Friday, June 19, 2009

A Little about Core-Forming Glass






Core-Forming is the oldest form of making glass vessels. This was back when people hadn't figured out how to make a fire big enough or hot enough to melt and heat enough of a mass of glass that is needed for blowing. They formed a core of materials like dung and straw and and melted tiny bits of glass around it. The vessels were very small and were used to carry very precious materials.
Now days, you make something that looks like this. I use a high-refractory plaster and cast it onto a bead mandrel.



Next, I carve away until I get a shape That will work for what will became the void space on the inside of the vessel.





I know I've skipped a few steps here, but it's a little difficult to take photos while you're balancing 4 different things in your hands and everything you're holding is about 2000 degrees! So, using a flameworking torch, I take glass rods and simultaneously heat the rod and the core and keep everything turning in my hands like it is on a rotisserie - both hands are doing this at once. When everything has reached the proper temperature, I begin to coil the rod around the core ( like making a coiled clay pot). This roughed-in form is heated and turned until it begins to resemble the above photo. After the form is solid, then you begin the decorative aspect of the whole thing. This could be more layers of different colors (basically repeating the first steps), blobs, dots, swirls, etc...
The key, and difficult part, is keeping the temperature correct. Everything is eyeballed - you need to know what the glass looks like at each stage. The whole thing is annealed in a kiln for about 12 hours to ensure it will not crack. Sadly, some don't even make it to this point. Glass is a very fickle thing!
I'll continue this later...


Back again!
A little more info... It is very hard to find info on core-forming, simply because there aren't that many people doing it. It has gained somewhat of a comeback in Japan, and I have seen some amazing pieces. They have a classic feel, kind of a throwback to the original days of the American glass movement in the 1920's and 30's (Tiffany, Lalique, etc...), but it is still really hard to find images! I like the work because it doesn't have the look of Saturday morning cartoons that SO much American flame working has. Sorry, all you glass people - please don't take offense - but it's just not my style and I think it looks cheap. Just because something is small, doesn't mean it needs to look like a carnival souvenir. The Japanese work has a calm settled feeling to it and you wouldn't necessarily think it was only 4 inches tall, and I love that.
They also seem to make more free-standing vessels, where as Americans tend to make pendant vessels that are strung on a necklace.

Monday, June 8, 2009

in the middle



Here's some photos of some of my current egg tempera projects. Still getting used to and playing around with the multiply thin layers thing. I'm finding I have to just "keep the faith" at this point and force myself through the middle stage of painting - I tend to ugly it up before it really starts coming together. Thought I totally ruined this one, but, of course, now it's starting to come around. It kind of feels like a massive house cleaning, where the place looks like a tornado came through and you think you'll never get done, and then you look around and everything starts making sense again...and a week later - voila! clean house!


Also having trouble deciding how far to take each one...sometimes I like the beginning stages as much as a fully worked piece...might have to do some of each. Here's the india ink drawing on the chalk gesso ground. And man, I love the feel of a chalk gesso panel. It is just so buttery smooth and cool to the touch. Half the fun of egg tempera is prepping everything. I kind of feel the same way about etching. One of my favorite things was beveling the edges of the plate and burnishing and polishing it. Drawing on it was just an added bonus! Here's a few later stages...





This one is finished now and I'm in the middle of varnishing. This is not the finished pic...I did paint the figure..just don't have photo yet..and it's probably going to be a bitch because the varnish is rather shiny..hmmm....

Friday, June 5, 2009

Little Boots

Here's my first pair of puppet shoes I've designed and made. On "Coraline" (Laika), I mainly worked on armatures, casting, and seaming - so I got to cast some shoes, but they were already in production, so no chance of designing much of anything. These were a little experiment that turned out much better than expected! The soles are sculpy with some metal re-enforcement and the "leather" is a cheap fabric. I found the key was routing out a channel along the outline of the foot on the top of the soles to give a place to tuck the fabric into, to give them a realistic look of shoe construction. They are an actual "left" and "right" shoe, as well. That's a regular pair of nail clippers in the background to give an idea of scale.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

new pigments!

So, my latest thing is egg tempera painting - mixing your own and using real egg, etc... Did it years ago in school and loved it and in my current state of unemployment after working on the film "Coraline", decided to give it a try again.
Just got my order from Earth Pigments today! They were a joy to mix on the palette! I didn't need to even grind them more... just used the old palette knife and water. There is something so satisfying about gathering raw materials and making your own supplies. I've really got a thing for old techniques. I like thinking that this is exactly how someone would have stood here 700 years ago, preparing materials for egg tempera.
I'll post more of my experiments into other ancient things later...like the first way humans made glass vessels...before they figured out blowing or had the capacity to make fires hot enough to melt larger globs of glass.
Oh... the pigments were really a good price as well. Anyone should check them out if you're into this kind of thing. The full set of earths and ochres end up being $4 apiece for 100gm each...

Monday, June 1, 2009

Hmmmm...

Well, here we go. Time to jot down some of my random experiments and follies with everything - but mostly experiments with making stuff - mostly art stuff...