Kiln formed glass with Kirstie Rea - 1

"Students will need to bring to week one, a colour image of something that inspires them, an image of something that they would like to investigate and work with. This image should be printed out or photocopied in B&W and also enlarged several times to A3 size."

I wavered between a few images though apparently according to Dougie he knew which one I would choose all along, it's nice to be so predictable isn' it? I ended up choosing an image of some about to be hatched wasps inside what was once a moth pupae.

The steps below came one by one so each task is unaffected by thinking about the next.

So the process goes like this:
1. Choose colour image. (our class ranged from: burlesque, plant life, church signs, magazine adds, minerals, abstract and figurative and textiles)
2. Enlarge to A3 in black and white.
3. Show image to class with a little explanation why you like it ( or just say it to your self or the cat)
4. Think of ONE word that captures for you the essence of your image and your feeling to it.
5. think of another.
6. Then 8 more.
7. Extract 3 from your 10 words that really draw the meaning from your image. (be flexible, if you find other words come to mind that are more suitable use those)
7.a Think of artists (at least 3) that evoke those words/themes to you in their work
8. Make a sentence from those 3 words.

9. Write a paragraph (for next week).

10. Make a view finder with 2 'L's cut from paper or card.
11. Select a section of your image. this can be long and narrow, square..whatever, as long as it is no more than 150mm - 200mm. (we all have to fit into one kiln). If you wish you can enlarge your image further. Blurriness is fine.
12. Cut a piece of float glass (provided) to the size and shape of your selection.
13. Sandblast one side.
14. On the roughened side draw in pencil a version of your selected piece of your image. Think of the words you have been playing with in this process.
13. When finished spray with hairspray to fix the pencil.

Next week we will be working with Black, white, transparent and opaque.

So here we go...The cocoon shape thing that the wasps are cradled within IS a cocoon but someone else's, a moth that was pupating. The female wasp laid her eggs inside the cocoon. These newly emerged wasps have been consuming the moth alive in its time of transformation. If we imagine this in human terms it is quite a horrific process but the wasp is just providing her offspring with a good supply of food. I'm quite fascinated with the planned focused way that insects do things.

My words are DEVOUR, planned, beauty, death, renewal, sacrifice, flight, pattern, parasitic, amoral, focus, precision programmed.

Chosen 3 are : Devour Beauty Amoral
Sentence: Amoral beauty devours the unwary

Paragraph: Her beauty in flight is precision and focus. Her sculpted, patterned form searches with diligence and tenacity for the most perfect spot. Her decision is purely practical, each requisite ticked off by a delicate antennae. Her need is greater than all others, nothing short of death will detract her from her task. In the most suitable of chambers well stocked with succulent provisions she leaves her innocent offspring to consume the unsuspecting occupant who is the new home, that is readying for it's own magnificent transformation. The devoured is not known and will never be known, it's life subsumed by another. It's flesh feeds the growth and development of her progeny. Her children fill the stolen space until it squirms with life. Bursting out of their cukooed home the newly hatched begin their own amoral journey.

Artists
Adrian Arleo, because her work gives me the sense that something is being eaten.  Angela Jarman & Zaha Hadid both describe a beauty combined with a slightly edgy, insecty feeling. Amoral is giving me a problem though!

Adrian Arleo

Angela Jarman

Zaha Hadid