Draped Bowls

My next show is just a few weeks away. I am selling in Palo Alto on November 14 at MECDA's Gala Show and Fundraiser in the Cubberley Auditorium. Detailed information about the Middle Eastern Dance event is found at //www.sfbamecda.org/ check out the list of dancers, prices and vendors. If you plan to come you can save a few dollars with a discount coupon. Check my blog in a few days to have me send you coupons by email.

The $8 ticket is good for the whole day and the activities include individual and group dancing during the day. And the 2 plus hour Gala Show with invited dancers tops off the day's event. There will be a market place to shop till you drop. So take a few breaks, eat, watch the dancing, and shop again. And a raffle of donated items from the vendors takes place that evening. Money from the raffle is donated to Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence.

Refreshments and hot foods and drink will be available all day too. The committee is very happy that Nancy's Catering will be back again. Her soups were a big hit last February.

Back to me......I have tried many ways to present my glass in a friendly come and touch way. I think I finally have a solution using a new display configuration using opaque plastic cubes. They stack and I can show off my individual glass pieces better and in a safer environment. And the glass art is higher at eye level. Easier for buyers to see and touch.

I am continuing to design and fire draped glass to form bowls. These bowls can be used for candy, candles, flowers, even guest soaps. One example how you can use then is to group them together with candles to cast a romantic glow or string them along a holiday table. If you don't want to use candles when entertaining LED lights can be used instead.

When I place round flat pieces of colored glass on the tall stainless steel forms the heat from the kiln slowly starts to soften the glass. As the temperature increases the glass heats up and starts to drape over the form ending in soft folds. When the glass cools these folds have created a unique bowl. Think snowflakes. No two are exactly the same. They are pretty little things just waiting for a spot in your home.

Next time I will write about the Christmas ornaments. I have added another feature this year that is a visual improvement to the style I designed last season. Aways adding new ideas and improvements.

Glass Cutting Tips

I am sharing a portion of an email from Paragon that I received this week along with a few tips I learned along the way. They might help you avoid a few disasters.

GLASS CUTTING POINTERS
The table you are cutting on must be flat.
Pressing too hard with the glass cutter will produce imperfections along the freshly cut glass edge. Press just hard enough to make an even, steady noise and a consistent score line.
Here is a fast way to cut small pieces. The only tools you will need are a glass cutter and straight edge. First, make all your score lines on the glass. Then turn the glass over and tap out the pieces.
When making a long cut, do not lift the glass as you break it with breaking pliers. Lifting can put a slight bow in the glass, which causes it to separate erratically. Instead, leave the glass flat on the table, pull a little out from the edge, and break it with piers.
After scoring, use breaking pliers to separate a narrow piece of glass

Sounds easy? Well, I went through a lot of scrap glass to make a straight break every time. Mainly, because in the beginning I would forget steps or did not take the time to know the glass I was going to be cutting.

I. always clean your glass - on both sides.

2. cut on the correct side. There is a top and bottom. The smooth side is the correct one. You use your fingers to feel the difference.

3. study the glass for imperfections and possible curves and avoid cutting through them and when possible work around them.

4. textured glass is always cut on the bottom because it is now the smooth side.

5. on a long cut make many taps close together, do not skimp!

6. do not rush, take your time and do it right.

Practice on window glass or ask you glass supplier if they have a scrap bin and buy odds and ends saving yourself a lot of money while you are learning. And if you only buy compatible glass you will end up with lots of small pieces that you can use for decorating, or for small projects.

Need to be careful

I reread some of my post and realized I was writing the wrong words about what I mean about my work. I have produced work in the studio. It just was not new, different, challenging or creative. I discovered a few years ago while attending an intensive workshop at Sierra Nevada College that as an artist I had two separate venues.

The first was to design and prepare a variety of fused art glass for a commercial market. These fairs, boutiques, and shows would bring in some needed revenue to help pay for itself and for the art projects that may not be that easy to sell. Commercially I need to produce enough volume to satisfy a variety of shoppers wants and likes as well as their needs, while creating work that represents what I do in my styles and design. An example of this is the line of Holiday Ornaments I made last year.

Then the really creative side of me is represented when I take risk, try new techniques and develop the skills needed to produce a finished one of a kind art piece. These ends up costing more, because of the of supplies needed, the time involved, and the presentation. There is a time and place for both styles of my work.

When I am in preparing for an event there are many choices to make and lots of attention to the details and there is a personal satisfaction to a job well done. The main ingredient missing is the freedom to push the envelope.

So, between sales, I let go and see where the glass takes me. I am back on this road again after my vacation. I have included a photo of the Bow River in Banff. I have not touched the color of the water in this photo. The river is fed from the melting of the glaciers that carries silt with it. This silt causes the variety of colors ranging from aquamarine to many shades of greens and blue. Every time I saw another shade, or the shine of the water I thought of the many sheets of Bullseye glass that looks like the water. I wanted to get home and reproduce what I saw. Be inspired!

Inspiration Explored

I am thinking that I will include an inspiring photograph from my road trip to Canada to each new blog for a while. And as I finish my future glass pieces I will add them too.

We rarely know where our ideas come from as we toil away in our studios, yards, dining rooms, wherever we pick up our tools of choice. All that matters is the doing and hopefully the completion. But, as we are aware, sometimes life gets in the way and we move away from what we love to do. I wrote in my last post that I have been away from anything related to fused glass and tools and shows. It has been almost eight months.

We planed to visit Canada and Banff in particular 8 or 9 years ago. Instead we went to New Orleans. That switch is too long a story to get into at this time. Let's just say this trip was long over due. And today very much appreciated. The benefits extended far beyond the rest and relaxation we needed. The escape was the first sensation that hit me. Then as we traveled along the landscape became the focus. Every mile held more surprises and unexpected beauty. I have never been a camera junky, but I wanted to capture every vista, mountain, sky and river I saw. I took 100's of photos expecting to only find a fraction worth keeping. I was wrong. My shoot and point took better photos than I expected, the downloads at the end of the day captured that day beautifully and they were as good as Eric's photos taken on a digital single reflex. We both have more photo memories than expected.

Every day I found myself comparing the colors and textures I saw in nature to the types of glass I use and many that I have not used. I started to see myself gathering glass and recreating the images of this trip. I don't know what my end results will be and I don't care. I just want to explore with what I have and use my memories and photographs as my guide. Never having worked this way in itself is another inspiration.

As you follow my blog, if you are an artist I hope that perhaps some of my post and photographs can inspire and or motivate you too. Remember an artist is more than one who uses art materials. Every time you plan your garden and set out your plants, or decide it is time to redo the living room with paint and new cushions, you are using your creativity and artistic skills.

More on exploring our inner artist later.

Inspiration finally arrives

Yes, inspiration finally arrives!

I have been in such a slump I thought it was never going to end.

We just finished a lovely road trip to Canada with a week stay in Banff. I heard it was a beautiful place and we have been to many beautiful state and national parks in the United States, but the sheer variety of landscapes we experiences was overwhelming. Many of the places we visited were indeed assume. You could go to one place for hours and see the lake, or mountain, or glacier and never view it the same way twice. The clouds, sun, shadows, even the wind changes the view. The colors of the lakes and rivers range from blues to greens, to aquamarine. Often these colors appeared in the same body of water in various degrees. These colors are due to the run of glaciers milk. The ground up rock and soil mixes with the glacier's melted waters.

The shifts in the landscape is are so beautiful that words fail to describe what I saw. Because I was sure I could not remember all the colors, I took massive amounts of photos. I do not usually do this, but I wanted to capture the scenes that nature provided so freely.

I am going to develop a series of work using the colors I found so inspiring. I will try a reproduce some of the water colors in my pieces. I don't know if they will be useful or decorative art pieces or wearable art. The first thing I need to do is find the right pieces of glass and glass paints. I may, also, use special photo paper that I can copy some of the images I have and fuse it between glass.

This trip was as good as taking a fuse glass class for inspiration and for recharging a part of me that has been neglected for way too long.