Third Year Project 2

This is again a really quick overview of what I made during my third year at university.

By this point in the year I had gained more confidence in my own abilities in glass and my designs. In the beginning of this year my work was focused on creating patterns on the surface of my glass using carving and sandblasting. I started to experiment more with shape looking at onion and garlic bulbs. In particular I was interested in what the bulbs look like when new growth appears, this is generally known as 'sprouting'.

From my initial drawings and photographs I generated a series of maquettes looking at a growing form. I made them a little weird and wonderful as at this point I was still quite a novice in glass and didn't know much about the limitations of this new material. Cutting into the pieces afterwards was also something I wanted to explore at a later date. For now I was trying to develop my form and use of colour.

After this came the fun bit. Hot Glass! I decided just to focus on one pattern, stripes!

These pieces were created using  techniques called Graal. For anyone who doesn't know what this means, Graal is when a hollow egg of glass is blown and left to anneal (cool down). This can then be decorated using a range of techniques such as carving or sandblasting. The 'egg' is then picked up again on the end of a blow iron and gathered over (basically coating it in a layer of glass so it can get bigger) this can then be shaped and blown out into your desired form.

The carved lines in this piece trapped air bubbles, a process called Ariel. 

Yes, Ariel just like the little mermaid.

I really like this one the colours and texture created by the hyacinth frit is great. Pity it looks like a Coca Cola bottle.

Hey remember that weird model I had on a piece like this but with holes cut into it?

Yeah, this one.

Well guess what?











I had a go at making it!

The colour isn't what I wanted this turned more grey than purple and the photograph doesn't really do it justice but the hole is impressive right?

This is the beginning of me stating to use glass canes to decorate my work. This one was made with translucent white canes on a coloured surface. This grey/purple was created using a powdered colour I next tried opaque colour on translucent canes.

And then I started looking and opaque white canes. I first tried this on a clear glass surface.

And this was the end of the project. For the next one I planned to cut into the pieces more and toying with the idea of a non functional vessel this also included going a little crazy with the neck on my pieces.

Third Year - Project 1

 Here are just some quick snaps of glassware I have made during my first term in third year.
I have been looking at adding layers of texture and pattern to glass using sandblasting and diamond wheel engraving.