Hues of Nature - Complete

Hues of Nature is finished! I just love how it turned out. Dan made sure to photograph it so the light comes through the transparent glass in the piece and I think that effect is really cool.

It took a while and I definitely feel it was worth the work and the wait.

It will be one of my pieces that will be available at Coyote Creek Art in a couple of weeks.

It's Alive!

Let me introduce you to "Jade", my new ASW Table Top Machine. She is set up and working now.... and I literally did think "It's Alive!", as if I was Dr Frankenstein bringing this tool to 'life'. It was quite the process and involved more trips to Home Depot than I would have ever thought!

Since I had to set this up in my studio and when we built out house I didn't think I needed a direct water line to the studio (that was wrong), I needed to use a water circulating system to operate the machine. This is a photo of what that circulating system looks like. That involves using a pond pump, flower pot, a rather large rubber trash can, series of tubes and connectors. Initially I was following the directions supplied by the manufacturer. Unfortunately, they didn't contain specs on the type of pump to purchase, so I bought one that was too small. Course, now I can use that to create a bubbling vase out in my flower garden come June as right now the flower garden is covered in about 2' of snow (but that's another story).

Then there was the challenge of connecting the intake and outtake lines, getting the proper connections. Fortunately, the folks as ASW are very nice and helpful. I called and was given the actually make and model of the pond pump to use, which simplified the connection problem and the water output problem. The nice gentlemen at ASW thought all of this should be put out on their website for folks like me and was going to talk to the inventor of this system to have them put it out there. That would be great!

Unfortunately, using this type of system means that I will have to empty the water by hand. Course, even if I had a direct hook up to a water line, I would still have to empty the 'waste' water into a bucket like I've shown here because you can't dump this water down your drain as it would eventually clog with glass particle residue. I can use this water on my plants and things outside, no problem.

I picked Jade up on Monday of this past week and have been putting things in place for her use and Friday afternoon I finally got it up and running! Yesterday I started work on the 4 pieces that were waiting for the coldworking process. Oh my goodness, what a difference this machine has made in my ability to quickly (key word quickly) get down to the finishing process.

She came with a set of 6 finished discs, varying diamond grits (another key word here, diamond!). The discs are pictured here. They have magnetic backings so they fit securely on the disc that rotates. Let me tell you, it is quite the job getting these discs off the platen....I'm sure I'll figure out the technique, but right now it's a challenge. So I worked on "Hues of Nature", "Meteor Showers", "Eclipse of the Black Moon", and "Growing Love". I only got the first grinding phase done and now I need to empty the water and start fresh as I move to the next grit level.

With a circulating system like this, because I'm grinding off the most glass in this first phase, the water has LOTS of ground glass particles. Now most will sink to the bottom of the main bucket, but there still are plenty floating in the water that is being circulated back up to the grinding disc. And those tiny glass particles are ok for this phase of work, but I need to clear them out as I move on in the finishing process so they won't scratch what I'm working on for the next phase.

I find it hard to believe that I took my first coldworking class at D & L last May and I was seriously intimidated by this type of a machine. Then I took Kent Lauer's class in September and Patty Gray's in November. By then I knew that I couldn't do the work I wanted without one of these beauties. So Jade has quickly taken her place in my arsenal of tools and I am in awe of what she can provide to help me with my glass work.

A New Treasury - Collection of Beautiful Crosses

Right place, right time. I am definitely having fun putting together Etsy Treasuries with beautiful pieces I find there. I just created this one tonight and called it, A Collection of Beautiful Crosses. If you have a chance, check it out and visit the shops of other Etsians featured in this collection. Hope you enjoy.

And today was Christmas for me. I received Karen's painting, Medicine Bottle #2. It's even more gorgeous that her picture of it on her blog. I have promptly hung it in just the right spot in my studio. Love it, love it, love it. Thank you Karen.

In follow up to last night's post, I have new designs in mind for my next fusing adventure. I still need to finish Hues of Nature, which I will do this weekend. Stay tuned for more pictures!

Websites Updated

It's been another busy weekend. I guess I just need to accept the fact that when you work at a full time, day job, the weekends will ALWAYS be busy.

I've started coldworking the Hues of Nature bowl. Nothing significant to report at this time, except that I continue to be happy with its progress.

I started a new project today, this one is an abstract of three columbines. It's provided a few challenges and I started to take pictures of the progress. I will post these as I have the build stage finished and it's ready to go in the kiln.

Ok, I'm just a glass addict! But that's a good thing right? Today I couldn't resist doing another batch of stringers. This time, a taupe color, from a previously failed attempt at fusing something. So, I had a lot of fun shaping the molten glass strings as they flowed from my little kiln. Nice diversion.

And throughout the course of this weekend, I've been updating my personal website and our joint studio website. This can be an never ending task, but I'm happy with the updates to the jewelry, stained glass, and kilnwork galleries. If you feel like it, please check them out and give me any feedback. I trust my artist friends.

Thank you all. Make it a wonderful week of creativity!!!

Coldworking and Fire Polishing

I'm getting closer to finishing this piece. Tonight I got back to the coldwork needed to finish the edge of the blue bowl. I ordered a couple of additional wet belts for my sander in various grits to help with the coldworking and those belts arrived last week.

Tonight I was able to go through a series of belts, from a 60 grit to 800 grit, and get the edge finished. I did a slight bevel on the top and bottom edge which should smooth even more during the fire polish.

The reason for fire polishing is to help round the glass edge a little more, smooth it and make it nice and glossy.

The finishing work went smoothly and much easier than my previous attempts. I think I'm becoming a coldworking believer. In the Kent Lauer, Faceted Dichroic Pendant class, Kent told me it wouldn't take much time at all to develop coldworking skills. Of course, being the Master Beveler that he is, he was right!

Tonight I'm completing the fire polish stage, so the edge will no longer have a mat appearance and should be glossy. I hope I'm happy with the results when I open the kiln tomorrow to check it.

After that, I will be ready to complete the final stage for this piece, the slumping into the bowl mold to complete the project. I learned a lot from this bowl and that seems to be the norm with any project I work on.

I will move on to the Hues of Nature piece next for the finishing work it needs.

During all of this, I've been revamping our studio website, along with my personal website. All this and a day job too! Art has captured my soul and I don't think I could live without being creative. Here's wishing all of you inspirations for your work too!

Hues of Nature, post-fuse

Here is 'Hues of Nature' fused. I am very happy with the results. Some of the glass strips that I used have a lot of depth, so the lines did not turn out completely straight. Considering that this is something earthy and organic, I think it is a great initial result.

I have some coldworking to do. Then I'll decide if I want to do a fire polish before the slump into the bowl form.

Right now, I just couldn't be happier with how this has turned out.

New Work - Hues Of Nature

Over the weekend, as I was waiting for the blue bowl to finish its firing schedule, I started on a new project. I wanted to do something that was more random in pattern that the blue bowl, and this is my latest design. It evolved as I was building it and I wanted to show my progression to this point in its journey.

Tonight, this is in the kiln, firing to a full fuse. I am anxious to see if I did enough to eliminate some of the glass icicles; if not, I know how to fix them.


A week or so ago, I started to play with glass color combinations and kept coming back to this trio. These are the sheets that I cut into strips to use in the construction. As I started, I realized that I had another sheet that would work well as it had a nice white/green combination. All of these are from Bulleye Glass. The final choices were a nice streakie amber, my favorite marzipan, a green streakie, and another green/white/orange streakie.



Here is my initial pile of 1/2" strips. The recent addition of the green with white is in the upper left corner of this picture.


I put my design together, by starting in the center of my 10 3/8" steel ring, which will act as a dam to maintain the 1/2" depth of this piece.

As I got going, I thought it would add interest to use the marzipan and amber pieces in a perpendicular position to the long lines created by the glass strips. I varied the number of each of the amber and marzipan strips used for each of those opposing sections.

Last night I completed the work, finishing up with a square of the marzipan and amber in the upper right corner.

I debated about using stringers as I had in the blue bowl, but in the end, I felt this one should stand on its own with a clean, simple line. I'll find out if I'm happy with the result tomorrow when the fusing is complete. The nice thing is I can always add to this if I want to mix it up more. Right now, I think I'll like the simplicity of the lines.

The randomness of the colors reminds me of Hues of Nature, which I think is what I will call this piece.