week 1 residency

i have just completed my first week of my residency. basically i got settled in, met some new people, hung out with some old friends, had a couple beers, and started making a plan of what to do. not a bad week really.

my first session in the hot glass studio in about a year, so i decided to start small and slowly by making some colour test cups. i really like the navy, bronze, copper, phil's grey and amber. now i need to decide what to make with them.

 

my second session i made some white cylinders with black on the inside to cut and slump in a kiln to make sheet glass, and i also made a bronze cylinder and a blue one (it broke while making it but i love the way it broke, so kept it to inspire me) and my lovely assistant Netty pulled me some twisty cane. i do have some plans on things i want to make.

this is the hot shop in action, with a three person team.

 

i also did a cold working one on one class with Peter Nilsson (a master engraver originally from Sweden). He showed me the basics for mark making and engraving on the lathe and answered all my questions about how to get the results i want. (turns out the secret is another 10 years or so of practice to get good). but i am very excited about trying this new technique out on some of my flat glass panels and maybe incorporating this into my artwork.  this is a cup that i practiced on using different profiled wheels.

these are the windows in the engine room and i spend a lot of my time in here so far planning and thinking. i keep noticing the windows and light and really i do love a gird. they are beautiful and one a great scale in that space.

this is the window in the stairwell, also a favorite that catches my attention.

and finally a mention to the best burgers in Canberra and lucky for me ( or maybe not as it is tempting for me) they are located at Canberra Glassworks. I have already had 2 visits this week, they are that good.

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.

fancy canes for my exhibition

on the weekend i worked with a good friend of mine who is a genius glassblower and very talented at pulling fancy twisted canes. he worked with me, teaching me how he does it as we pulled the canes.



at the end of four hours we had pulled nine canes, three canes for the set up and six fancy twisted canes. i love the way these canes look.



these are the fancy canes we pulled, they are so lovely. they will be used in some blown glass pieces that will be in my exhibition.

hopefully i will be able to recall how to do this myself next time i need to but for now this will hopefully get me through for the work i need to make over the next couple of weeks.

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.

feedback please on a new series of work

late last year i had a local wood turner make 10 wooden turned objects for me. i was not sure what i would do with them, they could be bases or lids. really just some wood components for me to play with and try and put some glass with to make a limited series or range of work.

these two are my first prototypes. i was sitting in my studio the other week looking at all my canes cups. i really like the look of the pattern at the bottom of the cup when all the canes meet at one point. see example in the image here. this design would highlight and showcase the cane in the glass component and if the glass was the lid then at the top you would clearly see the point where all the pattern or lines converge.

i can't just use the cups as they are usually tapered too much so i made these clear glass forms just to try out a few options. i would remake the clear glass with different cane patterns. i also need to make each glass unit to fit each wooden component.

so right now there are a few questions. what is it? i think of them like small keep-sake boxes . what do you think?

do they work better with the glass on the bottom, or on top? or as a pair with one each?

functionally they would be ok to hold kind of precious stuff like jewellery.

if the glass goes on the top then you need to place the objects in the middle to be able to place the glass on easily without crushing the object at the edges. does this matter?

here is an image of a cup i made that happens to fit and almost look like the final object.
what do you think? is the pattern too much? should there be more clear in the pattern?

if the glass is on the top then should it have a flat top or slightly curved or raised? the clear sample has a pointed raised top. it could even be more like a bell jar.

i am planning to have these resolved for the group show in july this year, so i need to start making the canes and components in the next few weeks to give myself enough time.

any feedback from anyone is welcome, in fact greatly appreciated.

thanks.

new stuff in the studio

i made some cane plates last year, with the intention of doing something with them. and i have finally started some experimenting with them. these three pieces are small approx 4 cm across, and they are prototypes for a new range of badges i am thinking of putting out into the world. the backing will be a magnet so that the badge can also be displayed on your fridge or filing cabinet too when not wearing them. the edges are ground down and polished on the linisher.



these other tiles are approx 10 cm across and they have been cold worked on the linisher as well. i am not really sure what i am going to do with them. i really like the cane patterns and i am thinking that i will drill a small hole in the top center to be able to hang it on the wall. i am also thinking of sandblasting and then enamelling on an image, not sure of what yet, perhaps a silhouette of some sort, and maybe even spray painting the back of the panel to make sure the line stand out, or you can just hang it on a white wall.

what do you think? any feedback would be appreciated. i am just thinking of how i enjoy the cane patterns, and i want to incorporate image in my work, i guess i am still sorting out what the images are. for now these are all little tests so hopefully they won't feel too precious and i can just go ahead and try anything in the next week or so and learn along the way what works.

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.

one cup

if you can believe it this is the only cup i have made for probably a month or so. i have been busy with so many things like a short whale watching holiday, a trip to melbourne for the design festival and working on making things for the opposite dark exhibition that i have just not had the opportunity to make any. this is also the first cup i have made with a foot on it as well as one that has an interior colour with the canes set over top of that. it looks ok, but not sure if i really like it.

thinking of the cups, i have been trying to sort out in my mind what to do with them all. i have an idea for an exhibition and will be looking for a place to do this installation/performance/interaction type thing next year. i will explain more as soon as i have it sorted out into understandable ideas, right now it is a giant idea that i can not put into words.

party lights

for the past two weeks i have been making these glass cane balls instead of cups. they are to be used with the plastic lantern lights to make some fun party lights. the plastic lanterns will be removed from the string of lights and the glass balls put in their place. the show goes up next week. i will post some images of the final installation.

when you blow glass it usually is not over in the hot glass studio. most of the time you are required to do some cold working and sometimes depending on the design lots of cold working.

this was me on saturday night in my studio. grinding the puntis off of the glass balls on the water fed linisher. when it is all done they will look something like this. except hanging on the wall. fun i think.

but i do miss making cups. it was nice to learn how do a cane roll up on a colour bubble. i had never done this before and i will try to use this technique soon to make more cups.

party light project

i know i said i was only making cane cups for the year, but the studio i work in is having a group show where everyone is making a light. when it was put to us if we wanted to participate i had a lot of energy and what i thought was a brilliant idea. i decided to take a string of garden lights with plastic lanterns and remove the plastic lantern part and make my own glass globes for my own string of party lights.

this is the result after one session of blowing. i have used bright transparent colours and fancy canes. i wanted to keep with using fancy canes in my work. the twisted white canes make the small little balls quite special and festive. each one is approximately 65 mm in diameter. i will make the rest of them this week and hopefully by the end of next weekend i will have a almost finished image for you. the exhibition is up in two weeks. i will post some images of the final installation when its all said and done.

more cups and fire

here are some more cups i made last week. this white one is a favorite but there are many small things wrong with it that you can't see in the photo. the reason there are so many mistakes on this cup is that my assistant actually caught herself on fire while assisting me making this cup , and needless to say i got distracted and ended up tagging some of the canes together in the wrong place. my assistant was ok, luckily she had two shirts on and only the outer one caught on fire and she was able to put it out before she was hurt.

we laughed about it after. i will make this cup pattern again one day soon, but without the fire.

the blue lines on this cup are made up of coloured furnace glass canes. this means there is no clear glass around them, like in normal coloured canes.

the colour is also not as intense as it usually is in normal coloured canes. i really like this cup and i have lots more of the coloured furnace glass canes to play around with still.

the perfect water cup size.

and finally two cups made with the same patterned canes. i really like the white twist that is covered in the black canes, it creates a nice veil effect. i will definitely be trying a few more colour combo options in some fancy twisted canes soon.

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.

cane cup by-product

when you pull cane the aim is to have most of it one nice continuous thickness, and sometimes it works like this for me. but other times either end of the cane will be fatter than the rest of the cane all because the final heat was not right. from each cane pull you learn how you might do a better one next time if you pay attention. anyways the dilemma is what to do with the fat parts. they are still often quite nice looking but too fat to pick up and make into a cup. some thicker ones i save and will do a roll up and make something larger than a cup, but there are bits of cane too fat for this. i didn't want to throw them away, and have recently realised that i can use this fat cane to make marbles.

to make a marble you pick up the fat cane on a punti, and then use a metal melon-baller and jacks to make nice round marbles. they require a bit of cold working and polishing afterwards to make them round and finished but otherwise they are pretty simple to make. not sure what i will do with these yet but they are more useful and fun than fat bits of cane.

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.