Scrap Challenge - Progress Report

Well, it's been 1 month that I've been working on using up my excess glass (as well as stocking up for the holidays).  Here's what I've made so far:

• Patterned glass to be cut up and used in future work.  Examples here and here.
• Pattern glass that will be the base for wire wrapped Christmas tree ornaments.  I'll post the finished photo of these as I've added some red balls but still need to wire wrap these.

• Snowflake ornaments

• Frit casting with prior made frit  

• Frit (for wreath ornaments, heart ornaments and clear dots)
• Dots (for use in plates and votives).  I'll post the finished product later next month.

Here's what I learned:

• I haven't made a dent in the amount of scrap glass I have.  I think I'll still be using up my scrap at the beginning of next year.  I guess it took me a while to accumulate this, so I shouldn't think it will be gone overnight.
• Dots are a great way to use up scraps of already fused glass, especially if you have a tile saw.
• And, the dots I made with the clear frit turned out to be round even in instances where the frit didn't seem round or even square.  
• When making dots, it's a much easier clean up when using Papyros shelf paper rather than Thinfire.

I still have a long way to go.  However, I should be able to post the results of a lot of this work within the next month.  And, if you have any suggestions for what to do with excess glass, please let me know!!

Scrap Glass Challenge

My summer shows are done and I don't have any other shows until the holidays. So, now is the time that I'll work using up my excess scrap glass. I have a lot of excess glass from all the bowls I made.  Here's just a sample of that glass.

I've already started cutting up this glass into 1" squares that I'll fuse together either as coasters, plates or design elements.  You can see the narrow borders of all the circles I already cut and some of the square from those circles.

In addition, I've also generated a lot of excess clear glass.  Almost everything I made involves at least two layers of glass, with one of them being clear.  As a result, I have built up a rather large pile of clear glass.

I have plans for all of this and I hope to share what I make with you over the upcoming months along with photos of what I've used up. I have much more excess glass in different colors, which I try to limit to one plastic bin.  So my challenge is to use up all of this glass.

I look forward to sharing with you all of my creations - some will be new and others will use techniques that I've shared already in this blog.  In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for what I might do, please feel free to share them.

Lessons Learned: Outdoor Show Challenges

This weekend, I'm participating in the King Mountain Art Fair in Woodside, CA.  It's a very nice wooded location but this means that there can be obstacles with trees and hills.  When I checked out the show, I was a little worried to see that some artists had their booths on plywood.  And, when I received my artist packet, I was a little concerned when the organizers suggested bringing a shovel, rake and pruning sheers as well as offered that you could purchase pine shavings as ground shavings.  So, I decided to check out the space, which is pictured below.

You can see the angle of the slop in the background.  Fortunately, we were able to set up early and thought we made progress until we actually set out the glass.  Here's a few lessons learned:

• In a place like this, you can dig out the dirt to make the booth level rather than add shims (block of wood that raise up the tables).  I had tried using shims but it was really unstable.
• Even though the tables "look" level, it helps to actually measure with a level.  There were some issues with the glass wanting to slide in the direction of the slope when we set out the glass, so my husband had to do some last minute digging and I had to prop up some of the glass.
• It helps to put some sort of ground covering on top of the dirt.  I used folded tent sides under the table but I would consider getting a rug.  I would suggest Mad Mats, which are made from recycled plastic and can be washed off with a hose.
• And, if you notice the photo above, there's not much sun in the booth location, so I rented lights to highlight the transparency of the glass.
• We played around a bit with the lights and found that the best way to highlight the transparency is to aim it at the tent sides and let it bounce back. 
• Finally, it's important to be flexible with your booth layout.  I had to rearrange my normal layout based on what I was able to do with the tables (and how slanted they were).

And, here's the set up booth with the lights and revised set-up.  I'm very happy with how it turned out as the glass really stands out.  The lights give it a nice sophisticated touch.

Booths are one of those things that are constantly evolving.  Mine has not changed that much but I have plans for a booth upgrade next year.  I'll post photos when I change it.  In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for improvement, let me know.

New Fused Glass Pattern Bar Bowls & Plates

I've been busy stocking up and trying to make larger pieces in preparation for the Association of Clay and Glass Artists (ACGA) show earlier this month (this was the show that I posted about earlier with the live jury).  Here's a few pieces that I made within the past month.

The first is a commission piece for a friend of mine:

I liked the look of the blue and green combination, so I decided to expand on it using both the progressive and bookend pattern bar techniques:

I also made another bowl using the black/grey/red combination.  I tried in the past to make a fused glass plate using black/white/red but found that a little challenging since the black and white combination make pattern bar work much more difficult (black fires softer, while white fires harder).

Keeping the black/red combination going, I made a fabulous 12" plate using the bookend pattern bars across and down.  It's difficult to see but there's a dark red strip about 2/3's of the way down.

This was also difficult to photograph.  If I put it against the light, the colors are a little too bright.  The following two photos give a sense of that (bright colors) but turned out much better than the photo above did when backlit.

The ACGA show turned out to be a great show, so all the trouble of the live jury was worth it.  The quality of the work was very impressive, especially considering that there were about 160 clay and glass artists only.  It was inspiring to see the breadth and variety of clay and glass work.

Now that it's over, I have three more pattern bar blocks that I'll be cutting up this week, so I'll be posting some new work in the upcoming months.  The color palate will be new for me - a little more muted or fall type colors - blues & grays and ambers & greens.

Let me know what you think and if there are any color combination or designs that particularly strike you.

Encouragement & Inspiration

Last week, I read about a studio downsizing in my area and decided to check it out to see if could pick up anything.  I wasn't really in the market for another kiln but there seemed a large variety of items - molds, frit, glass...etc.  It turned out to be the studio of the late Dan Fenton, one of the pioneers in fused glass.  I met a wonderful woman, Patti O'Doherty, who told me a lot about Dan and his industry contributions such as working with Bullseye on their glass and Phil Teefy to make Glass Glow kilns.  She also gave me a number of Glass Art magazines of which Dan was one of the editors.  It was great reading and seeing part of glass history.  Dan passed away from cancer but was working on glass right up until the end and even completed a gorgeous stained glass piece with limited vision.

Patti, like Dan, is one of those people who has worked in glass for 30+ years and is a wealth of information.  As a glass artist, she asked to see my work and was very encouraging, which was especially welcome coming from someone who had so much experience.  While I didn't purchase much, I did buy 4 sheets of glass from Dan Fenton's stock.  Patti encouraged me to make something and reference that it's made with Dan's glass.  But, what I plan to do is to create something solely from these 4 sheets as special tribute to Dan.  So, look for this sometime later this year.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to see Patti again soon when she holds the rest of her sale on molds, frit and other glass in about a month after the Jacoby stained glass window show at her studio finishes.  I feel privileged to have met her and to have heard about Dan's contributions.  It's not that often that you meet someone in your field with so much experience that encourages and inspires you.  And, for this, I am very thankful.