Utility 2011 holiday meet 1

Keen to see what resulted in our experiments last week, our first port of call was SCA glass studio to pick up work from the annealer.

This was quite a busy day...well we covered a lot of ground.

Boots: Retired with honours from active duty

This pair started a more luxurious life with my Nana, no doubt pampered and cared for like lapdogs. They were worn for a brief period of time by my mum who brought them from England to Australia. I have probably worn them for the longest and for more miles. I have taken them to the cobbler more than three times and on the last occasion, he said "love, it would be cheaper to by another pair of boots". So I wore them for another year, until I was leaving bits of heel behind like Hansel in the forest. The fearless Douglass took me shopping for 'boots n books' and amazingly we found 2 pairs of brown boots that I liked.

quick in the kiln pictures

 

Thanks to Kayo and Marcus, who at different times helped out!

Winter solstice in Australia

and I have to finish my last (late) written project.

Credits to Danilo Pivato

Into the woods..in daylight

Into the woods (and tired but happy artist)

Assesment day

All done, tired, happy with result, celebrated, pictures tomorrow.

Silhouettes

So the final silhouettes are: Cinderella in rags, Wolf, Little Red riding hood, Dragon and Fiddler. I realise that the backdrop of my messy living room isn't the greatest but its all i've got at the moment.

almost there

Title

I have been thinking of calling my work "Into the woods" ??
It made me think of a book by Robert Holdstock, 'Mythago wood', the themes that run through it resonate somewhat. wiki says
"Mythago Wood is a type of fantasy literature, especially the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction. It has received critical acclaim because of its prose, forest setting, and its exploration of the philosophical, spiritual, and psychological. Mythago Wood won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1985."

I do like the research for this one...I can watch and read fairy tales to my hearts content..and call it study!

Throwies

Small packages

The LED bulbs I ordered are here..yay..now which to choose?

Nothing like an essay

to make housework attractive or retrospective blogging seem like a good idea.

though actually my essay writing experience is more like Charlies than Calvins.

Temptation

Every Sunday on my way to work I pass this gorgeous patisserie. I bought a small meringue..but I was thinking of my Nana Mary when I took the photo. Nana look as those eclairs! The mini ones with a crisp sheet caramelized sugar. Double click on the photo for a closer look!

Artists who use silhouettes: part 1

Wilhelm Staehle / Dandylion

 Kara Walker / Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love

Wolf in the forest

Mould tally

So by the end of today, I have 5 moulds ready, 1 ready to pour and 1 blank lump of clay.
1 x moon and trees
1 x thorns
1 x mountains
1 x cave

1 x woods

Hot cast woods mould ready to take out of the kiln

and it looks superb! I love hot casting. The furnace glass doesn't look too green, its almost bubble less, the edges are smooth and the surface is as clear and still as a pond.
Here's a pic I took in the UV room..because it's dark. It looks pretty good in sunlight too.

Tree and moon mould

Hot Casting open faced mould

Andrew demoed how to make 'slugs' (more like canon balls) of gathered glass to knock off into the mould. Here is the mould full and at top temp.

Test tree mould for hot casting

This is the mould I am going to use for hot casting tomorrow. It's going in  kiln 10 tonight to heat up for tomorrow afternoon

Works to choose for Utility submission

Huginn and Muninn

"As like two peas.."

Larria table light

Utility 2011: Our House

Utility is a yearly exhibition within the Object studio's (Glass, Jewelery and Ceramics)of Sydney College of the Arts that is linked with Sydney's design week.
hmmm so this year's Utility is a collaborative affair, and I have to admit with all the agonizing over my major work the Bauhaus / something old something new theme hasn't really grabbed me. How ever I have a partner, and I'm going to try and stretch my brain cells a little further.

So 'Total work of art' = Gesamkunstwerk,

Autumn splendifery

I probably photograph this same tree every Autumn. It lives in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, where this weekend Dougie whisked me away for a night.

The phone - torch comes in handy

Girl Genius: A gaslamp fantasy of Adventure, Romance & Mad Science!

Its research...really, honest. I have been considering Steampunk as a genre to research for our Object theory class. I stumbled across the Girl genius web comic..a page published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Luckily for me the comic has been going since 2002..so no waiting for a while..though sadly now I have caught up to the present day and have to wait like anyone else.

It is well written, a good story and beautifully drawn and coloured, I may have to purchase a volume...more research you understand!

Cold working

Such a busy afternoon, literally if I had to move from one spot to another I ran...
Lene is going to pick up the graal embryo/egg she made the other week, though she needed it engraving. Friday is a quiet day in the studio so I decided to do it..I am after all making graals for my Extension class. Nadine and I tried to remember what colours Lene had used....black with an unknown pinky colour we had dubbed as 'Nipple'...hmmmm. So with limited time, after imagining complex patterns, I told myself to keep it simple.

I made a few cuts on my first bubble overlay..which is a torturous process if there ever was one and of course put the image on upside down, well we live and learn.

I also started roughing out my design for our cameo on the flat skills project....4 layers of bullseye fused.
Off white
Medium blue
Black
Clear

At the end of the day, I switched on kiln 6, with the open faced tree cast.

Locating practice - 5: Art and Sciences

Readings:
I came to Japan because of the chopstick / Peter Timms & Frances Dyson's review of 'I was scared to death / I could have died of joy' in the Bienneale  of Sydney, On Reason and Emotion.

Artists mentioned:
Andy Goldsworthy, Agnes Denes, Ken Yonetani, Janet Laurence, Fiona Hall, Maya Lin, Dadang Christanto, Lauren Berkowitz.