Phew, what a week!!

After getting the wall piece up last week, I arranged the glass fixings and put up the design board.

ALL DONE!  Well, not quite.  All of last weekend was spent preparing for assessment on Tuesday, and the external examiner on Thursday.  But it literally is all done now, there is no more I can do, but sit and wait for results day.

Preview Night was on Wednesday, it was quite a busy evening, although nobody asked if my piece was for sale!  Actually, I noticed that quite a few people, as they walk by, don’t even seem to notice it…. but I am not taking this as a bad thing, I think its probably quite a compliment – perhaps people don’t realise it’s even part of the show – it looks quite at home on the wall where it is… here’s a pic:

Unfortunately, the light isn’t brilliant where it is, so those panels don’t show up as well as they will when it’s in it’s proper place in the school…. and they reflect a lot on the photo.  I will try and take a better one this week.

Not any pictures yet (ran out of time) but today we finally hoisted the big art work on to the wall, it’s been two days happening, as our poor tutor has been everywhere, helping everybody… and I physically couldn’t do this bit on my own.

After lots of careful measuring, re measuring, pre-drilling and more, the pieces were STILL in the wrong place… finally late morning we got the artwork screwed to the backing board, now, all we had left to do was lift two boards, 8ft x 4ft, which were batttened across the backs upright, and hang ’em on the hooks…

Sounds easy peasy doesn’t it?  At one point I had three technicians and two tutors, plus two course colleagues, all holding, lifting, etc and finally we got it in place.

I think I might have forgotten to breathe for a short while, whilst the piece was put in place, but it’s finally there, and oh my, I cannot express the relief I felt.  Thing is, if this piece were to fall, break, etc, it is my ONLY thing for the exhibition (apart from the design board), so talk about all my eggs in one basket!

I had to fight back the tears once we were able to let go – partly from pure and simple relief, and to finally see it upright on a wall (this is the first time I have ever actually seen it in that position!) – it was a tiny bit emotional!

All I have to do now is tidy it up (lots of handprints, and marks to clean off), then mark up the glass elements for fixing, and its done. 

Pictures soon!

This week I have been fusing/slumping the glass elements of the piece.  First one came out fine.  Second one, using a different mould, just a slight bit not worked, so I went back to the first mould.  And it did this:

(excuse the dodgy photograph).

Fine you might think, that bubble is cool!  Well, yeah it is, I love it, but unless I can reproduce that eight times, I can’t use it.  And it won’t be good for engraving on.

My son said “can’t you do them all like that?” to which I replied “not a chance”.

Seems I was wrong.  I put another two in last night, one new mould, the other one a used twice before.

And yup, I have more bubbles.  This is not good, and I am stumped as to what’s happening.  Something on the glass that I haven’t cleaned? Moisture on the glass where I have tried to clean?  Or, something is happening to the mould as it’s being re-used?  The previously used mould has blown a bigger bubble than the first time mould.  But that could just be coincidence.

Not sure what is causing it, but I need to resolve it, and fast!

Blimey, it’s been a hectic few days.  Apart from setting up, and tweaking, and re-tweaking (and re-tweaking) my new website (link on the left), I have still been in to Uni to start work on my board/frame.

Matt (the technician, and now my hero) has cut out the boards for me, but I have to sand, by hand, all of the edges for a good fit and finish.  I never realised how hard MDF was to sand….

Having spent about 3 hours doing this on Thursday and Friday (when I really should be doing portfolio and presentation work), I had a sudden panic when I realised that my big template said one measurement, and my drawing/plans said another.  And yes, everything had been cut to the smaller measurement.

Oh boy, did I feel just  a wee bit ill.  Okay, so there’s still a bit more time to do this last bit, but it would mean getting new boards delivered, re-cut, sanded before I was back to where I am.  The frame still needs to be constructed, battened and strengthened, and painted, finished and the tiles actually put on to it!

Panic over though, having rushed back down to my workspace, the original template IS the right size, so major disaster averted. For now.

Just got to get through Monday’s presentation, and submit everything required and I can get back to the final piece.