I signed up for a short course at the College. 10-4pm for four consecutive Saturdays. This course was all about learning how to cut flat glass and then fuse with other pieces of glass, powder and frit to make some flatwork. Then either leave the piece as a flatwork or, if you wish, to slump this into shapes to form bowls, plates, signs etc.
Some photos to demonstrate what we covered.
Picture 1 – using pencil and paper we considered what we’d like to make. Drawing out exactly what we wanted to achieve. Then cutting out plastic pieces to match this. When I was with David Mitchell a few years ago he taught me to draw out the design precisely and then use the paper and pencil as a template. Personally I’m not sure the plastic pieces helped whereas measurements and precise paper template would suffice.
As you can see from my piece below I didn’t follow the design but did end up with a fun piece that had many sharp lines and angled cuts.
I also created this. I wanted to see what would happen in a high fuse when I had pieces laying over one another. The blue pieces lay on the top of the green for the firing.
Making the piece below, I used transparent and opaque glass together with frit, powder, confetti, stringers and a copper flower (made and donated by another lady on the course). I’ve left the piece flat and enjoy the light coming through it when on a stand.
Our tutor also showed us how to make our own moulds. Firstly using clay to get the shape, wrapping clay around to dam it, then adding plaster to become, once set, the mould.
Then I tried my own mold. I was keen to use a shell for some shape but was, it turned out, too gentle and should have pressed much harder to get the shell shape in the clay. The second thing I learnt from this exercise was not to wipe around the clay so it’s damp when I pour the plaster… it sticks to the board and will break when removing it! But I was determined to use what was left of the mold, hence below.
The red piece Dad now has against a window in his conservatory. I thought I should use the smaller mold piece and created the blue dish which I think I’ll incorporate into something else in time.
I created a small round piece with opaque and transparent glass and then using the tutor’s mold slumped it to give a funky shaped piece.
I wanted to experiment with rods and created a triptych for a friend.
Then a little experiment using float glass and frit to then slump over to get a handkerchief piece!
Finally a few pictures of some of the other work created by my classmates… so much more gifted than I!
