Glass gifts on Christmas day

We spent Christmas day at parents house in the Central Coast. 'We' being Dougie, Matt (Dougie's nephew), myself and Mum and Dad. Apart from getting a commission finished I also wanted to give gifts that were hand made.

The woodland tankard is finally finished! Along with some international beers I gave Dad the 'Woodland tankard' that I have been working on here and there for a year or so. I love the look with beer inside.

'Woodland tankard' full of beer. (cast glass)

For my Mum, a cast crystal relief of blossoms. It has found a spot where the light catches it, in her very meditative bathroom.

and finally, a late present for them both for their 40th Wedding Anniversary. I had cast the keys in Ruby crystal (40=Ruby) but the glass had other ideas. Luckily I ended up with a gorgeous orange, a colour my mother loves. The interlocked keys are quite tricky, more for getting them out of the mould material and polishing really. Patience!

Woodland tankard out of the kiln

The 'Woodland tankard' prototype is out of the kiln and cleaned from most of the refectory material. It still needs coldworking, as can be seen by the 'drunken' gait of the animation...that lump at the base needs to come off. I thought about casting it in a colour, but if you were to add beer the glass would turn amber anyway.

Woodland tankard in  reused Spectrum '96 nuggets

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Woodland tankard in wax

Finally I made a successful mould from the opshop metal tankard (see below), a 3 part plaster affair ended up being easier than rubber or silicon.
Here is the tankard with a modified (strengthened) handle plus oak leaves and acorns ready for the next step of lost wax mould making.

wax woodland tankard

3 part plaster mould in progress

Father's day this year is also the first day of Spring

This is a card for my Dad, I have come a little unstuck with my rubber mould for the 'Woodland Tankard' so it is still a work in progress. So here is Spike the hedgehog (one of the characters on the mug and a sometime source of nickname inspiration for me) in the Dunce's corner...

The first day of Spring was lovely and warm with the garden fragrant with Daffodils, Jonquils, Hyacinths and Snowdrops.

Acorns and oak leaves

A start to shaping the foliage, got the scale right I think...

the best 3

These are the tankards that I actually bought, though I have seen hundreds...

I think the best overall shape goes to the one in the middle

Op shopping Queanbeyan

My time frame for finding the perfect tankard shape is almost over. I trawled (though honestly most op shops are supremely well organized in this part of the world) through 3 or 4 charity shops and ended up with a glass tankard, a few knit tops and some Langley Mill stoneware.
Oh and some more buttons...

Standard fare for opshop tankards

Op shopping in Adelaide

After my visit to the South Australian Museum I managed to squeeze in 3 op shops...no suitable beer mug/tankards here...

Oaks and acorns

Woodland tankard

A surprising day out in Phillip...

The first year of my BVA (studio Glass) I gave my Dad a very wonky blown glass 'beer mug' for Father's Day (in September here in Australia). It became a bit of a tradition, you can see my progress in glassblowing through 4 years of 'beer mugs'. This year I'm out of class and I do more casting than blowing...

So I had this idea to make Dad a cast 'Display' tankard for this year's Father's Day. I thought I would find a tankard I liked the shape of, make a rubber mould of it, pour a wax, add some design elements and then cast it in glass. I have decided to go for an English woodland theme. Oak leave and acorns with, if it works 3 woodland animals; a fox, a hedgehog and a squirrel.

So I have been searching all the op shops in Canberra for tankards of any description as long as they 'fit' my aesthetic (see pinterest board dad's tankard).

I have found 2 specimens so far...

The surprise about the suburb of Phillip is that I went there for op shopping and found, 2 sewing machine shops, 1 fabric shop, 1 yarn shop, 1 beading shop, (2 paper supplies shops I didn't even get around to looking in) and a few decent looking cafes...in one of which I had an excellent coffee (not the easiest thing in Australia's Capital City).

I was pleasantly flabbergasted, mostly because, in Sydney Spotlight and Lincraft have driven out the independent stores. I bought yarn, industrial sewing needles and oil (yes I do want a litre of it) browsed fabrics, buttons and beads and found somewhere that will take a look at my aged Elna.

Awesomesauce!!