Invisible Participation in GI

My invisible participation in the Glasgow International Festival of the Visual Arts has been to help Kate V Robertson prepare part of her exhibition at the David Dale Gallery can be revealed now the Festival is over.

Window by Kate V Robertson at David Dale Gallery, 2012

This appearance of the brick coming through the window is entirely Kate's work.  I helped her realise the inspiration by a few experiments before realising the work shown above in my large kiln.

Meeting, Holding, Passing

Inspired by my previous commission, I struck out with the bold colours to develop another piece. This piece - Meeting, Holding, Passing - has been influenced by the transitory nature of friendships. People come together, interact on various levels and then separate, sometimes for a lifetime. For me at its simplest it represents two people meeting and then turning away. There are of course, many additional meanings that this piece can carry based on the viewer's experience and that is my intention.

This is made from glass strips fused together and mounted in stainless steel; ca. 350mm wide by 550mm high and 250 deep at the base.

Further detail view.

Sculpture Commission

Among the things to be done at Christmas time was to prepare a sculpture based on a previous one. This earlier piece - ca. 400 wide by 450 high and 150 deep - was formed from shaped strips that were fused and then shaped again before mounting in wood and steel.

In the case of this commission the client wanted a flat piece with a completely different colour scheme. It was one that is bolder than I normally commit to, but was completely appealing to me. The intention was to include various shades of red and green which can interact with each other. Depending on the viewpoint, each strip shades the colour of the next door strip.

This image gives the overall view of the piece. It is ca. 400mm wide by 330 high, mounted in wood and painted aluminum.

This image gives a detail of the piece showing a bit of the interaction of the colours.

What is important for me is that the client was delighted when she picked it up and was not worried at all by the delay.

Boats

Among the other things I have been doing is developing an idea I had last spring. As you can see my ideas have a long gestation period! The idea was to develop something a little different for seaside places. Many galleries and gift shops have two dimensional boats for sale.

I thought I could do something different by adding a shape to the pieces providing a sense of movement. This has gone through several refinements and many mould variations until I came up with these.

This picture represents the first of the "just beyond prototype" pieces. I am about to to round galleries to find out if my enthusiasm is met with theirs.

The two sails on this version - there will be others if these are of interest - are shaped, while the hull and mast remain a single plane. As one sailing acquaintance said to me, they are sailing pretty near the wind and should be leaning toward the viewer. I think it is better to have them vertical until the public tells me differently.

Fusing and Bowls

This workshop combines two of the most popular forms of kiln working - fusing and slumping. You will prepare a number of tests on the first day, using a variety of materials - metals, frits, confetti, mica, stringers and even cut glass. Discussions of kiln forming basics – glass, mould materials, firings, etc – will be interspersed with demonstrations and actual making. This is an intermediate level workshop integrating the fundamentals of kiln processes with exercises. You will use clear and coloured glass to illustrate the principles of design and colour. You will make numerous studies beginning with basic materials and methods, and building on them to create pieces to integrate them into your bowls. A few bowls will be produced during the workshop.

You will need glass cutting experience, or Cutting with Confidence

This workshop is held in a large, bright and airy (but warm) working studio. The workshop is limited to a maximum of six people to give you individual attention. All kiln-forming classes are taught using Bullseye glass - the première fusing glass. All tools and materials (and where relevant, the kiln firings) are provided in the workshop fees.

Date: 21 - 22 November

Time: 10:00 to at least 4:30pm

Price: £185

Booking: A deposit of £50 is required to book your place which must be received one week in advance. For further information contact: Steve Richard at Verrier, Studio 8, 77 Hanson Street, Glasgow G312HF. Telephone: 0771 883 1117, e-mail: s.richard@verrier-scotland.demon.co.uk

Fusing and Kiln Carving Workshop

This three-day intermediate level workshop develops the fundamentals of kiln processes with exercises. It will enable you to make wall hangings with an extra dimension. You will use clear and coloured glass to develop the principles of design and colour. You will make numerous studies beginning with basic materials and methods, and building on them to create pieces to integrate them into a project.

You will move on through the creation of maquettes to shaped panels in relief using ceramic fibres, sand and found objects. Ceramic fibres can give sharply defined images and, by tearing, much more free form images. Working directly into sand provides an additional mode of expression. Found objects can be used to create other forms. This method of kiln forming gives added dimension to your work, from hints of form to full bas relief forms.

You will need glass cutting experience, or Cutting with Confidence

This workshop is held in a large, bright and airy (but warm) working studio. The workshop is limited to a maximum of six people to give you individual attention. All kiln-forming classes are taught using Bullseye glass - the première fusing glass. All tools and materials (and where relevant, the kiln firings) are provided in the workshop fees.

Date: May 23 - 25

Time: 10:00am to at least 4:30pm

Price: £225

Booking: A deposit of £50 is required to book your place which must be received one week in advance. For further information contact: Steve Richard at Verrier, Studio 8, 77 Hanson Street, Glasgow G312HF. Telephone: 0771 883 1117, e-mail: s.richard@verrier-scotland.demon.co.uk

Making Glass Bowls Workshop

This workshop introduces you to the most popular form of kiln working. You will prepare a number of tests on the first day, using a variety of materials - metals, frits, confetti, mica, stringers and even cut glass! Discussions of kiln forming basics – glass, mould materials, firings, etc – will be interspersed with demonstrations and actual making. A few bowls will be produced over the two days. You will need glass cutting experience, or Cutting with Confidence

This workshop is held in a large, bright and airy (but warm) working studio. The workshop is limited to a maximum of six people to give you individual attention. All kiln-forming classes are taught using Bullseye glass - the première fusing glass. All tools and materials (and where relevant, the kiln firings) are provided in the workshop fees.


Date: 19 - 20 September

Time: 10:00am to at least 4:30pm

Price: £150

Booking: A deposit of £50 is required to book your place which must be received one week in advance. For further information contact: Steve Richard at Verrier, Studio 8, 77 Hanson Street, Glasgow G312HF. Telephone: 0771 883 1117, e-mail: s.richard@verrier-scotland.demon.co.uk

Fusing Workshop

This is a beginner to intermediate level workshop integrating the fundamentals of kiln processes with exercises. You will use clear and coloured glass to illustrate the principles of design and colour. You will make numerous studies beginning with basic materials and methods, and building on them to create pieces to integrate them into a project. You will need glass cutting experience, or Cutting with Confidence

This workshop is held in a large, bright and airy (but warm) working studio. The workshop is limited to a maximum of six people to give you individual attention. All kiln-forming classes are taught using Bullseye glass - the première fusing glass. All tools and materials (and where relevant, the kiln firings) are provided in the workshop fees.

Date: 11 - 12 April

Price: £150

Booking: A deposit of £50 is required to book your place which must be received one week in advance. For further information contact: Steve Richard at Verrier, Studio 8, 77 Hanson Street, Glasgow G312HF. Telephone: 0771 883 1117, e-mail: s.richard@verrier-scotland.demon.co.uk

Bubbles

Sometime you want to have bubbles in your pieces. Sometimes you don't. But you never want what I am getting recently. Large burst bubbles.

Kiln forming is often an unpredictable art, but mostly the variations should be small. Withing the last month my big kiln has begun blowing big bubbles. Like this one.

Most often these seem to come from underneath the piece but sometimes between layers. This is a piece I put in after I thought I had diagnosed and fixed the problem:

This has bubbles coming from under the piece and from between the layers. My practice has not changed as far as I can tell, from the past when there was no problem. I have checked on the density of the sand bed beneath the glass, by compacting it tightly. I have been very careful about level screeding of the bed. I have fired on both unfired and fired thinfire. I have fired smaller pieces and still got bubbles (see the piece at the top). I need my big kiln. I need to find out what is happening.

So I went back to basics and did a "Know your kiln" test from Bullseye . This showed me that the temperatures in my kiln are different than at the beginning of its short live (five years old now). The chamber is much h0tter at the back than at the front, rather than just a little. I phoned and found out that the elements are loose inside the ceramic tubes. This probably means that with me leaving the lid open when not in use, the elements have slowly compacted to the back of the kiln. This means that I have to take the top off the kiln, and remove 8 square metres of fiber blanket to get to the tubes that hold the elements. I then have to lift each of the 20 tubes and stretch the elements back into some sort of even-ness. I expect this will be a 2-4 day job, when I could be doing other things.

Even when this is done, I am not sure it will cure the bubble problem, as I am getting bubbles at the front and at the back both. Still, the elements must be sorted. And in the spirit of eliminating problems one at a time, I will get to the bottom of this!

Frustrating day

Today has been frustrating.
I set up an aperture drop of 550mm diameter to drop 100mm. The glass was St Just red flashed. I don't know the characteristics of this glass in the kiln, so I chose 560C for 120 mins. This was based on the fact that 4mm float glass dropped 90mm in 120 mins at 630C.

I set the kiln up so that it would be reaching its top temperature at 10:00 to be sure I was around long before. After checking every 10 mins, I found it had only begun to slump after 100 mins. So I increased the temperature to 580, but after an hour there was no perceptible difference. Again I increased the temperature to 600C, but after 2 hours there was only about 30mm of a drop. So I tried 610C, but got little if any movement after an hour. Then to 620C and finally after a further two hours, I got my 100mm drop. So I got what I wanted after 7 hours rather than the two I planned on. All the other activities of the day were interrupted or postponed as I was virtually tied to the kiln.

I have now written this up so I should not have to go through another day with the alarm going off every 10 mins. Still, I did get to an exhibition opening before the doors were closed.

Visit to glass exhibition

After the WASPS studios show, I packed up and went to London the next day to babysit for my daughter who came to Nairn for a birthday celebration and pampering with friends.

While there I went to the London Glassblowing Studio in the Leathermarket near Blackfriars train station. If you are passing there is always a display of glass in the gallery and often you can view people blowing glass. I went to see the Cohesion show called Blast!2008. This is a show of kiln formed work, which is unusal for the LGBS as they mostly show blown glass. It was also a bit odd. The Cohesion network is based in north east England, and I went from Glasgow to London to see it! Have a look at the items in the show. There is a lot of interesting stuff being done.

A Powder and Frit Fused Panel

An example of how the studio and equipment hire works in the studio occurred yesterday. A few weeks ago an artist from South West Scotland rang up and booked the kiln and a studio bench for a day. Thursday was agreed upon after discussion of her requirements. I essentially provided the space for her to realise her work in glass.

She worked with a sheet of 10mm float glass and powders which she over layed onto the glass with a small canister with a fine screen as the top. Throughout the day the image began to appear. The real difficulty in doing this work is judging the depth of colour that the powders will produce. Obvious piles of powder and frit will produce more dense colour, but it is not always easy to tell where the powder is thin, even when done over a light box.

This is the panel prepared and sitting in the kiln ready to fire.

We discussed the differing firing characteristics of our two kilns. Where she would go to 795C for a full fuse of float glass in her 400mm square kiln, I go to 835C for 40 minutes in my 2 metre kiln to get an invisible seal of two or more sheets of float. Since this was already a single layer, that temperature and soak was not necessary. She wanted a bit of texture, but not a rough one, so we settled on 825C for 10 mins. She was also unsure the effect of size, ca. 650 by 750mm and thickness in relation to the smaller work she does in her kiln. So we settled on a modification of Stone's schedule for 10mm glass - a little slower heat up and a little longer annealing soak (a lot longer actually).

I'm happy to say that when she came in this afternoon, she was pleased with the result.

The finished piece still in the kiln.

The piece came out of the kiln with a profile so that the frit pieces were noticeable, but not sharp or lumpy. Everything was fire polished and shiny. Notice how much brighter and more intense the colours are after firing. The variations in density of colour is related both to the thickness of the powder application and to the amount of frit applied. Some is more obvious than in other areas. Where she applied frit over the powder, small clear halos appeared. She had planned for this and compensated by applying more powder over the fritted areas.

This is one example of how I work with an experienced glass artist. Artists and enthusiasts who are not so experienced get a bit more involvement from me.