Hostabowl

I love concept and creation. I hate production and refinement, and I’m probably ADD in the bargain, which means that while I’m really, really great at starting a creative project–and am likely to have 4 or 5 going at any given time–finishing them is another matter.

In business, I’ve had to develop discipline and project management skills that get me around that. It’s been a lot slower coming for my art, however, which is why Hostabowl is still a work in progress after something like nine months. Last week, however, I finally cast the bloody thing, and after five days in the kiln all that’s left is the coldworking. (ugh)

Hostabowl is part of a series I’m calling Emergents. The series combines human and vegetative forms with the idea, as I’ve said before, is that this is what might have happened if God hadn’t been so rushed to complete the whole bloody world in seven days, and if plants had had a say in human evolution.

It’s also a testbed to see how far you can combine pate de verre and kilnforming. The thing I’ve always loved about glass is the high degree of control I have over texture, translucency and transparency…but the differentiator is often the restriction of techniques you can perform on a single work. In this particular series I’m combining my first love–pate de verre–and sheetwork in the same piece, hoping to get a contrast between extreme transparency (the sheet) and the alabaster feel of pate de verre.

Been trying different mold mixes, looking for one that gives me lots of strength for multi-part molds with multiple firings yet crumbles easily once I’m done so I don’t wind up breaking the piece (or crying). I wound up using Ransom & Randolph’s R&R910, and although I sometimes have quibbles with its texture it’s performed like a champ.

I preslump the sheet glass into the mold, open-faced, to ensure accurate placement of the glass. Then, with the shaped sheet in the mold, I fill in with glass powder and frit tints (dry if possible, so there’s no chance of scum), invest and embed any precast components, then seal as necessary with additional investment and fire as a closed and weighted single mold.

Striking a balance between sturdy mold and mold that doesn’t overinsulate by being too thick has been tough. I think I’ve got it with this one, but I’ll want 5 or 10 more projects before I can say for certain. The folks on warmglass (especially Hugh “Glassburl” and the Rowe-Israelson twins) have been a big help.

This is also a Bullseye glass casting, only my fourth cast with Bullseye instead of crystal, and I’m learning more about what to expect from a stiffer glass. I love the palette, so much more extensive than the many fewer colors I’ve had with crystal, and I’m learning to deal with the differences in luminosity.

Bullseye seems to work best in subtle layers of color with different intensities, and I’m also learning to “back” a field of color with a translucent white or “highlighter” color, even crystal clear, to bring out variations and obtain more of the fire you see with European lead crystal. My initial objections to Bullseye (and objections I’ve heard from many in the casting world, especially in Europe) were all around the differences in clarity and “inner fire,” but as long as I stop thinking of solid volumes of the same color and start working with graded layers, it’s fine. And the advantage, of course, is that learning to layer color within a casting increases my design vocabulary tremendously.

In this particular image, the bowl body is made of thin layers of overlapping BE Spring Green and (small amounts of) Chartreuse sheet. The PdV figures and rib veins are done in overlays of BE Violet Striker on a mix of opal NeoLav, VioletStriker, Gold Purple and Cobalt Blue powders into fine clear. The “hair” that flows from the figure’s head into the bowl body is a base of fine clear shading up to an OliveGreen and Spring Green tint. It’s overlain with Aventurine Green, then recoated with a thin layer of Spring Green opal. The layers aren’t obvious (mostly) but they give a great deal of depth.

Lots of coldwork needed and the above isn’t a great picture. Once the thing is finished and back from acid polishing I’ll post much better pictures. And this series is mutating from functional shapes to bas-relief work (and also to architectural–at some point I really AM going to cast that desk), which will give me a bit more control over variables.

Cheers–

–Cynthia

Share on Facebook