Glass June 2007

It's been a long time since I've been in a glass studio, and thought it was time again. Something about it gets into your blood. I did two sessions at Double Struggle Studio, with Barry Fairbairn, in April and June.

There's only one photo from the April session; the rest are from June. During the June one, I suddenly got it. I felt in control, and produced much nicer shapes. Spherical is still hard, but towards the end I'm getting to the point where you have to look carefully to see where they are not spherical. With some, the coloured glass inside is way off centre.

These photos were taken with a fairly new digital camera but it's no easier now than it was when I took the first batch way back when. You get all the reflections, and it's hard to see the interior detail. Lots of shots were ruined when the flash insisted on going off. That creates a bright spot on the paperweight. If anyone has hints on how to get a good photograph of spherical glass objects please pass them along. I really should study the manual that came with the camera. Maybe there some things I could do to get better pictures.

Starting from the top.

This was the nicest from the April session. It was the nearest to spherical I had done to date. I got a very nice helical twist, which was my intention. I hadn't expected the red to be so streaky but it ends up looking nice.

The next one is a group shot showing all my work, minus one, from the June session. The rim of the bowl really is a faint green; it's not a reflection from the green paperweight beside it. I've put a ruler there so you can get an idea of size.

The first few I did were clear glass, trying to get the feel again of working with hot glass. This is the nicest photo, though there is a nicer clear round one. I couldn't get a decent shot of it at all.

I tried a helix again with what I thought was an amber colour. Turns out that it gets this white coating on it. It got a bit squooged while working on it, and it got off centre on me at the last moment. The base is ground at a bit of a funny angle. I was pretty pleased with the shape.

I tried another helix, with a nicer amber. That part turned out beautifully. I put a couple of white canes on the side, and twisted it into a helix. That part didn't go quite as well as expected. I think it was a bit too hot, and it got a bit L shaped on me. In the end, it got a bit of a flat top that is skewed to one side.

The green one with the yellow cane is where I started to get it. I did the green, then got a clear gather over it that shaped very nicely and made up for the weird green shape. I rolled some yellow can into it just because. The final gather is nicely rounded on top, but it got a bit elongated on me.

You can just barely see it in the photo, but the large blue and white one has a bubble in it. The bubble is a bit upright, but the shape of the blue, and the overall shape are excellent. I was really pleased with it. I almost wanted to keep working it. The base is a bit small, and could probably have ground it bigger, and ended up with nicer proportions.

It's really hard to make out the details in the dark amber one, and even harder to get a good photo. I rolled it in the colour too many times. Still, the shape is nice, if a tiny bit flat on top. I was really enjoying working with it.

The last paperweight was rolled in a mix of colours, so I had no idea what I was going to get. At the top there's tiny little bubbles over one part of the colours, which actually looks pretty cool. I was totally in control of this one all the time, and the shape is probably the best I've ever done.

I wanted to blow a cereal bowl, and ended up with a fruit bowl. I was mostly in control, but blew it up just a bit too much too soon, and ended up with the base being a bit thin, so Barry rescued it by putting on more glass as a base. Then I worked on the shape. It's nicely round, but if you look carefully, you can see lots of scratches from the jacks. The rim really is a faint green; it's not just a reflection from the green in the paperweight.

All in all it was a lot of fun, and something I'd like to do more of. Not sure when or how that's going to work out.