Stripy Fused Glass Dish

 

Instagram has a lot to answer for!

I saw a stripy glass dish on there ages ago and really wanted to have a go at making my own.

So when I was having a tidy in the studio and found some stringers (very thin 'strings' of glass) that someone had given me when I bought something else second hand from them, I decided to have a go. 

 

It's quite a simple idea; take a clear glass circle.  Lay lots of glass stringers across the circle.  Fuse everything together.  Lastly slump your glass circle in a mould.

I haven't done that much fusing and this is only my second go at slumping, but it all worked a treat! 

And I leant some helpful lessons - yes you can use broken stringers to make a full line, but they will separate at the break.  I think melting them together first would stop this happening. 

 

I also found out that cutting a big circle is quite hard.  I didn't have anything quite the right shape to draw round, so it's not quite a proper circle.  I do have a circle cutter, but it max's out at maybe 10cm.  So if I want to do more I either need to buy a circle cutter that will do bigger circles, or buy pre cut circles!

I also amended my firing schedule as it was set for a 6mm thickness of glass and mine is more like 4mm.  Reducing the time it sat at the top temperature seemed to work fine. 

So now I have a lovely stripy dish.  I love it, and I love how it changes in different lights.  Love when a glass project works out first time! 

Making Marbles With Martin

 

 I've just spent the week in Scarborough with 'im outdoors, the dog and my in-laws.

It was a nice week away, but I think I bemused the in-laws by disappearing for a couple of hours on Monday afternoon so I could take a marble making class.

I've been wanting to try marble making for ages, but didn't have the confidence to do it by myself.  

 

I knew that Martin at Tuffnells Glass does a marble making 1:2:1 but at 2hrs it doesn't really justify the 6hr drive!  However, when I realised we'd be staying a 30min drive away I booked a session. 

Although the rest of the week was quite cool, I still found myself sweating away in a glass studio again!

 

Over the course of the 2hrs I learnt how to make a vortex marble and one with dichroic glass (a glass that changes colour in different light).  Two different techniques but with lovely results. I think my recent classes with Laura helped too.

 Then I had to wait before I could have a proper look as they had to anneal in the kiln.  We went back a couple of days later on the way to Bempton Cliffs (we saw puffins!!) to pick them up. 

 

So they are not round, and one has a dent where I dropped it while melting in the punty mark.  Oops!  But as first go marbles I'm very pleased.  I understand the concept and I'm pretty sure I could do this again at home, although they will probably be smaller with my little torch.  And I think if I had more time I could get the shaping better, but I didn't want to keep 'im outdoors waiting as he came to pick me up.

I can really see how each thing I learn builds on previous skills and improves my skill set as a whole.  And while it can still sometimes be frustrating when things don't work, over all I'm very satisfied with the skills I'm building. 

(They are really hard to photograph.  You can find a video of them on my Instagram.) 

A Lampworking 1:2:1 With Laura Quinn

 What do you do on the hottest day of the year so far?

Spend it with Laura Quinn doing a 1:2:1 lampworking session of course! 

We were due to start at 10:00 but moved it forward to try and miss some of the later heat.  I'm not sure how well that worked.  I was very sweaty - it's hard to do your best work with sweat rolling into your eyes and making your hands slippery.  By the time I left at 4pm it said 38c in the studio!

 

But it was a great day.  I'd asked for a 1:2:1 because I felt like I was really starting to get somewhere with blowing little vases but I really needed someone to just help me fine tune what I was doing.

We started by making 4 tiny vases.  You can see the improvement if you look at them in order.  So much better than what I'd been able to make by myself.  I'm really starting to see how hot I need to get the glass and the angles I need to hold things to get gravity to help me out.

 

After lunch we went up a tube size and I made a tiny glass.

I don't intent to make many glasses, but it was great for improving my technical skill.  Again how hot the glass needs to be.  The angle to hold the reamer.  How to use my diamond shears so I don't twist the glass.

I learnt so much I'm desperate to get into my studio to put it into practice and start to really memorise the different steps.  But it's still a little too hot.  Maybe later in the week. 

 

While a sweaty one, I was a great day.  Laura's a great teacher and so happy to share her knowledge.   

Note: I did manage to get into the studio and I made 5 more vases.  I still need to improve my necks but very happy with what I managed to create. 

But it's made me wonder if I need to upgrade my torch.  While I could work with this size tube, it was a little slow and I think I would struggle with anything bigger.  Something to think about. 

Casting Glass Half Sphere Paperweights

 

As you might have noticed I love playing with glass.  One of the techniques I've tried but not really mastered is casting.  So I was quite excited to see Warm Glass offering a casting class in their Glass School.

 

Casting glass half spheres with Silvia Levenson, took us through the whole process of making a mould, filling it with glass, adding designs and finishing it off. 

During 3 live calls over 3 weeks she shared her knowledge, inspiration and answered all our questions.  And with a week between each call we could, in theory, join in.

 

I did try, but work kept getting in the way.  But while I didn't keep up, I have now completed my first attempt and I really want to have another go as I have lots of ideas going forward.

 

I ended up making 6 half spheres as I had enough materials and a kiln big enough to take them.

Making the moulds and doing the first fire with glass billet was quite straight forward.  But then I had to cut some glass circles and it took me a little while to get the courage up to try that.  In the end it was pretty straight forward, helped by the fact I bought myself a circle cutter. 

Next step was to decorate some of the circles for each half sphere.  I would have loved to try a stencil, but I didn't have any and didn't have time to find any.

 

So in two I added one of my glass leaves.  In one I tried to make a landscape. In a couple I used decals.  I did add some gold stars but they burnt off which was disappointing.  (something to remember for next time).

 

I wasn't sure what to do with the last one, so I used some bubble powder.  I had no idea what it would do or how much to use (I think I over did it).  But I do love the result!

I have so many other ideas that I want to try now! 

 

I really enjoyed this project.  It stretched my but in a good way and I definitive want to have another go.  The only problem is how long you have to wait before being able to open the kiln.  With such large chunks of glass they have to cool very very slowly so they don't crack.  I hated waiting!

Copper Foiled Leaf Box

 When I first came across copper foiling I was excited by the idea of being able to create boxes in glass.

However, that was before I realised quite how hard it is to get things to sit at the right angles as you solder them, and how hard it is to make changes.  It's quite a challenging process.

 

Last year I cut all my glass to size for a simple glass box.  I used a 'coaster' blank and fused one of my glass leaves to it, and used that sizing for the rest of the box.

Then I foiled it and solder it and it ended up with a terrible mess - the lid wouldn't open and when I forced it, it ripped all the foil off!

 

I pulled all the rest of the foil off, then left it in a sad little pile in the studio.

Following on from Lauras class last week, I wanted to get back into the studio, but to do that it needed a good tidy.  And I had to decide what to do with my 'box'.

I decided to have another go.  I cleaned all the glass and stuck on new foil.  I'd read a bit about how to make boxes over Christmas, so had another go at putting it together.

Success!

 

It's not great, but it shows the concept does work, and it's a cute box.  With a bit of practice I think I could improve my technique and be more confident with the end result.

Intro to Borosilicate Glass with Laura Quinn

 

Just before Christmas last year I spent a morning with Laura Quinn and my mate to have a go at making blown baubles.  It was a lovely morning, and as we were leaving Laura started telling us how she was going to offer an intro to borosilicate glass class in the spring.  So of course I signed up.

I have done a little with boroilicate before, but I'd been having a few issues at home (like the petals falling off my flowers) so I was keen to get a little more tuition on this.

 

Laura has transformed her garage into a lampworking studio with room for 4 students.  It's a really nice space and the group size was just right, enough people to talk to but not so many that you didn't get personal attention.

 

The class was over two days.  We started by learning how to make chains.  I made some rectangles and some circles.  I was surprised how easy it was to join them up!

Next up we started making components for flowers - petals and leaves.  We had several techniques to play with here, and I think this is something I want to practice more at home.  My petals were quite fat!

 

On day two we learnt how to put our flowers together.  This was in a slightly different way than I've learnt before, so I think I can now play and take the best from both.

After flowers we learnt how to blow little vases out of glass tube.  I think this was my favourite thing!  I only had time for 2 and I could see the improvement just in that time.

 

Laura also showed us how to make glass rings.  Different from how I make my soft glass rings!

 

And lastly some glass knitting.  Much harder than it looks, but I think I started to get the hang of it towards the end.  

 

So by the end of the weekend I had quite an impressive haul.  And I'd learnt so much!  It was a great environment for learning - very friendly.  I'll be keeping an eye out to see what other classes she offers in the future.

I haven't really been in my studio this year as it's been quite cold and I've not been feeling very inspired.  This was the shove I needed, and now I'm excited to get out there again.  Yay! 

Recycling Broken Glass

 

Whenever I work in glass I always end up with either broken bits or things that didn't work and they all go into a tub.

Last summer I'd finally got to a place where I had enough old glass to think about recycling it.

First I had to give it a wash, then I set up my big kiln with some metal dams set up in a square, poured in all my old scrap and set it to a full fuse.

 

I should point out a couple of things here.  1. I made sure all the glass was the same brand - if you don't do this it not going to end well.  2. I lined my dam with fibre paper so nothing would stick.

Out of my kiln came a very solid slab of colourful glass and I had to think about what to do with it.

 

Later in the year I got a tile saw and a flat lap grinder.  So in the new year with some time on my hands I set about cutting up the slab and then grinding each piece down to take off sharp corners etc.  I then put half into the small kiln for a fire polish. 

 

I learn so much from this process.  For instance, you need to grind open bubbles out or you just get a cloudy mark on the surface.  Don't spend too much time shaping if using a fire polish as they are so thick they will loose their shape a bit.  Be careful using the flat lap, it will grind away your finger nails!

 

So with my second batch I took these learnings on board and tried again.

I've now got some lovely colourful chunks of shiny glass.  7 of these have had silver plated bails added and are now in my shop for sale as pendants.  Lovely chunky statement pieces.

But some of the chunks will be made into rings or brooches.  The only problems, being the price of silver right now and the amount of time I have, makes this harder to sort out.  There are some other lovely metals out there so when I have time I need to decide what I'd like to do.

I love that I am able to use my waste material to make something that hopefully people will like.  It feels much better than just chucking broken glass away. 

  

Viking Chain and Glass Beads

 

One of the gifts I received last Christmas was a kit for making Viking Chain from Abby Hook.

I'm pretty busy right now, so I wasn't sure when I'd have time to try it out, but then it snowed and there was no way I was going into the studio, so I collected some tools and sat in the warm house instead and played with wire.

It was much more straight forward than I thought it would be.  Basically you need to wrap your wire round a dowle and depending on the thickness of your wire and your dowle and if you use 3 or 4 loops will all change how your chain turns out.

It's amazing, as once you've done all you're wrapping you've got quite a solid worm of wire, but then you use the draw plate and suddenly it's thinner, flexible and flowing.

 

I made my first chain using the copper wire in the kit I received.  I then made a second from some thinner purple wire from a job lot I got off Facebook.

Lastly I made a silver chain with some silver coloured thin wire. 

Which is when I realised they needed something extra.  So once the snow recided I did go down to the studio and made some beads.  Amber to go on the copper chain, purple for the purple chain and cream and turquoise for the silver.  I actually tried two different purples, but the dark was best.

 

I pulled the purple chain a little thinner than the silver chain and the beads move around, while the beads on the silver chain can be moved, but won't move by themselves.  I quite like that they sit still.  I like having that control, plus they won't full off when I undo the chain. 

These are fun and easy to make, and nice and light to wear.  I think the silver is my favourate, but I'd wear them all.  I wonder what other colour combo's I can come up with?

Lampwork Blown Baubles

 

 If you've been following along, you might notice that I have a bit of an obsession with hollow glass forms.  If not, you do now.

I spent a lot of time this year making hollow beads.  And while I got to the end result I wanted, I'm always interested if there is a better way to do something.

 

When I saw Laura Quinn was offering a 'blow your own bauble' class just before Christmas, I signed up straight away. 

So on the Saturday before Christmas, my best mate and I, spent 2 hrs in Laura's studio learning how to blow baubles out of borosilicate glass tube, which is very different from the glass I normally work with.

Laura was so lovely and patient with us, and when I told her I had my own studio she was kind enough to get into much more technical details than I expect most people would get (or want).  And she let me make my own points!

We both had a really great morning and came away (well they were posted to us once annealed) with pretty decent baubles. 

 

What a great way to start the holidays!  Can't wait to see if I can do something similar in my own studio, although her torch was a monster, so I'll be working smaller I think.