Glasswork: using cold glass.

This week in glass we were doing more work using cold glass. I designed and made a tile from two sheets of glass, with copper wire and copper foil inside for the decoration. I wanted to stay with the nature theme so I cut leaves out, and then used the copper wire and small pieces of copper foil to make it look as though it was windy, like the leaves were being blown about.

i washed and dried the glass sheets carefully, so as to not leave any marks on them, because the marks would stay there through the firing.

The tiles were put in the kiln on ceramic fibre paper, and were fired up to 810 degrees, so the glass sheets were fully fused together.

We then filled the moulds we made in the last session. for the half-mould, I filled it up to about twice its depth, because it needs more glass than it looks like it should to make up for the air in between the glass pieces.

these were then put into the kiln to fire, so the pieces of glass would melt and fill the mould. 

I weighed out the glass for my rose mould, using a glass:wax ratio of 2.55:1. my wax weighed 87g, and so i calculated that i would need 221 grams of glass. I weighed out 225, in case some of the glass stuck to the inside of the reservoir instead of all flowing into the mould. These were also put into a kiln, on ceramic fibre paper in case any of the glass overflowed and dripped onto the kiln floor.

Glasswork: After Firing

I think each of my glass pieces have qualities that I like, In this one, the confetti glass has melted on the top to give a slightly textured surface, and has created a fairly random pattern because of the way it melts. The two pieces with copper encased in them have also changed quite a lot, in that the copper has oxidised and has changed colour in the kiln, because of the heat. I quite like these colours, and also there are some tiny bubbles trapped with the metal which I think is quite an interesting feature.

In the one with pieces of black glass, the glass shards, which were squares and triangles to begin with, have melted and spread out to make quite interesting smooth, round shapes, but still have an obvious texture and stand out from the flat background. Also they are very shiny in comparison to the base piece.

Glasswork: pattern and texture

 I wanted to experiment with pattern and texture in glass, so I first laid small pieces of black glass onto a small sheet of clear glass, so there would be a texture when it came out of the kiln.

I also did the same thing but using confetti glass in different colours, inspired by snake skin. I used a very small amount of vaseline to make sure the pieces wouldn't move when it is being put into the kiln.

 I then started looking at encasing things between two pieces of glass. I did this with copper, because the glass gets very hot in the kiln, so things with a low melting point like plastics would not keep the pattern as I wanted. I cut copper into the shapes I wanted, to make zebra pattern and a repeating pattern of diamonds. I also used copper wire to make a handle so the pieces could be hung, or possibly be made into jewellery, although they would be very heavy to wear.

 I drew the pieces as they look before going in the kiln, so I can compare these pictures to how the glass pieces look after firing.

Ceramics: Using marbles and enamel

I wanted to use other materials with my ceramics, so I used some of my marbles to put into circles and squares of clay, so that when they were fired the marbles would melt. As the glass cools at a different rate to clay, some of the marbles had cracked inside, which I think makes a very decorative effect. I also used some of the objects I have collected to make imprints in the clay. I then used enamel to add colour to some of the imprints. I added these clay pieces to the metal and recycled squares and circles I had made, to make a small collection of each.

Glasswork: using dichroic glass

For these pendants I used a sheet of black glass, small pieces of dichroic glass, and clear glass on top. I also Put small copper loops in between the layers of glass. These then went into the glass kiln to fuse together.

Glasswork: encasing small pieces.

I have been experimenting with glass. Firstly, I used sheet glass, cut it to size and added washers, scrap metal pieces and confetti glass. I used vaseline to make sure the pieces didn't move and secured the edges with masking tape to keep them together. These then went into the glass kiln, to melt the glass and fuse the pieces together. I think this worked very weel, and I especially like the bubbles in my smaller piece. I also like the colour the copper pieces went