Last time around, I talked about murrini cane, and the most obvious way to make them in the kiln: A murrini rod mold, AKA "rodpod." As I've said, I'm not pretending that anything I discuss here is my invention or brand new stuff: Murrini-making is one of the oldest glassmaking techniques. This is just a compendium of methods I use [...]
FINALLY I'm back in the studio, messing around, after a six-month hiatus. And I figured I'd start with something easy: Making components for bigger sculptures. Then it turned into this bigger thing, i.e., exploring how to make murrini in a kiln. I'm trying several methods here, and this will probably be a three-parter. Sorry about that. So...I've got some ideas for cast, figurative sculptures and vessels that incorporate murrini, bronze and other things. First order of business: Make enough murrini for easy playing.
Most of us get into the art business because we love it...but it's possible to love it to death. You can get so serious and self-critical about your art that you maybe forget why you're doing it: Because it's so much fun. I realized last weekend that I was headed that way, fast. And so for the next 48 hours I stopped worrying about being a grownup, serious artist trying to find my voice and instead had fun. I made a couple of glass samplers, an old project I used to love doing. It used up a bunch of glass scrap, reintroduced me to my inner child and did some battery recharging.
Ever had one of those days where there's all kindsa work you OUGHTA be doing, but your inner child says "The heck with it. Let's play?" That was me last weekend. I finally carved out a whole glorious 48 hours to make art. Excellent time to shovel out the studio, fire a bunch of pate de verre test tiles, mix up a couple of custom billets, redefine some investment facecoats, repair the broken head of the gigantic nude on my sculpture stand so I can get her silicone finished... The heck with it. Let's PLAY!
Those of you who know me well also know that I'm obsessed with animation. I've loved Disney and Looney and Hanna Barbera since babyhood. Yet what turned me on to computers and graphics and 3D and animation and all that stuff was a guy named Will Vinton. The idea that you can build your own world, your own stories, your own rules, well...that's a heaven that Mr. Vinton introduced me to, long ago. So it was kinda jaw-dropping to meet him today, judging OGG's Fusathon glass creations. Nice guy.
Light and I have been in conversation as far back as I can remember. Most times, I just listen. Sometimes I get to talk back. Rarely--too rarely--we sing. And it's beginning to feel as though we'll sing, soon. When we sing, the light becomes a tangible thing, flowing like water, etching everything in its path, and I finally, blindingly, understand in my bones the definition of "illumination."
This getting ready to move stuff is a pain but with some compensations; I inventoried my raw glass stock (came up with about 90 sheets of glass that will be coming to a garage sale soon), and my fingers started itching to cut glass...so I banged out some keystone projects. Nothing great, certainly not great art, but a nice change of pace from the intensity of casting and a good way to turn a bunch of scrap into something that holds fruit.
I’m posting this one as a response to some folks on warmglass asking about kilncarving, so please bear with me. I’ve experimented with the level of detail possible in a kilncarving, and been pretty pleased with the results. At some point I’ll go back and mess with this some more, see what I can do. (And apologies for the crummy [...]
I know I said that I was off writing about glass projects for awhile (seeing as how I'm revamping the studio and swamped with dayjob stuff), but I just noticed that seven of the last eight posts were about restaurants. While that speaks well for my social life (I suppose), it does seem a bit lopsided. So, while I'm getting [...]
Hypothesis: A glass framework stabilizes a tack-fused stringer construction, requiring fewer stringers (and likely fewer firings). Background: I'm having a fair amount of success with tack-fused stringer projects that build on a glass support structure. Since the support framework is tedious to construct, I'm wondering if it's really contributing enough to be worth doing. Test: Make a stringer vessel without [...]
