-
Glass Panel Tests and Improvisation
Waiting on wood today for making frame/backboard, so I worked on the presentation for a little while.
Then I figured it might be a good chance to photograph the first glass panel test I did a couple of weeks back (on top of the ceramic tiles are going to be sections of glass that I wanted to echo the pattern of the main body of the work. So I did a bit of test carving into the plaster, and slumped the glass on to it,
I made a few more moulds yesterday, this time in ceramic, which will be re-usable, as, quite often, the plaster mould (even with flint added) doesn’t survive more than a couple of firings. Certainly not eight!
So, these panels are going to fixed to the board with special stand-off fixings, so they’re just flat – will holes in, but this first one didn’t. How to photograph it then? I needed to get light at the back to show the pattern, but didn’t have any of my home-made (well, that means brother-made) stands, so I used glue clamps but they’re not very pretty.
Then the light bulb moment happened! I have lots and lots (and lots) of big, thick, chunky ceramic tiles – with channels cut out!
So, I improvised, and used one as a stand. I can use this technique to make special ‘feet’ for other glass panel work. And I think this photo might make it on to the main website.
-
The Man from KHCTSC – he say yes!
I had to go to the school (KHCTSC) yesterday evening to present my design ideas to the properties sub committee.
I was a wee bit nervous. I’ve invested a lot of time and energy, and emotion into this project (never mind the financial cost invested!), but ultimately, no matter how much I like the work, no matter how much my friends at Uni like the work, it doesn’t matter unless the end client likes it.
And in this case, it wasn’t as though the end client came to me, or asked for proposals for the commission, and in that case had guidelines. The idea was generated on my side only, with really, the only discussion so far being that they didn’t necessarily want something formal and straight forward – I really did have a free rein on the piece from concept through to materials, size, finish.
So, off to school I went, saw one of my old teachers from back when I was there as a pupil. He doesn’t seem to have aged one bit!
Oh I digress. Did they like it? Yes!!! They absolutely did. A resounding yes certainly from the school head, and as far as I could tell, the whole committee. In fact, the head teacher was positively enthusiastic about the piece, liking the story behind it, the way the ideas were developed – feels it could be used as an educational tool, which adds even more dimension to the piece.
I can’t tell you how I felt when I came away last night. I was overwhelmed actually by their reaction, and really, it validates everything that I have done.
So, what am I wittering on about? Here’s a Photoshop mock-up of what the final piece might look like in place:
The area is a stair way, at the half way platform, and it is quite a large piece, about 140cm square when finished.
I am a happy bunny today.
-
Websites
Ok, this post is purely for search engine reasons, googling for even my exact site address isn’t bringing anything up, so lets see if Blogger can help!
However the website is by no means complete so ignore content for now! I just need to know I even exist…
-
Giant chocolate slabs?
Okay, bit of a gap now, I need to go back and fill in what’s been happening.
But here is the basic final design – the tiles will actually be the white sections – the negative spaces. The first set has been made, just waiting for them to dry – they’re quite thick!
There will also be a glass element to the piece, but to be honest, this is difficult to decide until I have the ceramics pieces made – everything looks so different when you scale it up. Initially, it was going to be a full glass layer, but I began thinking that that was going to be complicated, as fixing the glass isn’t straightforward – I want the glass to stand away from the ceramic sections, so that it casts lights and patterns on to the background.
I am also beginning to think that the glass elements may well be unnecessary too – overkill if you like. But as much as I like working with photoshop, it really doesn’t portray the glass very well. Maybe when I have the proper pieces laid out, I can then tell how much glass will be the right amount.
Anyway, this week I was making my first set of ceramic tiles for the piece – they aren’t good enough quality in my opinion, and I am quite sure my tutors will agree! But for me it was more about practicing handling the clay, working out the best way to do things, and of course seeing if it fires ok (Who knows if shrinkage will affect the proportions badly, the tiles may warp, all sorts of problems if the kiln fairies aren’t kind – yes, there are fairies for ceramics as well as glass). I made these this week, and when I was turning them over, they just reminded me of chocolate… Happy Easter!
