WarmGlass.com

I have not had so much fun in a very long time. Went to Bavin Glass Works in my town worked with amazing glass blower Ryan Bavin and Leah Duperrault , where we took large sections of a few 96 colour bars and blew them out into lovely vessel forms that I cannot get when slumped in molds. Quite different than a roll up as no seams or worry about things not matching up. Just totally fun.

Well we opened the kiln and I am happy with the quiet look in the vessel forms. So different from my fused/cast pieces. Les OH SORRY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO STRAIGHTEN OUT PHOTOS , THEY ARE SIDEWAYS SO I guess just turn your laptop around.

Thanks so much Valerie, I just cannot quite figure that one out how to rotate the photo. Also working on my last Canyon piece and hope it looks o.k. when it comes out. The colour bar was so nice. Hmmm!

Now that you have seen the thinned colour resulting from blowing out the pieces will this inspire you to work thinner in general so as to allow more light transmission?

Yes Kevin, and no!!! This is something you have told me for years and I am having a hard time aren't I !!! but actually if you see the pieces in person they are only 1/8th thick colour bars surrounded by clear which gives depth to the pieces and interesting things through the layers. So I am actually working thinner on my larger bowls which I like a lot. So yes and no are in my Kevin vocabulary. But not to say we do not talk a lot and I do listen to you as you have very valid things to offer a friend. Keep on giving me good constructive critiques as I really do appreciate them. ( mind you the glass companies might like me working deep. Les

Had a wonderful day back in the hot shop with Ryan Bavin and Leah Duperrault and we blow out some large cast glass colour bar sections instead of trying a roll up and I like the results. A little harder blowing out Bullseye mind you as you cannot use the furnace glass which means the pieces are not gathered with a lovely layer of clear BUT they are thin and lovely and like an egg shell which is so different than my usual large cast glass thicker vessel forms. I really like blowing as the shapes are quite unique and something we cannot achieve with our slumping. BUT I still LOVE the kiln forming !!! Les

Les- Case them with clear in the kiln first, then you'll have the coating when you have them blown out.

These are lovely, Les. Do you have any photos of the pickup? I'm havin a tough time visualizing the transition from color bar to hollow vessel.

Thanks

Tony

Hi Tony! yes. On my face book page. I will try to post that for you. AND Marty! yes I did cover the large piece in clear. Cast it with 1/2 inch clear all the way around it. BUT the furnace glass is just so nice and the blowers like to gather much better so they feel more comfortable about how thick the piece actually is while blowing it out. But it was really fun. Bavin Glassworks is a wonderful studio and Ryan is truly good at what he does. The bullseye colours were fighting each other and it tended to collapse in spots but he was able to rescue. I will post some other pics tooo ! Les

Once you pick up the colour bar on the blow pipe from the pick up kiln , then you blow it out. You first pick up a bullseye chunk of clear on the blow pipe so all glass is compatible.

Totally had fun pulling my cane at Passion For Glass in Calgary with Anna Bilek. We laughed and enjoyed the process and I only broke one finger ( my baby one ) when I got home and was cutting the cane with my clippers and hit the counter. BUT it will heal and I will have a lot of fun creating with the soft and suttle yet intricate vitorgraph pulls

Broke my little finger on my cutting hand cutting the cane BUT it was worth it! Soft and delicate canes to play with.

Always fun to design a piece that will use the vitorgraph pieces in a new way. This will be really fun to see how it turns out BUT will have to make a special mold to slump it as it is a little to big for my other molds I have made. Hope the power stays on until I am finished this piece as the old saying " WINTER IS COMING " and the power man does like to bring wind and snow and power outages. Hmmm!

I was nervous as the power went out last night twice so here I sit at 4:00 AM in the morning . Luckily the vitrograph large 21 1/2" inch piece made it through the firing before the power cut off but the other kiln was perhaps not as lucky. We shall see. But I will slump this piece deep hopefully
P.S. I also made a MM6 ring that goes inside the metal ring and then 2 layers of fiber cut short so that it fits on my large MM6 slumping mold I made last year.

Now comes the hard part, grinding the large edge!!! so it looks refined.

Brilliant light transmission! Congratulations. Jen

Thanks so much Jen, I will try to take some professional pics when the edges are ground and the Stone is cut and polished . Les

I think the light coming through this when it is polished edge will be interesting.