This is me in the hot shop, looking surprisingly convincing (considering I can't do it). But look at that red hot bit of glass at the end of the iron (not a bad gather) and look at the angle of my pucella (that's the pincery thing) which is OK. I ruined it after that by blowing too much, natch. But you learn from mistakes.
And here is my first -- what shall I call it -- um, vessel. It looks better in this picture than it actually is. Ashtray sized. I hope I will be horribly ashamed of it in a few weeks, but just now I do admit to being a little bit chuffed. Even this, wobbly though it is, is quite hard to achieve.
Two features of week 6. First, learning to play about in photoshop. This is an image I painted with various brushes and then put through various filters and distortions. This could be worked on to make a stained glass window. I have now begun a first bit of copper-foil work, which is growing organically and will be ready to photograph next week.
The other was using this Photoshopped design for Degusse enamelling -- so far I have only done the black lining and stippling firings, but am thoroughly enjoying it -- and then the same design for trying out different depths of sand-blasting. Not quite so successful, but I do see the potential of this technique.
Our 'model' here is the artist Cappy Thompson from whose site this picture comes. Big bold stuff that this vignette doesn't do justice to. We have started by painting in the black outlines ready for adding colour next week. A very happy morning spent playing about with this technique (and also catching up on my tones and lustre pieces). Three of us then spent the afternoon in the kiln room continuing our work. Hope we can manage that every Thursday. I started some experimental bits with a view to trying out copper-foiling.
However, on the accommodation front, I am feeling more upbeat as I have moved into a self-contained flat with white walls and wooden flooring and I think I can make it quite nice and somewhere I can do some work in the evenings -- what though it is in Brierley High Street, next door to a take-away and opposite a bingo hall. Picture is retrospective as I can only post them up at weekends when I am at home, and this one shows my first 'light-catcher' (very badly made with the bingo hall in view).
This is the first stage of my first bit of glass painting; picking out the dark lines from a Degas mezzotint with a black glaze and fired once ready for the half tones and stippling effects. I've photographed it and experimented with tones and silver oxide (yellow) possiblities in Photoshop. It will probably be quite different in the end.
We've also had a bash at painting with lustres (very expensive) and that's in the kiln as we speak. Here's a pic I took last weekend when we went to Blackwells on Lake Windermere and I saw these vases by Loetz. Don't like them much, but I enjoyed the lustre session.