What to do?

One of my Experiments.....

I've been absent, my apologies.

Never fear, I have been working on my art....my glass art and my art jewelry. And I haven't felt I had anything worthy of posting on my glass blog, but then I thought I should share some of what I've been doing with glass that is .... as of yet.... unfinished.

So here it is, one of my experiments, and I definitely consider it unfinished. I mentioned a bit about my experiments back in a January post. I'm not completely satisfied with the result you see here and that is why I have not slumped this piece into one of the sushi plate molds I have. I keep wondering if I should do anything else? It has some imperfections, which I don't think the photo shows (my photo, not one of Dan's), but I can see them. Well, we all know what that's like when our critical eye sees something that isn't right. Maybe I should just set this aside in the small stack of pieces that will be recycled into stringers? As you can tell from all the questions I have about it, I have not decided if I should go through the effort of finishing this or just recycle it.

The inspiration for this piece started with this wonderful book I found at Barnes & Noble prior to Christmas. It was Alponse Mucha Master Works.
I loved the book. The colors, the wonderful art work. Unfortunately, the book is sold out, so I hope you can find a copy if it inspires you too.

Part of what captivated me was Mucha's graceful lines. I wanted to incorporate a bit of that graceful line work in my art, so I tried this little experiment. And ever since I found mica powders, they have taunted me a bit. I know how hard they can be to incorporate into fused glass (at least for me) and so I tried something new. It sort of worked, but not quite. At least I'm not happy with the result.

I used some of my favorite Bullseye Glass, that rich marzipan color I love. And then I used coppery mica powder to form the lines you see, mixed with clear fine frit in my attempt to have the mica fuse to the glass. It sort of did, but not all of it. So I decided I would add a bit of Glassline paint in a rust shade to emphasize the mica a bit more, and then as a contrast I thought it would be nice to have a bit of green in there (provided by a bit-o-frit). Over the top of all of that I added more clear frit to 'seal' the mica in place. After another firing in the kiln, all fused and the mica is in place. But, the surface doesn't look good and I'm back to not being satisfied with the result.

So, I have learned some things with this test and I'm not sure where it will take me. I have other things in the works too, along with shows starting next month, so I will have more to share. I think it helps to know that we all have things that just don't go quite the way we had hoped. All part of the learning process and that's a good thing.

Please feel free to share your thoughts, I always enjoy what my fellow artists think.

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.

Experimenting

I don't have any pictures to post yet. I just want to document my thoughts on my next venture. When I started blogging, almost 2 years ago, I viewed this as a way to journal my thoughts, processes, and artistic growth. It has become so much more than that and I am delighted beyond my wildest dreams that it has. Thank you, all of my artistic/blogging friends, for giving me that gift.

Last night I started work on a new design. I have several that have been 'floating' around in my head and knew I needed to get to work on them.

As I was talking with Dan this morning, we were laughing about my expectation that things should turn out perfect on my first attempts. The logical part of me knows that is unrealistic. And when experimenting with new ideas, I know I'm going to have failures until I figure out how things should be done. In spite of that knowledge, I still have this unrealistic expectation that it should just turn out right the first time. And this has become a source of humor in the Krucoff household, because that is just not how it works.

During the course of my experiments last night I had about 5 failures. Each one kept me thinking about how I could approach this. Since nothing was permanent yet, because I hadn't fused anything, I could wash off my glass and start over. I like that. And with each attempt, I was learning something. That's good, right? I finally reached the point where I needed to stop, back away from the glass, and leave the studio. Frustration was growing and I hit that point where I wasn't making any progress. I'm happy I realize that about myself and it does pay off to just leave the area and go do something else. That relaxes my brain and frees it with a diversion. Subconsciously my mind is working on the solution and it will bubble up to the surface.

The way my mind processes information, this morning as I got up, I think the solution came to me. It's a much easier approach than the ones I was trying last night, which is great! So I will try again tonight with my morning revelation. If successful, I'll have several 'experiments' to put in the kiln and see if these new designs are as nice as I envision them to be.

So what exactly am I working on? A few new things. One involves some graceful lines created with a combination of mica and frit. Another involves more of an arts & crafts look (I'm such a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright). And one of the last ones for this go round came from our Fall trip to Rocky Mountain National Park....of course, there are Aspen leaves involved with this one.

My question for each of you is, how realistic are you about your expected outcomes as you try something new? Do you find it takes a number of iterations before you get things the way you want? I think I know how some of you will answer. Yet, it helps me to grow as you generously share your thoughts about your process. Thanks!

Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.