Wear it, Flaunt it

Went with Charlotte to the Wearing Glass exhibition at the Oxo Gallery. Lots of interesting uses of mixed media, though as Charlotte pointed out, if the glass craftsmanship was up to the mark, the chances were that the metalwork wasn't. In other words you can't be a butterfly -- which is essentially what I am. However, I wasn't that struck by the craftsmanship generally: some of it very naff. And if it's wearable glass, then shouldn't that be part of the brief? That you actually can wear it, I mean. Not pose for a photo in it.
not my picture

Polished cube

Best I can do. Pretty much square - maybe half to a whole millimetre out on some faces. Polishing could be better, but the college has a disheartening polisher -- a jewellery one with bumpy cork wheels. Oh for the cold shop in Brierley Hill. Did I really say that!

Progress of the cube

The cube project is moving forward by fits and starts. Is this really Week 5 and all I've made is this one little cube (and the makings of 5 others)? We learned how to square it up yesterday. I'd done mine by eye, but I'm not a precision girl and getting it to an exact 50mm on all facets is going to be a challenge.

Brierley revisited

Not rosy-tinted about Brierley Hill, surely? Not really. Saw all my old pals up there when I went to have a glass-blowing lesson with Martin. I miss all the exhileration of the everyday focus and activity. I miss access to really good cold-working machinery. I miss helping myself to free materials. I can't seem to reproduce that sense of immersion here at home. But I think it would be a mistake to go back next year. Those who'd stayed on seemed jaded, not enthusiastic.

Ticking educational boxes again

Thrilling picture of cutting glass into 5.4 cm squares ready to fuse into cubes. The class at Westminster is moving too slowly for me. Can't yet get on because of all the hoops we have to step through before being unleashed on our own projects. Like spending a precious workshop morning doing cubist collage portraits of each other. And the afternoon talking about programming a kiln (I got it in one; others didn't). So a level of frustration is setting in. Remembering similar thoughts last year, I have decided to stick it out at least a bit longer.