This has been the season of kiln casting! I did two open-faced casting workshops this spring. It's so surprising to see the variety of work that comes out of the kiln.

Everyone did two projects. We started by making clay models, carving them and adding elements. We covered them with a plaster/sand investment mixture. We removed the clay, then we added glass powders, frit, twisted rods, dichro flakes, copper elements... just letting imagination run amok.

Casting is a lot of work but the payoff is that you learn tons of techniques and skills that go into making the work. That should provide all the skills you need to carry on with the work in your own studio. I hope participants keep sending me photos of new work!

We just wrapped up another "Working with Frit and Powders" workshop.

It is just a big old bunch of fun every time. The random goofiness of the forms makes every kiln load a surprise. What a wonderful group of people - many thanks for a great workshop.

The next one is scheduled for October 28-29, 2017. There's still time to join us  in the studio, I'd love to see you.  Details are on the workshop page.

Also - thanks to all who came to the open studio tour last weekend. It was nice to meet new people and see old friends. And it was great to have an excuse to clean up the studio. It doesn't happen that often. Right now it looks about twice as big as it did two weeks ago. I'll enjoy it until it fills up with piles of art stuff again.

Hope to see you -
Steph

New things are cookin' in the studio. I've been planning to do more sculptural work for a while, so I've been sketching away, considering new forms.

It all started with this fabulous (yes, I just used the word "fabulous", don't judge) stainless steel slumping mold. I had it made by a local metal shop. And since I'm a geeky glass girl I find it quite exciting. I also received cowboy gear instead of dolls when I was a child, but that's a story for another day.

I've been dwelling on atmospheric effects like fog. I hope it's not some unconscious connection to my... um... maturity. So I started working on a large horizontal foggy piece, planning to drape it over my shiny new mold.

Here's the piece in the kiln, surrounded by dams to keep it from spreading out. It's pretty thick at this point, about seven layers. In this image it's receiving the last layer, a clear cap on top of the finished piece.

Here's the finished piece, still flat but showing the layers of foggy goodness back to the horizon. It's a little hard to see, but there are lots of tiny trees way in the back.

I placed the mold in the kiln and balanced the big old heavy piece of glass on the mold (it looked like a teeter-totter and was a little scary).

The piece behaved nicely in the kiln, slowly draping itself over that nice curve as it softened in the heat.

I built a wood base with feet from a really nice piece of clear grain fir. Yummy. The warm colors in the wood base echo the warm colors in the foreground of the piece.

It needs a name and a signature and it's off to the gallery tomorrow morning. I hope it finds a new home.

I see more fog in my future.                                    Wait! That doesn't sound right.

Just a quick report on the Kiln Carving workshop last weekend - so much fun! My fellow art-makers really made it worthwhile. They were curious, slightly goofy & meticulous. That turned out to be the perfect combination of qualities.

We got a chance to work on positive/negative coaster designs, single-layer and double-layer fiber patterns for tiles. Then we shifted gears a bit and did some powder pieces, both over cut designs and packed into open patterns.

I love that moment when you open the kiln to reveal everyone's work from the day before. It's just like Christmas morning. I just wanted to share photos from the workshop so you can see how great they did!

Next up:
Layered landscape intensive
July 12-16 - I can't wait!

I hope you're getting some art time in this summer. And I hope I get to see you August 26-27 for my open studio!

Steph

Spring workshops are going great. I am having such a fine time hanging out, making art. I can't imagine anything better than being with other creative folks, exchanging ideas.

Next up: kiln carving! A few years ago I decided I'd write a book about kiln carving and bas relief techniques. I explored every facet of carving I could think of and made samples to fine-tune the techniques. I was nearly done, but life had other ideas and the book had to wait.

The upside is that I have a lot to share.

Even simple designs cut from fiber paper make striking glass work. Pack the cutouts with glass powders, apply paste relief, mica or metal foils and you'll produce something really special.

It's easy to work big with kiln carving, too, if you're thinking about architectural glass.

No glass experience is necessary, so if you're working in a different medium this is a good chance to try something new. I provide lots of designs to use, or you can design your own.

Come join us if you can, I'd love to see what you come up with. The workshop is June 24-25, more info on the workshop page. Contact me, I love to chat about glass!

Wow, it's been a long time since I taught  sgraffito. After making hundreds of pieces for shows, I took a turn into other work. I'll be tuning up my skills this week in preparation!

There's still one space left in the May 20-21 workshop. It's always fascinating to see what participants come up with and I don't think there's ever been a bad workshop piece come out of the kiln. It's surprisingly easy to make something good with this process.

I always come armed with lots of designs for you to try, or you can bring your own, or just draw on the spot. The glass blanks are all fired and ready to go - all you have to do is scratch away.  We can fit a bunch of art in my big old kiln...
see you there?

 I just wrapped up the April Layered Landscape workshop, so I thought I'd share some images. Every single person did great work.

Here are the finished pieces - the larger ones were used to teach techniques for capturing realism in glass and the smaller ones were an exercise in atmospheric effects.

We started with the same inspiration photo, applied some painterly rules & tips, and each person made the composition her own.

Here is a shot of the pieces in progress. It looks like this was layer three of the larger pieces, loaded in the kiln and ready for firing.  The smaller atmospheric pieces have the layer two fog and middle-ground trees built.

The dams prevent spreading as the glass gets thicker.

We spent a lot of time learning to pull stringers in the torch - the smaller pieces have three layers of trees in different colors to capture perspective in the fog.

Here are the smaller pieces loaded in the kiln for their last firing.

There's nothing better than hanging out in the creative think-tank of a glass workshop!

Many thanks to my wonderful participants.