Monday, September 19, 2011

fused glass experiments

  
I'm delighting myself right now by playing -- melding fused glass design with surface design techniques I have learned for use with textiles. In the spring, I took a class from Dorothy Caldwell on mark-making and fell head over heels in love with that enterprise.

That class and a lot of cogitating produced these three pieces, each made from a 8" x 10" x 1/2" flat piece of fused glass that was rolled up into vase shapes by master glass blower Ryan Staub:


The first photo above shows one version of my current undertaking. Only the bottom piece of glass is opaque; those layered on top are transparent. On that white glass, I painted a mark that I hope references Japanese calligraphy. I found that it was almost impossible to get any texture or brush marks on the slick surface of glass. This mark was okay, so I decided to go forward and start layering transparent glass on top.

The design hearkens to patchwork quilt construction. Several pieces of glass have black paint "marks" I made, and those appear hither and yon. My goal was to have the "calligraphic" mark on white unify the piece, as it should be visible through the layers above.

I haven't finished yet. Here's another incarnation/possibility:


I have started a file on ideas of how to achieve the texture I want in the calligraphy marks, and even ordered some glass that might help me get that texture.

So far, I am leaning towards door number one. Your comments/critiques are appreciated!

3 comments:

Tina said...

They are both lovely, but I think the first one appeals to me slightly more. What you do with glass and fabric is a wonder!

Anonymous said...

You amaze me Pammy! I too prefer #1. I like the flow, my eyes move in a circle around, and I tilted me head to try to read the text that runs vertically. Stunning! And hard to understand just how you do it!

Pamela Price Klebaum said...

Thanks for the input and the kind reviews! I am going back to the workshop today to look at it anew...and Glorianne, I wrote two layers of text, so it should be indecipherable (and there isn't any mystery in what I wrote).

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