Making Jellyfish Paperweights.

I have been practising my jellyfish paperweights, I love this technique and they look so organic when finished.

Just a little bit of coldworking to do now to make the bases all smooth and pretty, as they are marked and sharp from breaking them off the iron.

This is how you make them........

 Take a gather of glass from the furnace.

Gently marver, then keeping the iron upright, dip the end in frit – get a good coverage.

Take a second gather.

Gently marver, then sitting at the bench use a pokey tool to push the colour down into the glass, wetting the tool between each poke so that it doesn’t stick.

Pull the glass out to stretch the ‘tentacles’.

Then chop off the end.

Now you need a partner to get another gather of glass with some colour on it.   Hold it in an optic mould for a minute to get a nice shape, and attach it to the end of the work on your iron.

Reheat and push the new colour down slightly over the head over the top of the tentacles.

Take another gather of glass over the top.

Form into a nice shape, cut a line with the Jacks and knock off the iron.

Place in the annealer.

Easy eh?    :)

Making paperweights

 Take a gather of glass from the furnace.

 

Gently marver, then sit at the bench and wait until the glass is slightly hard – turning all the time to keep the shape.

Take a second gather.

Next sit at the bench and use  gravity to help you centre the glass.

Next use the wet cherrywood block to help shape the paperweight.

 

Reheat in the glory hole.

Use the Jacks to form a cut.

Add water to the cut with tweezers.

Knock the paperweight off the iron over the vermiculite.     Place in the kiln.

My first attempt… could be rounder, but not too bad.

Adding Frit….

 

Roll the hot glass in frit (broken glass or various sizes) before the second gather.

 

These were rolled in a fine powder frit of three different colours.

These were rolled in a fine powder frit in colbalt blue, then twisted before the second gather was added.

These were rolled in a fine powder frit in white, then a chunky frit in turquoise… I quite like the ribbon effect it has created, but I think I prefer the finer frit effects.

This one was rolled in Cremation ash  (a friends three dogs) before the second gather.   The ash has not melted and stayed a lovely silvery colour, magnified by the second coating of glass.