Landscapes at The Beetroot Tree 22.4.12

Wow, just finished firing the students work from another fab workshop at The Beetroot Tree Gallery. You guys never fail to astound me with the level of creativity and number of new ideas/designs you come up with!

As usual, I started everyone off with a very quick task using pre cut Bullseye glass. We layered small metal inclusions, thinking about texture and confetti and frit for colour....

Before...

 

And after.

So, the general theme of the day with Fused Glass Landscapes but I never hold participants to this....

We had Abstract Shapes by Mavis.

Seasonal Trees by Jackie

Gold and Yellow Shapes by Rebekah

Flowers by Frank

Every one of them beautiful.  I do want to draw particular attention to the set of works created by Karen.  Her use of metal inclusions to create texture and the subtle/atmospheric colours of glass used are a true inspiration. 

Before firing.  Look at all the different components...

Bit of a close up with the textured metals

Three fired panels.  The photos don't do them justice so sorry about that!

As usual, more images from this workshop (and more) can be found on my facebook page!
Keep in touch!

Update to my "Microwave Kilns at Home" page.... a write up and lots of photos to do with the magic of firing glass in a domestic microwave....... check it out.  Any feedback or discussions welcome! 

Flutterby - 14 Students at Trowell Village Hall

22nd March - I was invited by Broxstowe Borough Council to teach a full day workshop as part of their "Take Part Art" events programme.

14 students spent the day creating creative with the Flutterby theme. Here are just a few examples of the finished works and descriptions.


This is David's Dragonfly - a wonderfully sculpted image, created in wire, simple colours were added with glass powders, confetti and mica powders. I had my concerns, technically I mean, I thought the wire design might catch air bubbles, but David was happy to just see what happened. I love to teach students like this - less pressure on me I think!

A tile by Grace - this photo doesn't do it justice but the dichroic glass pieces, placed in this mosaic effect is stunning! I can't be the only one who loves sparkle! I love the process of piecing together small pieces of coloured glass and use it a lot in my own work as well as teaching a 1/2 day Jewellery course I have titled "Mosaic Pendants & Earrings". I think it is just a great way of playing with colour and shape and each pieces is 100% unique!

Finally for this blog post, although you can see the whole photo album on my facebook page, is this hanging my Helen Domleo. Not sticking with the theme but I loved Helens use of wire, you can tell she is a very talented Jeweller. I suggested she bash the wire stems with a hammer and a metal plate to flatten them slightly. I find this helps to stiffen the wire, so it doesn't bounce around so much and it gives a really interesting texture/raw edge rather than the smooth round wire. I am going to develop list more as a process as recent sampling in my own practise has thrown up some interested results!