Etching workshop - 2

I love etching! With our scribed waxed plates at the ready,

we slipped them in to the acid to be feathered (where you swirl a feather in the acid) a few times in the 30 minute submerging. Rubber gloved up to take them out and rinsed, then off to be Kerosened (to get the wax off). Cleaned again to degrease with talc and ammonia. Next came the paper registration, press setting up and inking of the plate.
Plate before inking

Claude used Deb's plate as the sample..and the sound of the oooh and ahhs as she lifted off the paper was great.
Gryphon with ball of wool.

 Inking up

Artist of the Day: Steven Holland

..brought to my attention by my glass teacher Kirstie Rea..because of the work "Australian Ravens (2007)" currently showing at 'Something in the air: Collage and assemblage in Canberra Region Art' at the Canberra Museum and Gallery from 19 June to10 October 2010.

 In the same exhibition (I'm looking at the catalogue), i'm charmed by Daniel Maginnity's "Swampy Plains River, NSW (1997)

and Amanda Stuarts's "Pelt (2009)"

Open day at SCA

I think it was quieter this year..it seemed so. I did the usual floor talk (to three people..one up from last year), flamework demo, some mould making and a bit of hotshop assistance. There were less stalls this year which kind of detracted from the festival feel of the day.

Object Theory - 5

this weeks class was somewhat livelier than it has been, we still had to read out loud..but some group discussion kind og cancelled that out.

Untold gallery minding

Another morning minding the Untold gallery, with 2 readings to complete. I fell asleep to them again...I'm beginning to think it's the space. Instead I redrew the drawings for my tree fused block and made a wobbly clean clay model of a maze..for some problem solving with Marcus later. Deb came in with a coffee for a chat..which passed some time. Seriously time goes so slowly in there.

Matt Szosz: Visiting Artist

Matt Szosz and his partner Anna visited the glass studio Tuesday / Wednesday. Matt is the Stephen Procter fellow this year, so for the moment they are based in Canberra. I remember seeing Anna at the Ranamok awards (wearing a very eye catching ensemble). Tuesday eve glass was put in a kiln to be ready for today's demonstration. Matt's talk was about his artistic and craft education, work and experimental practice. I like the way he approaches glass...I would never think to do the things he does.
Pictured is his E-merge 2010 entry.

 Matt inflates layers of float glass, creates lacey designs by using 2 mechanical devices with a crucible of hot glass. This is the first demo from today.

Hot shop

Andrew demoed a variety of handles and then we practised the impossible glass (that's what I call the cone shaped blown foot glass)

Glass class - 5 Proposal

What: Sculpture with revolving parts that can be moved by the viewer

How: Open faced casts in furnace or clear crystal. Make maze in clay and cast.
Lazy susan /woodshop technology.

Why: Having free will in our culture is important, the freedom of choice is an idea we assume we have. Chance, social conditioning, nurture, nature and culture all shape and restrict our choices and our free will without most of us really noticing. Philosophers over the centuries claim that our will is not free. The maze represents to me our path of many choices and decisions with their resulting consequences. Cast glass has a misty dream like quality symbolising the conceptual, untouchable realm of thought. The plastic figures in thier vibrant colours

When: Roughly

Free will timeline
Date / week	Theory	Practical	R&D
Week 1 / July 29
Week 2 / August 4
Week 3 / 11 August			Reading
Week 4 / 18 August	Present idea to class
Week 5 / 25 August	Written proposal due
Week 6 / Sept 1		Design and draw out maze	reading
Week 7/  REVIEW WEEK	Talk with Marcus on casting with furnace	Design draw out maze to scale and test mould making process / and glass	reading
Week 8	Assess proposal statement	Build inner circle with clay and make mould	Source lazy Susan’s
Week 9		Build outer circle with clay andmake mould	Source plastic people
Week 10		Casting
Week 11 / October 13		Casting
Week 12	Artist statement brush up	Coldwork
Week 13
Week 14		Plinth building
Week 15	Assessment

The eye

Nadine and I were blowing this evening, on the way back form print there was a hive of activity in the hotshop.

 A massive bowl was almost completed. Rob as gaffer, Marcus, Nadine and Ilana assisting.

 Nadine and I practised the impossible glasses..(cones with a blown foot)

Printmedia - 5

This afternoon we had our first etching workshop with Claude. This is something I have never done before and it's fascinating. We bevelled, cleaned and coated our zinc plates with hard ground (as illustrated)

If you use your imagination

You can see the egg cartons as the fused glass part and the taped out carpet as the printed paper area

Object theory - 4

Mutant Material possibles

Spray on glass
Flexible glass  hmmm think Corning, CSIRO

Recycling

Looking at my desk..which is covered in last semesters kiln work, I decided to chop it up

Let us eat cake!

Today started in the hot shop class, trying out for the first time a conical shaped glass with a blown foot...ahum lots of practice needed. Clean up, lunch and then our proposals to Kirstie and fellow students. In the cosy confines of the resource room we explained to our peers (and external critter Patrick) our concept for the semester. Really interesting all round and good feedback. We often take it in turns to bake a cake or such, this week I think there was a communication break down..instead of no cake, or one cake we had 3!

Chocolate brownies and chocolate icing (thank you Jane), Carrotcake (thank you Nadine) and Pear and walnut cake (thank you Kirstie).

Printmedia - 4

Josh demonstrated not only the CMYK process but his 'why you would ever want to do this is beyond me' attitude. I showed Claude the 3d tree maquette and convinced her that I was quite prepared for a lot of work.

Visual Diary Wall July-August 2010

A day out

It has been too long since Dougie and I have managed to go out together. He has spent so many weekends in bed, or unable to drive, so when we had to pick up a drug script from the next suburb and the trains where absent (more track work) we walked in the beautiful winter sun. We brunched in Envy's courtyard

and on the way back home we went shopping (geez I finally get the man out of the house and then he won't go back) amongst other things I found these balls

..perfect to make a mould for my Tractusballoon..something that's on the back burner..but I want to do it.

The morning after Ranamok

Four of us had stayed over at Kirstie's  (who made us breakfast - a rare occurrence in my life - thank you!) and before our combined SCA / ANU class we zipped over to Matt and Harry's for a quick visit as Sarah hadn't seen the studio before. The piece that Matt was working on from our last visit was shaping up, Harry had a large installation piece set out on the floor..taking up a fair bit of space...awesome. Apart from the fact that Matt and Harry are such nice, generous people and artists, they have the most gorgeous Cat and Dog..both a brindled caramel and black with the sookiest temperaments..who seem to like each other apart from when in competition for pats from visitors.
Matt Curtis at Axia Modern Art
Photo swiped (yet again) from Glass Central Canberra

Harriet Schwarzrock at Kirra Galleries

I think we all walked away covered in cat and dog hair but we got to the glassworks in time for our combined lesson. Divided into pairs (one sca /one anu student) we were asked to pick one work within a given category and critique it. Back in the class room (the tables in the kiln area) we gave a quick summary and then everyone else chipped in. Having Richard Whiteley and Kirstie Rea as teachers and having their input was really great. At the end of the session we discussed the winning piece "Too much is never enough' a Pate de verre piece Sue Hawker. Image once again from Glass Central Canberra...for some reason I didn't take a pic.

Stand outs for me were Evelyn Dunstan's masks."Transparent Illusions'...so pretty and delicate...and technically WOW (is that woman crazy?)

Ben and Kathy's Engage and Pause (only engage shown). These really work with your mind as well as appealing to the senses.

Matt Curtis's 'Diatom pair'

Michelle Donde's 'Lovers' seat' which I really would like to have sat in ...but the sign...

Polina Gavria's 'State of mind' ..the left hand wall piece..sorry Poli for the bad pic..detail on the right

Karleena Mitchell's 'Australian Gothic'

Yoowan Yang's 'Miss'

Ranamok 2010 Prize night at the Canberra Glassworks

It was a cold and rainy night but inside the glass works things were a buzzin! Check out Glass Central Canberra's flickr for photo's of peeps and glass. I've stolen this one of (RtL) Bridgette, Sarah and me!  -Ta, Megan.

 The Ranamok seems to be the yearly socialising event in the glass community. We had fun meeting new friends and old. The evening continued on at a pub I can't remember the name of for more food, gossip, mingling and wine (though the wine at Ranamok was much better!) Tomorrow will be time enough to talk about the art (and see it again), the event was so well attended it was hard to see the glass for the all the people. Random snaps from yours truly..

Object theory for artists -3

Week 3 was based on our Lecturer's (Adam Gaczy's) Chapter three 'imaging' in his book "Art: histories, theories and exeptions"

 Class was somewhat more interesting as others in the class decided to voice their opinions rather than leaving them to telepathy. Not having read the reading though (book is scarce now so many people need it) was a positive rather than a drawback.

officially Aussie

After a long and not particularly interesting ceremony, I am now a citizen of Australia. This means I will be able to, among other things to get HECS and vote for the first time in my life.

Huginn and Muninn make it to the show!

Sooo, I'm completely knackered. The casts came out of the kiln this morning (Still too hot last night)!By 3pm Muninn went in and by 5pm Huginn was on the plinth. The opening started at 5.30pm!

Thank you to Deb who helped with the unveiling (scraping away the plaster, Kayo for some handy coldworking, Marcus for advice and expert use of the diamond saw, Pat for cleaning and eye gluing and most of all thanks to Kate for help all the way through.

Wedding Anniversary

these tumblers and card are for my mum and dad..on their 13140th day of being married!