year i have not committed to any other exhibitions or shows. so i have no deadline or pressure. i also feel like i am lacking direction in my practice. i have decided to spend my time in the studio and hotshop this year just making for its own sake and seeing what it is i do. one of the first things i have decided to work on is cane.

glass cane is made by getting coloured glass and making it into a small sausage shape and then gathering clear glass over it. you make this into a hot sausage kind of thing and then you and your assistant stretch it out across the room into a long thin (5mm) strand of glass. then once it cools you set it down across the floor and chop it up into useful lengths like in the above image.


with these canes you can then line them up on a metal plate, heat them up and then roll them up into a tube and then close off the end to make a bubble. a very practical and technical exercise is to make this bubble into a cane tumbler. a cane tumbler is like a good stretch before a run. something to get you into the groove and your muscles moving.

for some reason i really enjoy making cane tumblers. i find them very satisfying and still challenging. also they are useful and lots of people like them. funnily enough even though they seem to go against my usual plain and neutral colour palate, i do enjoy the bright and contrasting colours put together in cane tumblers.



taking the cane one step farther, you can make what i call "fancy canes". there are many variations on the exact patterns and there is a long standing italian venetian tradition of making and using these fancy canes. the fancy canes can be made colourfully but there is also a tradition of making some beautiful monochromatic canes. these have a look similar to lace patterns.

now i am just learning how to make them, and as with most things that look simple to make they are in fact very tricky. these fancy canes are made by getting your colour set up which can be made using chunks of colour melted together or by rolling up the plain canes into different patterns. after you have the colour and pattern set up into the hot sausage shape you then pull it out again across the room, but this time while you do that you must turn the pipe as fast as you can. and just when your arms are about to fall off you try to find a second burst of energy and KEEP TURNING! trust me it is truly very hard. a talented friend of mine makes beautiful fancy cane and it is my goal to learn how to do it as well as him. my first attempts have been sad, but i will not give up and at the end will have ripply strong arms and beautiful cane.


anyways with these fancy canes you can of course still make glass tumblers. and these ones look very fancy. they are fun and playful and i really enjoy drinking out of mine.

for now i like the comfort of making something that has a clear function. these cups feel so nice in your hands. they remind me of when i was a kid and would look at marbles with wonder, how were they made? how did those patterns get in there? (very similar process) i do the same with these cups, following the patterns around and think how they were made and dreaming new patterns up.



and so this is one of the projects i will be working on for the rest of this year. each week i blow glass for one four hour session. during this time i will teach myself to make fancy canes and keep up the practice of making these glass tumblers. i will save and collect them in my studio for the rest of the year. i hope that by doing the exercise i will not only improve my glassblowing skills but that the process of making will inspire and lead me into the next idea or project. i will document my progress from time to time, and hopefully we will see an improvement by the end of the year.