During this term my main workshop was with the medium of glass. It can produce beautiful and delicate results but can be tricky and painful to cut and manipulate
Our first experiment with glass was with sheets of clear 3ml window glass. By attempting to cut 2 identicle ( as close as possible) piece of glass. This is to strengthen the design and create smooth and strong edges. Having a double layer also enables you to trap items inside.
I used the running theme of blues, teals and grey paints with cooper or bronze powders. I also used lots of copper wire or mesh. Unfortunately the copper looses its amber glow when fired, but did turn a lovely wine red.
The next technique was to create clay moulds and cast glass from them. I rolled some clay to roughly half a cm thick. With that slab i folded it over a bowls until it was semi dry, slumped between pipes and folded into unusual shapes. I also used stamps a fruit moulds to create texture and patterns that would hopefully effect the glass when slumped.
The clay had to be bisque fired so it would support the glass during the slumping process. After the clay had been bisque fired i gave each piece 3 coats of back wash. This pink liquid stops anything from sticking to the ceramic during the firing process.
I then cut glass to match the shape of the clay although a little bit small so it doesn’t hang over the side of the mould. The moulds then go in the glass kiln with the cut glass overlayed. The glass will sink down on to the mould and slump, if its done right it will then come off the mould but can sometime entrap the mould and not come off.
Bullseye glass is incredibly beautiful for jewellery. It comes in many colours, patterns and even textures. During this session we used a cutting tool that is like a mini ban saw for glass and a sander this helped create smaller and nearly identical pieces. This process again needs two layers of either the same bullseye glass or one layer and one clear.
Zoe Connelly 