Wednesday Woof

I've really been enjoying comments from all of you on the glass escapade. Today, I'm sharing just a few of the photos I took of the dogs on Saturday morning before the glass class.

Any time Gus is looking intently into the distance or up, just know there is a squirrel in the hickory tree making merry with the hickory nuts. Except for this first one, that's when the chain saws started cleaning up downed trees.

Happy Tuesday!

Sunday Glass Class, befores and afters

Before I show the afters from yesterday, a word about today's project: circles. Take a look at the material below. Do you see a circle occurring naturally? No. The circle project went well for the rest of the class, but I seemed to be circle challenged. My clear layer was about 1/4" larger than my colored layer, and that was after I asked for help cutting from the instructor. So absorbed in this circle business was I that I forgot to take pictures of the projects around me. Lea made a beautiful bowl with a clear layer, a layer of clear and white opaque streaky glass and then blue and aqua squares around the outer edge.

Mine was clear layer, pimento red layer and then orange/coral streaky glass and yellow glass squares. I'm crossing my fingers ;) The glass is then fuse fired or tack fired. Once that is done, the piece is placed on the mold you chose and slump fired. That's about what it sounds like: you fire it to a temp and for a long enough time for the glass to soften and take on the shape of the mold. Mine is a 9 5/8" bowl that I made a little smaller at 8.5".

The second project of the day was a window hanging. The base was clear glass and then you filled in your design with colored glass from the scrap boxes. Below is Signe, hard at work.

Lea was making a floral scene to hang in her bathroom window. See the green at the bottom and the red flower petals and blue sky?

And here's mine. Think abstract nature scene: yellow sun, the many shades of blue that the sky is, a tree, white wispy clouds and a strip of green grass at the bottom. The clear gap on the lower half got filled in with darker blues - you know, the way the sky is darker at the edges. I have it set to be tack fired, which means everything retains it's shape, but may be it should be fuse fired where everything mushes together. Thoughts?

Coasters you saw yesterday before they are tack fired:

Coasters after tack firing - the single below matches the lower right above:

Everything retained it's shape but was heated enough to anneal (fancy word for bond, I think). I like the coasters. I need to find some little rubber feet. Oh, and don't worry about the white smudge on the one below. It's dust from the kiln that I haven't wiped off.

Here's my pendant before. You take a clear glass base and add two support strips top and bottom. Just under the top support strip, you place a thin strip of this fire fabric stuff. Then, a colored layer on top, it's aqua in my example. And then a piece of dichromatic (one color at 90 degrees and another color at 45 degrees) glass. This is fuse fired so that everything merges together into one piece.

Pendant after firing:

I hope I've encouraged you to go play with glass! I learned today that you can slump fire a wine bottle and they make a spoon rest shape, or a serving piece. The instructor said they have to be fired higher since they are generally blown glass. There's more to glass than meets the eye!

Saturday Glass Class, in which I get started

When Signe and I were driving back from the Charlotte, she invited me to go to a glass workshop she'd learned about. It was a 2 day workshop and you got to make coasters, a pendant, a bowl and a window hanging.

We signed up.

Below is the classroom.

Supplies line the walls. Supplies of any sort make me happy, but supplies with color make me really happy.

We learned about the types of glass, that all the glass one uses for a piece must have the same COE so that they melt and cool at the same rates, the various forms glass comes in and to pick your hand up and move it on a piece of glass, never slide your hand along an edge. Makes you cringe just to think of it, yes? We learned about all the types of cutters and when to use them. All the while, our instructor, Jen, was demonstrating and making it look easy.

Then it was time to practice on float glass - think scratch paper. Signe went first.

Then it was time to create our first project: coasters. We took an 8" x 8" square of glass and cut four 4" x 4" squares. Then we got to select one colored piece of glass, and were shown where the odds and ends were to select accent pieces.

I didn't realize it at the time, but Signe made coasters that used the colors in her blouse: deep blue and green.

The dark pieces below that appear black are a dark green with a metallic glitter like surface.

This is Lea. She said I could take her picture. Her friend was at the other table.

I like the colors she's using. See the amber family of colors next to her? Those belonged to Molly2. That Molly had to leave early to rescue a stranded teenager. Because we hadn't gotten enough rain in Atlanta, it was really raining hard and her child was stuck somewhere and needed her. She'll be back tomorrow. I like not being the only Molly in the class. Because I usually am. Usually the only Molly period.

On the end is Signe's masseuse. I call her Magic Fingers. She has on gloves because she can't risk her hands being cut because that's how she makes a living. My space is at the end of the table, lower left. I finished a bit sooner than the others because I was, well, more relaxed than the others about my design.

I kind of liked the edges not being perfectly aligned. Once we cut our pieces, we glued them to the clear glass squares. "Dots [of glue] not lots". And before we glued things down, we cleaned our glass - with vinegar, no less. Did you know plain white vinegar will remove Sharpie ink from glass? Believe it.

We left the coasters in the kiln, and will get to see the magic when we go back for part 2 tomorrow. We also made a pendant, which we will fire while we work tomorrow.

Can't wait to see how things turn out!

Name this Photo

Hi there! It's Friday! Can I get an Amen? Amen.

I shot this the same night I shared the ones earlier this week. I wanted to put this one up with a title, but I can't come up with one. Any suggestions? Karen, if you're reading, you have a way with words...I hope you make a suggestion. Sorrow? SSG? Marlene? Anyone? Bueller?

Color

I'm ready for Fall, ya'll. Blue skies, brilliantly colored foliage. I'm ready.