Glass quilt

Here we are at MJR Furnaces at the weekend helping Charlie and Tina cast some blocks for their glass quilt -- inspired by a fabric quilt -- inspired by The Gerkin. I don't look as if I was helping, but I was 'baby-sitting' the cast pieces as they cooled (tamping the moulds up and down on the marver) and opening the lehr door to put them away. Vita is filming. Quilter in the background. Interesting little tips learned, including one about sand-casting resist that I am not allowed to divulge. Interesting the recipe secracy that still goes on amongst crafstpersons.

Triathlon engraved goblet

The brief for this engraving (not my own blown) was that it had to show the recipient in a triathlon event, his dog, and an interest -- I chose Poker. Quite difficult, but it all came together quite easily and the accuracy of engraving is my best so far.

Mixing media

Ideas can come out of accidents. I'd made some pate de verre squares to use as inclusions in the sandcasting we were doing on Thursday afternoon. So in the morning I thought I would pick up one of them (pre-heated up to temperature) on the end of a bubble, wrap it round, case it in clear glass and open it out into a bowl. Jake took pictures - and the sheer stage fright spurred me on to get it more or less right. But the real point is -- and the pictures don't show it -- that it is a new effect and I could do something really quite interesting with it. I plan to have another go next week.

At it again

Another batch of goblets (a little bit of cheating here, but at least I made them single handedly). And three bowls. Very tricky to get a nice even shape.

Mark Bickers - visiting lecturer

An inspirational talk by this young man - 2 or 3 years after he did his MA at the RCA. I found it quite inspirational and had a very good tutorial with him in the hot shop in the afternoon. He is doing interesting things with cutting glass and then picking it up again and re-shaping in the glory-hole. It gave me ideas -- funnily enough I had been playing around with the mitre diamond cutter the day before. Picture shows one of his 'splash' bowls. Rather pleasingly -- he sang the praises of DACS.

Woodworking workshop induction

Lovely new workshop and no woodworking students as such. This department is for use by various other 'pathways', including glass. So we have learned to use: the belt sander; disk sander; bobbin sander; bandsaw; little bandsaw; fret saw; pillar drill; cordless drill; glue gun; hot air gun; jigsaw; foam cutter; strip heater; vacu-form machine. I feel quite breathless just listing them all. Even if I don't remember exactly how to use each one, ideas for possibilities are opening up. At the very least, I will be able to make stands for exhibitions, perspex plate holders and various other things. All quite inspiring. And I am sure Stephen would be envious of someof these machines.

Co[]ect - our old friend the cube

None of us was assigned optical glass for the jolly old cube project at Westminster, but here's one by Pavel Hloska with aluminium inclusions. I would think glued in sections, but very fascinating and very carefully made. Price tag of £9,450 of course. I wonder what the mark-up is.

Co[]ect - favourite 2 pieces

Show-stealers for me were this small wall of bricks made in a paperweight technique and then cut into blocks and painstakingly polished to a high glint, by
Oiva Toikka (and colleagues). And some disks of perfect optical glass with fused crescents of coloured, slightly striped lead glass - UV glued together. Brilliant optical effects. Pity I so dislike polishing as this kind of perfection shows the magic of glass at its best.

Co[]ect - technical chat

Had a good chat with Steve Klein who made this kiln-formed and blown piece - meant to be landscape but this silly program has its own ideas. He was very helpful on techniques. It takes him about an hour a hole to finish the necks of the round pieces which he knocks off from the blowing iron, having picked up a kiln-fused panel. He then grooves the amber stripes on a diamond wheel and the white ones on another - using different grits, which he told me. And then he smooths the finish with a clear oil, which again he told me the name of, but it was an American brand and I thought I could try baby oil first. Or google him in Portland's Bullseye studio and ask. Very friendly. Another chap told me exactly how he partially closed up a large blown vessel at the top and then made a hole right through and opened the top out again. But I forgot to take his name or a picture.

Co[]ect - goblets

Some goblet curiosities were a set of 'sculptures' set on blown and found wine glass feet -- not sure what the artist is saying here. And a Venetian-style goblet within a bottle by Richard Meitner -- a statement about the ultimate in non-functionality.

Snow

Thank goodness I am at home today as I should not fancy driving to Farnham in this snow. This is Stephen outside our house skiing to work. What's snow got to do with glass? Well, not for the first time, it's struck me that glass and water share the same quality of being able to be liquid and solid and to manifest in various states.

On centre

I watched Magdalena Odundo raising a coiled pot today and it struck me how different making glass and making pots is though both rely on being on centre. This was so physical, so close to the material; glass is always at arms length. And yet the importance of the thumbs in both activity are paramount.

Making Your Mark exhibition

To Dan Klein's house to see the exhibition of four engravers/sandblasters -- very much my interest. I liked this one by Charmian Mocatta almost the best, partly because I liked the combination of her work with a kiln piece by Colin Reid. What was nice was being able to look very closely at how the pieces were done.

My tools have arrived

How exciting is this! My tools have arrived from the States - can't wait to try them out next week. From the left: a sofietta, pucellas, diamond shears and a graphite pad. Note to self: be careful with that graphite as it breaks easily; and I do drop things all the time - easily done when you are rushing to use every second the glass is hot enough to work.

Feet

I thought if I stuck to a repetitive task this afternoon I might get somewhere. So I tried to get the hang of the footboard -- made about 30; all too small; all off-centre; all too thick. And the footboard Stephen made me for Christmas is all burnt - banged up my my mishandling. Slightly demoralising.

Professional context lectures

Today was the first of 9 MA talks - we thought on Innovation and Creativity, but I think the lecturer hadn't quite 'got' who we were and that he was talking about corporate politics to a bunch of would-be craftpersons. I was interested -- because it had resonances to my CLA days -- but I don't think it can have been much use to some of the group. Still, I probably ought to take advantage of what's on offer. Can't blow all day.

Metalwork

Joined the first years for their metalwork induction and learned how to guillotine sheets of mild steel, bend it on the rollers, use the box and pan folder, and the spot welder.

Working in pairs

Things are looking up in the hot shop. There's a new Canadian artist-in-residence who is not only very nice, but very happy to work with us. The two pretty second years and I have been working together for the last two days. We're going back to basics and trying to master cylinders, cones and the basic bowl shape. The girls say they've never been taught how to set up for each of these. I have to confess that we did do it in Turkey - but that's a year and a half ago, and besides, that was in another country. Everyone shows you differently in any case. So I've been trying it Chris's way. Quite a reasonable little jug - and another one in the lehr. Today is the first time I have partnered anyone (pictured) for a whole session since I got here. Makes a huge difference. I must just get brave and ask.

Here we go again

Another tipsy trio -- the middle one leans over at a drunken angle. To be christened tonight when a friend is coming to supper who will, I know, angle to get me to part with it.

Masterclasses

Pix: laying out murrine; blowing them into a vase; my first attempts at using a footboard and a cup and stem that broke at crack off.

For the last two days we have had masterclasses in Venetian techniques - goblets, murrine, cane and so on. All morning, demonstrations; both afternoons, we tried out goblet-making for ourselves. Right up my street - what a joy! Loved every minute of it, and we who were there were very lucky -- just three and sometimes four of us with two tutors there to help. This was such luxury compared to my usual working alone - though I did ask for (and got) lots of tips for solo working. I have to say, most of my 'goblets' were 'floor models' - but we were all pretty much in that boat. And I learned such a lot. These are going to be my first ones with a foot using my new foot-board, and two were blown. Very wobbly, probably won't stand up - but I had such a good time. Slightly shocked that only 3 out of a pool of about 40 glass students took up the opportunity.

4 days this week

I'm staying down for 4 days as the next two weeks are going to be a bit curtailed. I've been trying to blow a bit larger today and last week - actually trying to do a salad bowl but not really succeeding. Still, OK little batch gathered up - some of which I shall sandblast. It's a bit fierce, the sandblaster - I'm also cutting through to the white on a blue plate for a special order. Mistakes - which aren't correctable.

Not feeling blue

I - amazingly - sold this sandcast today. I called it 'Blue Breezes'. It's actually landscape, but this program doesn't want to show it that way round. I've also taken (another) commission for a blue engraved plate. So I am distinctly not feeling blue. I don't know if I should or should not be selling stuff I make at college, but why not? I can't keep it all, and people keep asking me to. Remarkable how many people actually like wobbly glasses. The Farnham bunch would disapprove, I feel sure.

Trying new things

I thought I should do something in the kiln room and the plaster room this week. You get to see what other peole are doing and that's instructive. I have a little commission to make a mask in glass - but what I came to realise was that I was not enjoying all the processes of making a clay model, then a plaster cast, cleaning up and all that's involved before you even start on the glass part of it. So I shifted back to the hot shop, where I had fun. I hadn't lost ground over the 3 weeks break and thought I might try larger and thinner, and perhaps more bowl-shaped. Loads of 'floor models', but a few got boxed.

2nd term begins

Here's my research assignment - all ready to hand in tomorrow. Can't wait to get back into harness. Much as I've enjoyed the holiday -- going to exhibitions, photographing my egg collection, socialising and, above all, eating and drinking -- I feel I've been treading water for the last week. Question is: is it back to blowing, or do I start a new theme. My glass-blowing tools that I've bought myself for Christmas won't arrive till the end of the month.

End of term

I am looking forward to spending 3 weeks at home without the travelling, but I have to write my Research & Communications essay now. How to demonstrate discovering how to blow or thinking about molds (as in the pic) is something I haven't solved yet.

Riedel wine glasses

Last night we went to the most amazing wine-tasting dinner party I have ever been to. There were three flights of wines -- 7 or 8 different bottles in each flight and we drank most of them out of these Riedel Chianti glasses. One of 126 differently-shaped bowls from the company, all scientifically tested for the ideal delivery of the bouquet to the nose and the liquid to the tongue. I think this counts as one of the most pleasurable aspects of my research. Yes, I think you can say it was information-gathering. Certainly the other guests (8 of us altogether) were hugely knowledgeable and we talked a bit about wine-glass shapes. The finale was a bottle of Chateau d'Yquem 1937 - totally delicious. I can't believe from never having tasted it before, I've now had two samplings in one year. Other astonishing wines too - Chablis, Nuits St Georges, Gaillac, Viognier; can't remember what they all were but I am hoping our marvellous hosts will send me the labels.

Father Bear, Mother Bear & Baby Bear

A kind of a matching set (the blue ones) which I could develop as this sort of heavy-base style is something I can do without an assistant.










But I went to Patrick Stern's closing down sale yesterday and he blows the green ones on his own. I asked him how he did it. Research? I think so.

Tuition at last

Really enjoyable 'tutorial' with my supervisor -- I had asked to have it in the workshop instead of an MA-progress one. He gave me a lot of time and it was really useful. I could feel myself soaking up everything he said and it making a huge difference when I tried again. We even did a blown foot together. Such fun! A few more of these and progress would be noticeable. I'm not saying these 2 (out of the 4 that evening that got into the lehr) are any less wobbly than others, but the bowls are better, thinner and more centred - done faster and mostly in one gather. So despair not!

Inspiring the young

Had lunch today with two of the second years -- both gorgeous young girls -- who said I was an inspiration to them. That they thought I was decidedly getting better and that it showed them that it's never too late to learn something new. I suppose they had thought originally what was this senior personage doing in the hot-shop. But, they said, they'd watched me systematically practising cup shapes and been impressed. Well now! Then we talked about the madness of the glass-blower and agreed that you had to be a bit eccentric to be doing it at all. Such a capricious material, they agreed, and for them too, the challenge of trying to get it to do what you want is seductive.

Stemless

Yesterday I tried my first attempt at assembling a goblet from parts I'd made before and put in the 'garage' (as it's known). Needless to say, it didn't work. Allegedly, my punty was rubbish. Anyhow, I shall try again now I know what to do. I practised and practised punties after that and got a glimmer of light about what I have been doing wrong. It is like doing scales - the knowledge has to go into the fingers; it can't be intellectual. So here are some of the wineglass bowls I have made so far. Let's try attaching the other bits now.