More Pate De Verre

 Last week I tried a little Pate De Verre – and I did admit it wasn’t my most favourite technique…. but today I found myself wanting to have another go.

First I made a couple of moulds.

The first dish was made using a wax cast from a silicon mould.

The second piece I wanted to be a cone shape to represent a Moroccan sugar cone, so I hand built a cone shape out of clay.

Once I had the wax and the clay I made a plaster mould around them. Using the recipe 1lb each of plaster and molochite to 1.5 pints of water.

Once the moulds were dry, I melted the wax out of one, and dug the clay out of the other.

Then I mixed frit glass with a mix of 50/50 glasstac and water into a thick paste.

I pressed this into the moulds, then packed them with a pre-fired plaster powder so the glass didn’t collapse back into the middle.

Then off to the kiln to be fired at 765 degrees for an hour.

Quite happy with the results of these…

A very untactile little dish and a white cone that actually does look like sugar!

The Kaleidoscope Project - candy stripes disc

 As part of a uni assignment, I am creating a type of kaleidoscope – the viewer will be made from mirrors and the discs will all be different using various forms of architectural glass techniques.

This disc is a fused ‘candy stripes’ design.

I started off by cutting a circle out of glass, then I cut some glass ‘ribbons’ to fit the circle and laid them onto the class, not in any particular order.

Then it went into the kiln and I fired it at 760 degrees to fuse the ribbons to the disc.

The finished disc was lovely and smooth, and the ribbon lines were nice and crisp.

It made a really interesting pattern when looked at through my kaleidoscope viewer.  😊

Kiln pick-up practice

This week we had a demo on picking up hot (previously made and reheated) pieces from the kiln to create a sculpture.

There was about 30 pieces in the kiln, and 5 let at the end of the demo so I cheekily asked if I could have them to practise with.  😊

I had to take a punty and pick each piece up one-by-one, keeping it at the correct temperature for attaching to the main piece.  It was quite good fun actually, although a bit warm when hovering over an open kiln  😊

I think the finished piece looks a little dolphin like….. I was planning to make a kind of sculpture with it by crocheting through the holes – but we shall see!

Also, I need to decide which way to display it.

Eye Eye

Oooooo it's been a long time since I blogged - naughty me!

Anyway, I thought I would tell you about my latest experiment.

A friend of mine made me the most wonderful beaded necklace with a glass eye cabochon as the centre piece.  This then got me thinking, eye cabochons.

I did a bit of research and found some glass dolls eyes on eBay, but they were something like £7.00 a pair.  Gulp.  I was looking for something a wee bit cheaper so I could resell to my customers.

After a lot of emails and a bit of haggling, I found a factory in China that made dolls eyes.  It took a good few emails for me to get across what I wanted  - oval, flat back, glass, no wires.

Well, I obviously didn't do very well as I received round with stems on the back  - at least they were glass!!

So, how to get them flat.  Luckily I have a kiln, so I set to work.

First of all I had to use my rod cutters and snip all the back off as close as I could get them.

Unfortunately I couldn't get some of them quite as close to the back as I would have liked, so they didn't all sit too straight in the kiln.  Never mind, I thought, the odd wonky one will be fine  :)

All night they were in the kiln, and I didn't peep once.

In the morning, I threw open the lid and ...... whey hey....... eyes!!!

They weren't too wonky at all, a success of sorts  :)

Poppy

I did this a little while ago for my Dad's (Daddy L) birthday, but I came across a photo of it and thought I would share :)


Daddy L loves poppies, he is a photographer and adores photographing flowers, especially poppies. So I thought I would try and do him a poppy picture with a difference for his special day.


I took two pieces of clear glass and found a nice simple poppy picture on the internet. I put one piece of glass on top of the picture and traced the poppy onto it, then coloured it in with glass paint.




Next I put it into the kiln to fuse the two pieces together.


Stupidly, however, I forgot to put the fine details on first so of course they ended up on the back once it was finished !! However I was still moderately pleased with the result. I could have turned it around but the top side was beautifully smooth and the underneath rather rough.


Next I found a pretty background image on the internet and cut it to fit the fused poppy tile, I put a piece of bright red card in a beautiful black wooden frame and glued the poppy tile in place.



Ta da, a 3D picture for Daddy L :)

A few Christmassy Gifts

Been trying and trying to get a bowl designed and in the kiln, but it is so damn cold out there, I just can't stay long enough. So instead I have been just doing some odd little bits in the small kiln.

I made these the other day with a lovely glass I got given, I didn't know what it was compatible with so I just had to use it on it's own, so made these little 'snowflakes' for my Mum's Christmas Tree.

The glass has a lovely irridescent sheen to it, almost like a rainbow has kissed it.

I also made some Cufflinks for a male family member.

And a couple of rings for the ladies :)