Meteor Showers

My latest project from this past weekend. I tend to move from one thing to another as you have probably noticed. I feel like I need to multi-task when I work on things. Last Friday, I received a call for artists for a show in Denver and the deadline is Monday, 3/23. I'm hoping that I can have this ready for submission, but the coldworking is time consuming. So if I don't finish it in time for the deadline, I think it will fit nicely in some other shows I plan on doing. I do wish I'd receive Calls for Artists with longer lead times for submissions...oh well.

I call this Meteor Showers. This is one of those cases where, when I saw the stringers a few weeks ago, I had this vision of what they would look like streaming down from clouds....breaking through the atmosphere. This is one of the thickest pieces I've made yet (see the detail in the last picture here) and I'm finding that I enjoy the effects of frit, stringers, and thick glass results.

I thought I would show some of the progress on how this was built. I started with a circle of Bullseye's Marzipan. It is one of my favorites as I think it has such a warm, rich quality. Their Marzipan is a striker glass, which means that it 'strikes' the rich Marzipan color when it reaches full fuse temperature. I placed this in a stainless steel ring with a fiber dam.





Then I started to add some of the stringer drops that represent the meteors. Here is where I started layering shades of blue frit, with clear frit and more stringers. I used combinations from two of my stringer batches, one with a lighter steel blue and another with a dark midnight blue. I'm beginning to understand this frit addiction and once you get started, it sort of grabs your attention and begs you to try more with it!


In this next shot, I've added more layers of frit and stringers. I want that suspended effect between the elements once it is fused.








Final phase of layering. Everything is in place and ready for the mound of clear glass pieces. You can sort of see that mass of blue stringers I put at the top to represent the clouds the meteors are passing through.







A side view showing the mound of glass placed on top of the design.







Another view, taken just prior to placing it in the kiln for firing.








My first glimpse, while in the kiln, after the fusing process. Oh yes, it has some reddish/pink striker randomly mixed in there and I think that adds to the drama of the meteor strikes.









Trying to show that this is approximately 1 inch thick.

I think it is going to be a very interesting bowl when complete.