Amanda Simmons

Today the department had a visit from Amanda Simmons. An artist who specialises in fused glass vessels and all things gravity formed.  In the morning she gave a short presentation showing us lots of her work, and the afternoon was spent watching demonstrations and delving further into the techniques behind gravity formed glass.

Dark Skies, Bright City. Kiln formed and cameo engraved.

Seeing so many colours used together in such a beautiful way has really opened my eyes to the potential benefits of stepping away from my usual monochomatic scheme- which is really saying something! The demonstrations of the afternoon have also been very inspiring (even though I'm not using any of those techniques specifically) as there has been a lot of talk about how to reduce bubbles when fusing. As I am trying to get as many bubbles as I can into my work at the moment this is definitely helpful and has shed a little bit of light on what I shouldn't be doing! (Something about moving backwards to get forwards might be appropriate here..)

Test squares using opaque glass powders.

Larger scale, irregular vessel forms. 

Graeme Thyer Raku-Glass Demonstation [19.09.13]

A couple of weeks ago the department had a visit from an ex-masters student Graeme Thyer, who came in to give a talk about his work and then a demo in the afternoon.

Originally from a furniture design background, he now works in both cast and blown glass and takes a lot of his inspiration from Eastern ceramic traditions such as tea ceremonies. I found it incredibly interesting that he actively tries to change the appearance of the glass into something else for example, burned wood and ceramic.

The demonstration focused on how Graeme makes a piece of his Raku-Glass and was based in the hotshop, although he does have to prepare some fused work prior to this. I was chosen to help with the start of the demo, setting up a bubble of black colour which would then be used in the first stage- an overlay. I'm really glad I got to be part of it now but at the time I was really nervous as I've not really done a lot of work with colour in the hotshop.

 

Setting up the colours for the overlay.

The green sphere is attached and folded back over the black bubble.

Crackling the surface of the overlay in cold water.

This piece was then puntied and opened out into a small cup which was popped into the kiln for later. Whilst this cup was being kept warm Graeme started yet another bubble, this time in a rich wine red. It had to be shaped into quite a thin oval shape- thin enough to fit inside the cup. This was to enable him to pick up the cup from the kiln by inserting the red bubble into it.

It was at this point that the earlier prepared fused glass came into play. It was removed from the kiln and set out on the marver. 

Marvering the shards onto the bubble.

Eventually the bubble and all of its colour techniques where set up and ready to be blown out and puntied into its final shape! I used to think using multiple colours on one piece of work could be quite tacky but after seeing this demo I have had my mind changed. Every technique used added a wonderful depth, and in my opinion it was worth the two and a half hours it took to make one!

Finished Raku-Glass