plan b

the large cylinders that i have been working on for a while now, have not worked. this happens from time to time in my practice. it just has not worked. they were blown in the studio with the team, then cut in the cold shop without breaking them. here and then put in the kiln and slumped into large sheets of glass. all fine. then i made some stencils of an image to be sandblast into the panels. not fine. they just did not work out like i wanted. there are a few issues, the image i used was too detailed, i was pushing the limits, and that might have been ok, if the black layer of glass on the cylinders was a bit thinner, and the stencil overlap area caused me problems with the stencil blowing out.

it is disappointing, all that time and energy to make these panels, and at the last step it falls apart. but i have enjoyed the process, i have definitely learned a few things along the way. i could not use the panels for the original project, but i have not totally given up. i might be able to find a way to make them salvageable, we will see when i have had some time away from them, so i can return with fresh eyes. its hard to see in the photo, but it just didnt work as planned.

so onto plan B. i decided to make plan B simpler, as i had little time and resources left to make the piece. i decided to use flat black glass that is sandblast and fire polished, with a bolder image.

i got the materials, made the stencils and sandblast glass.

here is me in my respirator ready to spend time at the sandblaster.

here they are ready to go in the kiln.

and then plan B failed.

it is hard to see in this photo but the kiln somehow ran the wrong program so instead of going to 645 degree for ten minutes it went to 650 degrees for 6 hours! a big difference. basically at that temperature for so long the sandblasting almost got melted or polished out of the glass. although not enough for me to reuse the sheet of glass.

so onto plan C. to redo plan B. 

all of this has taken a couple weeks, but i finally delivered the glass to my friend andrew who i am doing the collaboration with. he has made a beautiful piece of furniture that my glass panels are showcased in.

here the panels are in the test fit at his studio.

this piece will be in a group exhibition that opens in 2 weeks. i will post some photos from that show as it happens.

jobs on

since my exhibition opened last month things seem to be operating at a more enjoyable and manageable pace. lets hope that this pace can be enjoyed for a while.

in the studio i have been working on a collaborative piece with a local furniture maker andrew bartlett. i am making some glass panels that will be featured on a cabinet that andrew is making.

the panels are being made from the cylinders of glass that i previously blogged about. now that the bottom and side panel has been cut away i put the cylinder in the kiln and heated it up slowly so that gravity would pull the sides down.

at the right temperature and with the right timing this flattening happens naturally and easily.

this is the controller for the kiln reading out the temperature display in celcius. these cylinders went up to about 670 degrees to get them totally flat.

 

this is what they looked like the next day out of the kiln. 

 

i now have 2 large sheets of glass with a very thing top layer of black glass, backed by a slightly thicker layer of white glass on top of a very thick (about 1cm) layer of clear glass. ready for me to cut and grind the sides to an even and smooth finish. then they will be ready for me to sandblast an image into them. 

the exhibition this is going to be in opens in late november so i have some time to get this finished off.

the other part of my practice that has been keeping me busy is the public artworks.

 

the other weekend deb and i spent a long day sunday cutting an image into some pavers that will be used in a footpath in port adelaide.

this is the artwork deb and i came up with that we wanted to use for the paving.

i took the paver from the pallet and copied the section of the artwork to the paver

this then went to deb who was geared up to use an angle grinder fitted with a diamond blade to follow the lines and cut in the pattern

it was a beautiful day out, and nice to spend it outside in the noise of the angle grinder

as each tile was completed we laid it out in the driveway of the studio

it was hard to photograph but overall the image worked out quite well. there will be a few adjustments to make, after the tiles get paved into site. hopefully this happens next month some time.

deb and i have also just begun the design development phase of another public artwork.

 

we haven;t done anything like this before, so it is interesting to see how we figure things out. the oval and buckets is the layout for the artwork that will be realised in bronze, terrazzo and cast glass

there are 3 installations in the overall artwork, this will be another layout, bucket on crate on terrazzo

 

and a third one with terrazzo area with bronze beam. 

 

the bean will have a bucket sitting on a platform at the top of it. right now we are just trying to figure out proportions, and aesthetics of the objects that will be cast in bronze.

this one is going to take a while to complete.

colour tests

since getting back from overseas, i have had to start back in the studio pretty quickly. in the next 6 months i have a small solo exhibition in melbourne, i am part of a 4 person show in the barossa, i am part of a studio show for SALA, i have been shortlisted for an art prize, and i need to complete the large mirror project and finalise the last details of the public artwork project with the slate pavers and large bench seats. lucky i like lists and being organised. if i take one thing at a time, it will all get done. 

one of the first things I did was get some colour tests done for my sandblast and fire polished wall pieces. this is them sandblast with the stencils.

then i gave them a good clean

and let them dry. you can just make out the test pattern on the glass

 

from here they went in the kiln and were fired to 660 degrees

 

these are the results

 

some worked better than others, 

 

the test pattern was the same on each tile

 

some are just hard to photograph

 

but i think there is some potential in a few of them

i also did the same test panel in black, so i can compare it to the others. black is definitely the strongest results.

and white is definitely the most subtle result.

 

now i have lots of options for the work in my solo exhibition and the group show.

more info on what i am actually going to make for each project as it happens.

new work

i have an exhibition that opens next month at canberra glassworks. i have sent over some of the most successful pieces from my last  show and made 3 new pieces as well. i also sent over detailed install instructions, as i will not be there to install the work myself. i will head over for the opening, and will post photos from that.

 

the new pieces are black tiles 61cm square that get an image sandblasted onto them and then they are fire polished in the kiln.

i made a couple pieces similar to these for a group show last year and they were well received and sold. i decided to make a few more, and as is the way with new work, the first 2 seemed effortless to make, and these next three were more troublesome.

my studio friend who is a photographer helped me document these new pieces.

 

i like them and think i will explore this technique some more, and do a few tests with other colour options and multiple panels. using this process will allow me to create really large wall installations. could be exciting.

 

trying out different types of imagery also helps me learn about the process, and how to make improvements for future work.

newest work completed

i have been working like a dog trying to get everything completed in time to get it all photographed. 

this is a new piece, its a black square of glass and the negative of the image has been sandblasted. then it is fire polished in the kiln. i still need to sort out how to hang this piece. and i made another similar one for another group exhibition that i am in.

 

this is the last piece i completed for the exhibition. i finished it and then quickly packed it up to get to the photographers last friday.

the photogrphy session was 3 hours, and i got all my new work documented. i will post some of these images after the show opens. 

i have 4 weeks now, until it opens, and in this time i need to resolve all the hanging systems for each piece and finalise titles, prices and other details for the gallery.

on going new work

i have been busy in the studio, making new work for my upcoming exhibitions.

this means spending a fair amount of time cold working glass and standing in front of the sandblaster. the piece above has been sandblasted but i am in the process of kiln forming the tiles, so they are slightly curved. you can see a couple in the middle on the left have already been slumped.

i am really excited about this piece. i had the black glass laying around, and came up with this layout and have just finished the computer work for an image that will span over all the glass tiles. i need to make the stencils and sandblast these this week, so I can get them in the kiln to fire polish too.

as a result of the piece i made for the SALA exhibition at the wheatie i have decided to put in a small collection of mirrors that have been sandblasted in reverse and will eventually ( next week) get spray painted as well.

 

its hard to document mirror, because of the reflection obviously, my photographer is going to kill me. 

but i think the mirrors look great, and i can;t wait to have them finished. 

this is the newest piece. i am still trying to decide on an image, i have a few ideas, but have not had the time to really think about it. i need to finish a few of the others off first i think.  but time is ticking, only 4 and a half weeks left to finish off the work and get the wall mounts glued on the backs of some of them for the show.

and i have some ideas for a few more pieces as well, so if there is time, i will try to get a couple more things done. it true, when you are making you get inspired to make the next thing. the process informs the practice. its a good feeling, i want to continue with.

fire polishing done

as i said before i have a hard time throwing away parts of the glass that i cut away when making my flat sheets of glass.

these are the bottoms of the cylinders that i kept and did a little bit of cold working to. i decided to put them in the kiln to fire polish them so i can use them.

this is a piece i have hanging in my house made from the bottom of a cylinder. i want to make more similar to this.

this is them done, with the edges softened and the cut edges fire polished up, ready for some images.