 *Lincoln Arts Fest Preview | Calyx Glass “What’s in the Kiln?” August 2010 Newsletter | deLUX Gala piece in progress |
Upcoming Classes (Refer a friend and receive a 10% discount on classes offered in my studio. Make sure your friend mentions your name when they sign up! - offer not available for classes offered at the LUX Center for the Arts.)
| Upcoming Events Saturday, September 25 from 10am – 6pm Sunday, September 26 from 10am – 5pm South Pointe Pavillions(27th & Pine Lake Road) Come by to say hi, and check out the new pieces I’ve been working on specifically for this show! There will be live music, art and artists from around the country, children’s activities, food and raffle prizes.  August 22 - September 6 I’m anxious to see what kind of glass Nebraskans are showing at the fair! I’ll be showing my Nebraska Prairie Stained Glass Window along with a bunch of fused and kiln cast glass. Check it out!  deLUX Art Gala September 19, 4:30 pm Grand Manse (129 North 10th Street) See my auction piece in the flesh and support the arts in Lincoln at the LUX’s benefit dinner catered by Venue and art auction. |
Remember Me?
“Patchwork Platter,” 9.25" x 5.5"
Yea! I won third place!
My other piece, has yet to be properly photographed, but I can now unveil it for you here:
This piece was inspired by the fused glass artwork of Kim Brills and as such was a dedication to her. I interpreted the bottom fused plate as an aerial view of a city map of Austin, TX. So, I decided to reflect it upwards into an image of the skyline of Austin, separating the flat fused plates by a cast glass wave representing Lady Bird Lake ( a reservoir of the Colorado River in downtown Austin). The finishing touches of this piece butted right up against the deadline for dropping it off at A to Z Printing for hanging!
The show continues for the remainder of August. So there’s still time to swing by and see the Lincoln Artists’ Guild 90th Anniversary show, if you haven’t had the chance yet.
Well, I need to take a shower and get packed for Sturgis, SD! It’s going to be a busy couple of months; find me on facebook to keep up with my travels!
Thanks for reading and feel free to forward this on to your friends!
Carrie Strope
Recently created sun catchers from classes
Sale for this month: Receive a 10% discount on any purchase from my Etsy shop. Purchase the item making sure to mention “August Newsletter” in notes to seller. Then, wait to receive a revised invoice by email. Pay as usual (through PayPal), and I will send your item as soon as payment posts! |
Cabinet hardware with dichroic accents.Dichroic is a high-tech optical coating that selectively reflects certain wavelengths (colors) of light and allows the remaining wavelengths to transmit through. This same effect is seen in nature in peacock feathers and opals. The word "dichroic" means two colors, which refers to transmitted color and reflected color. The coating process is done in a high vacuum chamber that has several pieces of specialized equipment to control and monitor the coating process.Coatings by Sandberg elaborates a bit more about the process...
Dichroic Glass is a multi layer coating placed on glass by using a highly technical vacuum deposition process. Quartz Crystal and Metal Oxides are Vaporized with an electron beam gun in an airless vacuum chamber and the vapor then floats upward and attaches then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. Our colors have as many as 30 layers of these materials yet the thickness of the total coating is approximately 35 millionths of an inch. The coating that is created is very similar to a gemstone and by careful control in thickness, different colors are obtained. Thus, all our coatings are created using the same exact materials. Originally created for the Aerospace industry, Dichroic Glass is now made available to the artist community through Coatings By Sandberg, Inc. CBS Dichroic Glass is specifically designed to be hotworked in any way but can also be used in its raw form. The main characteristic of Dichroic Glass is that it has a transmitted color and a completely different reflective color. Furthermore, these two colors shift depending on angle of view. With the play of light together with its vibrant color, Dichroic Glass is a prime tool used to add interest to any piece of work or project.I also discovered here that the "spaceship theory" from Telegraph Ave. was a bit closer to the truth. CBS talks about the more technical uses of dichroic, "Dichroic Glass was originally created for the Aerospace industry for Satellite mirrors, but it now has many technical uses including: Lighting, Fiber Optics, Infrared Lazers, Motion Picture Equipment, Sun Glasses, and more."
 * | Calyx Glass “What’s in the Kiln?” June 2010 Newsletter | Headed back to the hot shop! |
Upcoming Classes (Refer a friend and receive a 10% discount on classes offered in my studio. Make sure your friend mentions your name when they sign up!)
| Upcoming Exhibition A to Z Printing Show Here’s a little preview of what I’ve got in store...  “Patchwork Platter,” 9.25" x 5.5" This is a fused glass plate that I’ve just recently put together, but I’ve had the parts for quite awhile. There’s a lot of texture and color going on in this one and you’ll have to come to see it to truly appreciate it! “Ode to Kim Peters Brill,” detail There are so many talented glass artists out there and one in particular was the inspiration for this in-progress piece. Check out Kim Peters Brill’s website and see why I was so inspired!I’m still adding a few elements to this piece to make it truly my own. So, it will be unveiled at the show opening! |
Cooking up some Bourbon in the Maker’s Mark kitchen!
Louisville is home of Churchill Downs,
thus their public art pieces are horses.
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Thanks for reading and feel free to forward this on to your friends!
Carrie Strope
Sale for this month: Receive a 10% discount on any purchase from my Etsy shop. Purchase the item making sure to mention “June Newsletter” in notes to seller. Then, wait to receive a revised invoice by email. Pay as usual (through PayPal), and I will send your item as soon as payment posts! |
Tonight, we started the class period by creating a dichroic element for addition into our finished plate. I didn't snap a before picture, but it really won't make much difference as with the low firing temperature (1425 degrees F for 5 minutes) I was really just aiming for a tack fuse; something to hold the pieces in place. But, the kiln is still at around 350 degrees F, and it shouldn't really be opened to prevent the glass inside from stressing and potentially cracking. However, since the pieces that were fired are thin and small, and will be fired again into the final project; I opened the lid quickly to get a quick snapshot (which was very dark and I had to overexpose using a little digital photo editing so that you can see any detail at all).
Here are some retro-y looking square swirls that I created by holding the stringer over a candle flame and manipulating with tweezers. You simply hold the 1mm stringer over the flame (at the very tip of the flame) until it starts to bend with a little pressure. If it starts to move in a direction you weren't expecting, simply pull back out of the flame to cool before heading back in to reshape.
Playing in the flames made me want to get back in the hot shop. It's not exactly the same as working with a glory hole, but the concepts are similar...just a bit.
To finish up the session, we broke out the Glassline paints and paintbrushes to decorate some Thinfire. (This, too, will be an element for our finished plate.) At this point, my 2 year old niece decided that she wanted part of the action, as well. While sitting watching mommy paint with the green paints, she chimed in, "Me paint;" and even though I kept telling her we'd paint the next time she came over, she pressed on. "Me hold paper." Mmm, okay..."Me paint." Oh, okay...so, she did:) A little pink, some red, a bit of orange, and a lot of water. She's on her way to becoming the world's youngest glass artist, perhaps?
I also assigned some homework. In order to incorporate all of the techniques we've been experimenting with into one plate and make it look spectacular, we are going to cut up our sample tiles; maybe not all of them, but definitely some of them. I warned my students from the get go. "Do not get attached to the individual tiles." It is hard. I speak from experience. In fact, just this week I was finally able to cut up a particular painted piece that I made over a year ago for inclusion in another piece. It was a beautiful pattern, but it was also not a stand alone piece. I'll unveil pictures soon;)
One last little "food for thought." Next week, we will potentially be incorporating dichro slide into our compositions. It's a very subtle look and adds a nice, shimmery appearance. Above, I fired small sample stripes between two layers of stained glass (from the same sheet). It seemingly does not need to be capped, but I haven't poked at it with anything aside from my fingernail.
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