are 20 images too many?

this is the last few days or week in review. i have been busy so i will keep this brief.

i have done another layer on the enamels. i think they will need one more after this and then they will be done. 

 

i have an idea on how to use enamels in my artwork and will do a test this week.

 

i made some more cylinders, these i will become flattened and then be used for a wall piece. 

i have been thinking of making a wall piece with the squares that have been slumped in a mold so they are shallow dishes. so the wall piece will not be totally flat.

i have been blowing glass 2 times a week. it has been great to be back in the hot shop. i really do enjoy it, and will hopefully continue making it into the hot glass studio in the new year. 

 

 and surprisingly i have remembered how to blow glass better than i thought i would, like riding a bike. 

this is a cylinder that has been flattened ready to be rolled up backwards. the next step is to be slowly heat them up in a kiln as below, with the colour side down.

 this is what my reverse rolls ups look like when i load them in the kiln before my session to warm them up. I heat them to 580 degrees before heating them in the glory hole and then rolling them up.

these are my first 2 reverse roll ups. they are smallish about 15 cm tall.

 

this is the result of one of my blowing sessions last week. 4 hours of fun and work. 

this is the image i am thinking of sandblasting onto the slumped plates. not sure about it yet, but think i need to do one to figure it out. I am not sure if it looks too machine made or mass produced. i think product needs more of a hand touch to be successful. there is no point making things that need to compete with items made for much less overseas, there needs to be a point of difference. 

 

these are the scraps i have been saving from cutting out sections of my cylinders. i really like the jagged edges and i am going to try and fuse them together into a new sheet of glass.

these are my new works. they are the first of the reverse roll ups. basically i made the cylinders with the colour on the inside as this is the easiest way to layer colour on a form. then i slump the cylinders open so the colour is on the surface. then i flip the sheet over so the colour is on the outside, heat it up and then roll it up backwards in the hot shop again.

 

these forms are best when i do as little as possible to them. these are around 30 cm tall.

 

they are like rolled up pieces of paper.

 

they can have movement and form.

there seems to be endless possibilities for the shape of them.

and they might not be done just yet either. while i like the solid colour and the fading colour i am thinking of sandblasting a super pixelated image into the surface of the colour to reveal the white. more of an abstract image than i have previously used in my work.

top view of the blue form. from the front it looks cylindrical, but it really is like a rolled up bit of paper. 

there is also the option is setting them up like more formal settings. maybe the vertical form is etched with image and the base is left plain. or maybe the base is printed paper in the shape of the flat form of the vertical section. 

not sure yet, but i am interested in exploring a few ideas.

so that was basically what i have been doing for the past few days. more to come with only 12 days of my residency left, i have a more work to do.

todays events

today started off with a quick trip to the post office to get a few tasks off the list (birthday present to grandma sent)

i then made my way to the glassworks to get started on some cold working. i ground and polished the blue cylinder and cups that i made previously, and i did some sandblasting tests on the cups, with the 2 different grades of sand that are on offer here. it is good to have some small tests to practice blowing glass but also to get a hand on the cold working machinery here. i think that it is a great studio and today i had the whole place to myself this morning. amazing.

the main task i had to do today was cut my cylinders in half to get them ready to load into the kiln. there are so many kilns here that you can use it is great. i fit all 5 cylinders in one kiln for one firing. just before i came home tonight i checked inside the kiln and they are all perfect and flat. this is the first step in the after blowing process for my work.

i started making some paper prototypes for some objects i want to make. i have been thinking about trying to make work that is not on the wall but free standing. i want to make cylinders in the hot glass studio, then cut and flatten them in a kiln, and then roll them back up backwards, so that the colour is on the outside but also so it looks like a piece of paper has been rolled together, (like my prototypes).

it is a long drawn out process, but i think the result could be interesting. there will be many possibilities with the different angles that i roll it back up on. I am glad to have my pal Netty helping me with this, i don't think i can do it without her.  this prototype is also sitting on some imagery that i am considering, shadows of fences. not sure if they should go on the 3d forms or not. 

i do like the idea of sandblasting on images that are very pix-elated, and maybe just a close up section of an image so you don't really know what it is on the outside surface of the form. what do you think?

i also want some feedback on these next 2 images. i have laid out printouts of images that i have taken over the past couple years that i like and that work with my process of image on glass. i want to know if they go together or if there are some that stick out stronger than others. are there any images that you are drawn to?

the size i printed them at is not necessarily the size they will be, it is just to see them larger. i am still trying to sort out what size artwork i can make that is big but small enough to be purchasable by the average person to fit in the average house.

also i am not sure what colours to make them in. black and white, or other colours, i think the image will dictate that but not sure yet. 

i am having a good time but feeling like i still don't have the direction in my work that i need to get to work. any feedback from anyone who reads this is welcomed.

when i needed a break i went to the national library to try and go to the map room. I was thinking of putting some hand drawn maps on my work. but the map room closes at 5. (i got here at 4:45) but i will go back another day.

this is the national library.

so that is my day. i am home now making dinner and lunch for the next few days, trying to relax or be inspired.

lately

lately i have been spending my time hanging out with this cute little puppy! to me he is huge now, but really he is not. but he has grown so much. this is where he is right now as i type this entry. cute.

ok, enough about otto - for now.

at the studio i am trying to start the next piece. i am doing this in a kind of different way. usually i have an idea and then i make the glass to fit he idea. but in this case i have the glass already made and flattened (it was given to me, lucky me)

 

the colour - red over white, is quite nice, and i now just need to think about what to do with it. part of me was thinking a more formal piece with just red rectangular tiles lined up in a grid, a kind of a minimal study on red. but i was wondering what red makes you think of. are there any images that you can think would suit red? like autumn leaves for example? 

any feedback or input would be great. otto and i thank you.

from the garden exhibition ideas

i am in a group show later in the year, called "from the garden". i am putting in some work from my last exhibition, but i am also making new work. i think it is going to be a good show, i am liking the challenges i have set for myself. but i am also wanting some feedback or i am looking for a bit of inspiration to finish off these pieces.

the first piece, are these six domes on wooden bases. i need to remake some of the domes, and make them taller, but the idea i have is to suspend from the top of the dome something - this will make it precious. so i will have an object hanging in each dome. the thing i am having trouble with is what to hang in there. it should be "from the garden" but i am not sure how to narrow it down, i don't want it to be so obvious, as a mini fruit or veg. i have been thinking of large seeds, or pine cones, you know stuff you can collect in the garden. does anyone out there have any ideas on what to hang in the domes?

i think they will look good, i am still deciding on colour, might just go with clear, but again this depends on the object inside.

i made these bottles when i was in uni, and i like how the hearts hang inside the bottles, it makes them special and gives them a place to exist. i have always wanted to go back to this idea, and now i think is a good time to do it.


the next piece i am working on used the shallow wooden dished again. i want to cut some mirror to fit in the bottom of each dish and then to the mirror i will attach some plant like forms made of glass.

they might look like blades of grass, of just organic little bits off of trees. i have these small drawing i forgot to take a photo of that demonstrate this much better. then i will fill each dish entirely with these growing glass forms, so they will look like petri dishes that have overgrown with plants. the mirror at the bottom will just add to the optical illusion when you look at them from above and add a way for me to secure the glass in the dish.



kind of like this, but a wooden dish and glass forms.


so that is what is in my head right now, what to hang in the domes and what shapes to make out of glass.

any suggestions?

and now, i need some suggestions

i haven't made anything since i finished that last piece. well i have blown glass and made some components and i have been thinking about what to do next, but i haven't really done much. i guess you need that space to reboot in between finishing off one thing and moving onto the next thing.

i have been procrastinating on this installation for the show. i must get back onto it. i will aim to have it compete for the end of this year.

but while i do this piece i also need to be thinking ahead to my another piece as well. after finishing off the F1 Hybrid piece with the tractor image on it from my last post, i have been thinking about doing another piece that is the opposite of that one.

the idea i have so far is that there will be lots of different images in the background of mechanised things, machines, tools, etc. that part is easy. the part i am having difficulty with is thinking about what image would represent the garden.



this is what i want to ask you. what could be the image to use to represent garden and be the opposite of the tractor image?

what do you think?

first my apologies for my average images, these are hard to photograph.

i would like your opinion please on the following 4 images. i know i need to adjust this image some more to make it more successful for sandblasting, but i am working so closely with this image that i need some outside perspectives.

here is what i want to know:

can you tell what the image is?/what do you see in the image?

which image is most successful?/which one is the best?

image 2 and 3 are the negative of the image and image 1 and 4 are the positive of the image, which set is easier to read?/more realistic

any other comments?

image 1


image 2

image 3

image 4

all of these images are sandblasted through the green glass layer, more on this process in a future blog posting.

thanks for you input.

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.