cross-fertilization: glass and fiber

 

In the last month, I have been fortunate enough to study with two leaders in their fields -- Dorothy Caldwell: textiles, and Patty Gray: art glass.

In Dorothy's class, we focused on the design element of line as expressed in stitch-- thick, thin, straight, curved, jagged.  In Patty's class, we focused on the qualities of glass itself and how various types of glass produce a variety of effects, depending on transparency, opacity, width, depth, and firing methods.

I wanted to explore what I had learned from Dorothy and apply it to what Patty was teaching us. In the piece pictured below, I was experimenting with the thickness of line, as well as how movement could be achieved through the placement of various pieces of glass.

Here is the piece once it was fired:

I learned a lot from this piece. The large chunks of black line were a surprise -- and too heavy, in my mind's eye. I felt there were too many guests at the party -- its was too busy.

Enter the glass blowers! We were given the opportunity to have a "roll up" done -- glass blowers would take our piece and make it into any shape we wanted.  I felt that if the design were stretched out, I might actually like it. 

Well, I am over-the-moon about the result. The design is much more open, and consequently the formerly-ugly thick lines have now taken on a size more compatible with the rest of the design. Here are some more pix of the vase from different angles:

I am happy with the result of this cross-fertilization between my two classes.