It's Hotting Up in the Glass Shop!

The end of our BA course is fast approaching and my fellow students are suffering trauma with cracking and breaking glass. It seems that this time of year arrives so fast and then everyone's work goes haywire as the pressure mounts. Its as if the glass has a mind of its own and refuses to do our bidding!

I have this week to finish the Kiln work, and then masses of cold working awaits. Thats if the kiln work goes according to plan. A fused piece is in one kiln to be slumped as I write, everything crossed that it works out, not time to go back to the drawing board now. It has been a weird term as too many holidays and Bank holidays, too many days when college was closed.

The College degree show is just over two weeks away, then the following week we are off to London for New Designers 2011 at the Business Design Centre in Upper Street, Islington. New Designers is like the oscars for the Applied Arts, so a big thing, not to be missed. Also Islington is one of my favourite parts of the metropolis, which I miss so much. It will be so good to see the old city again, its been a long time since I left.

This is a series of pictures of various stages of my work. The top image is a piece of silk screen printed glass ready to go in the kiln. This is Degussa high fire glass enamel, silk screened by myself. The Degussa enamels come in low and high temperature firing varieties.  Because I am fusing and slumping the enamels have to go in the kiln several times, therefore it was imperative to use the high fire enamels to keep the colour and sharpness throughout the processes. Degussa enamels are supplied by Pearsons Glass London, I include the link as they are an excellent company to deal with.

The middle image is of my test piece, three layers of screened enamels fused together and slumped into a bowl shape. The glass used is Bullseye Tektra 3mm. I would have used float but I dislike the green tinge that comes with it. Tektra has a textured finish, which as a side effect produces slight bubbles between the layers when fused, which I like. It adds little pin points of light!

The last image is showing the portion of the screen used for the first image. I produced the patterns using Adobe Illustrator. I really love using Photoshop and Illustrator and incorporating that with silk screening. Even though it takes some time getting the images enamelled onto the glass as perfectly as possible, and can be frustrating, as with many processes, the end result is well worth it I feel. 

Enamelling on to Glass via Silk Screen

After trying this technique last week I am totally won over. It's so satisfying to design something on my computer, get a silk screen made from that, then use that to enamel on to glass, fire in a kiln and there you go!

All the glass panels were fired at 800C. Combined with fusing this will be a great way for me to work. It has many possibilities and I am raring to do more. I used high temperature firing enamels, due to the probability of slumping. The down side is that these enamels do contain lead. Ultimately I will look at other types of enamels, hopefully there will be success with other manufacturers.

Trees Hugging!

What did the Romans do for us?

Remember that segment of Monty Python's "Life of Brian"?

I just heard a guy, an economist, on a television news programme, commenting on the Arts Council announcements today on funding for the next year, and the drastic cuts that have been enforced on arts organisations throughout the country.

This person, an educated man, a doctor, seemed very pleased with the cuts. His opinion was that art which pleases the masses deserves funding, and anything challenging and/or controversial deserves absolutely nothing! What an ignoramus, hence my analogy with the Python movie. With that attitude what chance does art stand in these times? 

Back to Casting

I decided it is worth testing some ceramic decals on cast glass to see what difference, if any, it makes to the depth of colour. I have tested another decal at 820C but it has not had any significant effect on the end result. I am thinking that it may be better to double up the decals to get a deeper colour. I will try this soon, when I can afford to order some more. The last batch cost £27 for four A4 decals.

 If anyone out there has had experience of this or applying decals to glass, please feel free to offer advice, as all will be gratefully received?

The next photos are of the mould empty and filled with frit ready for casting.

The mould was still too hot yesterday afternoon to remove from the kiln, though I will photograph it and the removing of the cast glass as soon as it is achieved.

Another Test Piece

Here is another example of my work with a fused ceramic decal added to the glass. I will add a video clip soon of how to apply the waterslide decals (or Transfers) to glass, when I have edited it. This one was fused and slumped (or sagged as named in the US)into a mould in one go in the kiln. It was taken up to 720C. The decal was quite pale compared to the original image which was initially a drawing of Arabic style text drawn by myself/ It was scanned into my Mac and manipulated slightly in Photoshop. The resulting image was then emailed to a company in Stoke-on-Trent, who the produced the decal.

I have been informed by the makers that the colours 'mature' with firing. To that end I have put some of the test pieces back in the kiln tonight for re-firing. Will report back the results!


I will post a photo of my horse next, as remembered to take my camera with me this evening, and he had been out without a rug on as it was a beautiful spring day at last it was warm.

And this is his new best friend Plum!

What a Beautiful Day

Sorry but today being Sunday, I had to suspend the constant thinking about my work and do something away from computers!

Rode my horse out through peaceful lanes lined with daffodils and whats left of the snowdrops.

Afternoon went to Mothercombe Beach with Zig, my dog, it was the first time he has been there, but not the last. You can understand why the movie people pick it as a location, it is so gorgeous, especially on a day like this. The last photo I could not resist posting, I love what the tide does to sand.