Brief update and new opportunities!

So I have passed my degree successfully and now have a BA(Hons) Applied Arts, specialising specifically in glassmaking.

My next step is to begin my new job at LoCo glass in Cirencester, assisting in the hotshop and coldworking. And of course to start developing my next collection....

Close ups!!

Close ups from my bluish group of 'introspect' forms:

Steel Grey

Teal

Olive

It's been over a month...

So in the space between the large grey form I firepolished, and my last post I have been diligently working on my final major project for my final degree show.

The photograph above gives a little taster of what I'm planning to exhibit, photographic credit goes to Paul Davis of Clash and Clash photography, Plymouth.

Today is our last day in the workshops at College, before it goes under a transformation to become an exhibition space. I will be firepolishing seven pieces of lathe worked blown glass to get them a really nice shiny finish, here's hoping I don't drop any!!

Fresh(ish) from the lehr!

The fairly big transparent grey piece I firepolished the other day has survived, the polish definately needs a bit more practice though!

And this is what you see if you look inside it:

It's been a while...

I am now developing work for my final show, most recently I've become obsessed with scaling everything up - my wrists are not thanking me!! Below are some images of a piece of work I firepolished recently. I have to be honest, it wasn't easy but it's tucked up in the kiln and I didn't drop it!!

Marvering a hot gather of molten glass on a punty iron, which I will use to pick my work up with

Picking the piece up on the punty from a toploader kiln

Inspecting to see if there is any fibre paper attached to the piece

A better photo of the piece before it was put in the lehr (a kiln which cools the glass slowly)

A rough estimate of the time it took to make this piece would be 25 minutes to blow the initial form, an evening to anneal the glass so it was safe to carve, 3 hours of diamond cutting and prepping the piece for firepolishing, followed by an evening to bring the piece up to temperature for firepolishing and then 10 minutes for firepolishing, and a final overnight annealing in the lehr!!

Pretty things...

Colourful glass cabochons made at the lampworking torch using different cane decoration techniques:

Apples....

These are some of my apple forms. They are based on the concept of flesh, with ideas of dissection and the allegory of fruit and flesh in western cultures - garden of eden and forbidden fruit. Anyhow, here are a few of my best:

Amber apple form - the cross section looking like a human heart was a happy accident (there aren't many):

Topaz apple with indigo:

Ruby apple:

Gold iris apple with vermillion canes:

Jade and vermillion apple (another happy accident, the colours decided to react!):