Lights, Camera, ACTION!!!

So, I've made the move from Napa, California back to Lincoln, Nebraska and am slowly, very slowly, getting my studio set back up. But, yesterday, I finally got my lighting and photo tent set up in it's permanent location! I actually have enough room now, that I don't have to take it down and set it back up!!! Yea!!!
I was able to take a few pictures of jewelry that I've been meaning to list for a VERY long time. Now, I just need to find the box with the rest of the items that I need to photograph in it!

Napa Valley Open Studios - 2009

For the last year, I've been working with Saint Helena hot glass artist, Ed Breed. I've been learning to work with hot glass so that I can assist him in making pumpkins, glass tumblers, and vases. While he can make pumpkins by himself, it certainly is quicker and easier with an assistant. But, when making larger pieces and pieces that need to be transferred back and forth between pipe and punty, two or more people are needed to complete the process.
In the beginning, I was very timid. It's rather sketchy working with hot glass on the end of a stainless steel rod. Especially when that glass is so hot that it moves around like honey. (In fact, in the very beginning, I would practice with actual honey and a wooden skewer.) "How hot is glass when it moves like honey?" you ask. Well, it's about 2000 degrees F, or hotter. Hot enough that you probably wouldn't feel it right away, because it would burn your skin off and then the nerves as well!

So, my feeble attempts in the beginning made the work harder for Ed. The glass that I would bring him for the pumpkin stem was hot, but not nearly hot enough. He would have to pull harder than is comfortable to do repeatedly, to get a pumpkin stem...and then need a day or two to recover strength in his overworked arm muscles... (My first solo pumpkin attempts can be seen here, and are a great example of what happens when the glass isn't hot enough.)

What really helped me to get my heat right was the repeated pulling of flowers, which I really enjoy. Once I got my heat right, it was no longer a race against time with me trying to pull the glass before it got too cool to move. It was also easier for Ed and I to work as a team. Now, he could focus on blowing, and I could bring the stem when he was ready. After a year of working with Ed, I am now able to anticipate the steps, and we can work more efficiently with fewer mistakes.

Sporting my hot glass gear and my hot glass flower

Here I am at Open Studios in Napa, this year. I made the trip out to Napa, shortly after moving back to Nebraska (to be nearer to my family), to help Ed out with hot glass demos. We had a beautiful setting on the patio of Beverly Wilson's house in North Napa. We were set up outside, with Beverly showing her bright and bold Napa themed paintings both inside and out, and jewelry artist Marjorie Shachnow displaying the tools of her trade and her beautifully organic precious metal jewelry inside.

It was a hot time in the sun with the weather being over 100 degrees and the glory hole blowing 2000 degrees out at us, but we had a great turn out and a lot of friends were able to stop by and see what I've been doing.

For the demos, we pulled flowers, blew a few pumpkins, and made some drinking glasses. We were able to keep most of what we made, but the traveling hot shop's annealer is much too small to hold everything. There were several broken hearts every time we had to let a piece break open or shatter because there was no where to let it cool slowly. Below, are pictures of Ed and I making a tumbler...

Ed blowing hot glass into the shape of a tumbler using a wooden mold

After Ed has blown and shaped the glass to the point where he can go into the mold, we need to transfer it to a punty and shape the lip of the glass, knock it off and put it in the annealer to cool.

Transferring a blown glass from the pipe to the punty

Shaping the glass with a paddle and jacks

Finished glass

I really enjoyed my short California vacation and can't wait to get out there again!
As a side note, Ed can only make the drinking glasses with an assistant, and they really are beautiful and impressive when entertaining guests. Hint, hint ;)
Thanks to Erika for the great pictures of Ed and I working at Open Studios!

Ed Breed's pumpkins
(photo courtesy of Ed Breed)

Ed's "Pumpkin Patch" at Open Studios

Happiness

I made a bunch of these small fused glass pendants quite awhile back with the intention of fusing the variety of precious metal decals that I've collected. Then, I had an inspirational moment...and Voila!! I absolutely love this new design and have been experimenting with color combinations. The amber chips on this necklace work perfectly with the faceted purple glass beads, and it truly makes me happy!!

Looking at new techniques...

Have you ever looked at a piece of art and said, "I wonder if I could do that?"
Now mind you, this isn't the question, "I wonder if I could do that and make a whole bunch to sell?!?" That is copying....
I'm talking about the artist who is looking to expand the techniques in their repertoire, see's a new technique, and begins to wonder, "How could I do that?"
Then, the artist tries the technique and expands upon it, or moves on.

Well, recently, I was emailed a link to a video of hot glass artist, Cal Breed working on a piece:
(and if you have time, you should really browse his website, Orbix Hot Glass, because he's got some gorgeous stuff there.)
After watching the video, we had one of those moments that I mentioned above. I say "we" because if you've watched the video or worked with hot glass, then you realize that in order to make substantial pieces as a glass blower, you really need a team of people.
So, "we" studied the video and decided to try out the technique to see what we could come up with. And it was mighty successful, for a first attempt!
Check it out!

The outside:

The inside:

The bottom:

I really love how the addition of a bunch of globs of glass to the outside of the vessel really add to the dimensionality and depth of the piece.

Cutting Little Circles...

with the Teeny Circle System from Morton!
I just taught myself yesterday, and with some practice, I can see some new quilt pattern plates with circles!

Featured by the Lovely LocalColorist...

Another beautiful treasury, for your Easter pleasure. Full of eggs for fertility! Happy Spring!

Treasury!

Yea! Check it out! I'm featured in a treasury on Etsy with a bunch of other creative Californians!

Tapestry Mosaic Coffee Table

The inspiration - a tapestry that my mom picked up on
the streets of Thamel in Kathmandu, Nepal.


I started with the tapestry that hangs on the wall behind our sofa. I knew that I wanted the mosaic to mirror the quilt, but I wasn't sure of the exact design. So, first I started by cutting many, many little pieces of glass in the colors that I wanted to use. Then, I was able to rearrange them, like a puzzle, until the design was just right.

The Process:

Using No Days Glaze mosaic adhesive and a heat gun, I was able to work one section of the mosaic at a time. The No Days Glaze is incredibly convenient. It comes in packages of several rubbery-plastic-like sheets. You lay a sheet down on the surface you are mosaic-ing, place the glass pieces down (and move them around), and fire up the heat gun (on low) until the pieces are hot and the adhesive melts into place. This step is tricky. You want the adhesive to melt, but if you don't heat the glass up enough, the glass will pop off when grouting. Also, if you heat the glass too long, it will start swimming around on the glaze. Then, you end up chasing each piece back into place (with a pair of tweezers, or a pencil tip, and NOT your fingers - the glass is HOT!).
After several days and plenty of movies (a Harry Potter-a-thon and a terrible Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull), I had all of the pieces adhered to the surface of the table, and was waiting for a free day to allow me to start and finish the grouting process.

A dirty job, but I was excited to get it over with....

and to let it dry so I could polish it to the beautiful and intricate table that it is:

Oh! And I finished it just in time to enter the "It Pays" to use No Days Glaze Mosaic Contest!!
They have started another challenge for 2009, as well! So, if you'd like to try your hand at the mosaic adhesive, enter your project for a chance to win $250!!

Incompatible...Glass, that is....

I've been meaning to take and post these pictures for quite awhile, now. So, don't fret yourself by thinking that my gorgeous blue and orange ribbon stitched quilted plate has suddenly shattered!

No, this plate is the first generation plate; the one made entirely of scrap glass, and because of that, alas, I found some incompatible glass laying in the wrong bins at the studio. However, this "unfortunate" incident lends itself nicely to a fabulous learning experience.


Many beginners to glass fusing ask if they can use old stained glass scrap that they've got lying around. The broad answer to that question is "No" due to reasons of incompatibility. You see, glass that has been specifically formulated for fusing "plays nicely" only with other glasses that have also been specifically formulated in the same way. The label "COE," or "Coefficient of Expansion," is the general term that describes the rate in which glass expands and contracts upon heating and cooling. If you are using two glasses that have different COEs for fusing purposes, then your final result will end up looking similar to my lovely sample plate. (Again, the COE will generally get you through the long explanation, but if you want all the juicy details of compatibility, check out TechNotes 3: Compatibility of Glasses from Bullseye.)


However, you may not have a disaster like this the first time out of the kiln! For reasons best left to the Glass Gods, this particular plate did not crack until after it's second time out of the kiln. Only when I was engraving the bottom of the plate did it "pop" in two cracks diagonally down the middle. Initially, I thought it was my engraving that broke the plate.
So, I put the plate back in the kiln to fuse it back together at a full fuse, once again. Fortunately, the third time out of the kiln was a total crack up, around each and every one of the orange pieces, allaying my guilt at having cracked my plate upon engraving.

So, what happened?!? By looking at the slivers that have formed in circles surrounding almost each and every piece of orange glass, we can be suspicious that this glass is not compatible, which all of the other glass that I was using happens to be. In other words, the rate at which the orange glass contracted upon cooling was slower than the rate at which the rest of the glass contracted. As the glass became less fluid, the only way for it to get rid of all the stress building up inside was to crack!

I Do!

Well, it's official! We tied the knot. In a low key, almost spontaneous wedding ceremony at the "Silverado Tiki Bar" in Napa, CA, my wonderful, thoughtful, caring fiance, Todd, became my beloved husband! He is so eloquent with words that I am left almost speechless. I'm sure he knows how much I appreciate and depend upon him and the support that he gives in all of my endeavors. He puts up with all of my piles and loose organization and lately lacking housekeeping skills. He is just too wonderful for words and I love him dearly.

I Blew It!

My First Attempts..., originally uploaded by CalyxAnn.

My very first solo attempts at making a blown glass pumpkin. A super mini-sized pumpkin, whose introduction to the world was doomed from the beginning...
It cracked as I added the too-hot stem, which was also too much glass for the tiny little pumpkin. So, after my feeble attempt at pumpkin-making (a good exercise in heat management and the dynamics of the whole process), we moved on to flower pulling. Again, a feeble attempt. My "flowers" were another great exercise in heat management. I need to be a bit quicker in pulling and turning the petals to give the flower some depth. Basically, I've got the idea and I just need to perfect the technique.


On a very positive note, we found the crucial point in the process where my pumpkin stems were falling apart. Saint Helena glass artist, Ed Breed is blowing the pumpkins while I prep the stem (gather glass, add color, heat and go into the mold) to finish them off. Unfortunately, the last few days have been Ed working overtime, both blowing the pumpkin and then finishing the stem, because I couldn't get my heat just right. So, yesterday we walked through the process and pinpointed the glitch. Hopefully, from this point forward, the stems will now be finished by me, perfectly!

Fingerpainting...

In researching finger painting and techniques in a prelude to my K-2 afterschool art class, I came upon some rather interesting sites that shed a whole new light upon the finger painting process.

At "Another Look at Finger Painting," finger painter Mary Ann Brandt gives a fresh perspective on the ancient art of finger painting (prehistoric cave paintings and Chinese calligraphic finger paintings on rice paper) and let's you know how you can do it On Your Own.



Artist Allen Montague painting a Monet-style waterlily scene, with fingers.

In the background, a compelling series of videos at chrismartenson.com, makes me want to learn to make my own natural paints. This site is a start, by using what I've got in the kitchen, there are recipes for making a couple of different mediums: finger paints, play dough, silly putty and ice cream. But what I'd really like to use are natural, local pigments...perhaps grape skins? clay?

Further reading about finger painting with Ruth Faison Shaw, who developed institutional therapeutic finger painting, after teaching the art of painting to children using finger paints.

Below, BackPorchArt William Boyer has created a series of finger paintings viewable at WebShots.


From my reading, it seems that most finger painted art starts with a blank canvas (obviously), and paint is poured directly onto the canvas. The paint is then moved around with fingers. There is another method, demonstrated by wonderboy, below:



I had not even conceived of the pointillist technique in regards to finger painting, but it seems rather obvious in retrospect.

More links...
Cave Painting - making your own paint from dirt and shortening
Tons of Homemade Paint Recipes - shaving cream, soap flakes, food coloring, oh my!
More and More and More Paint Recipes - yowsah! Paint, dye, and Ink Recipes.
Elementary Lesson Plan Combining Finger Painted Paper and Collage
Screen Printing with Finger Paints
Glues, Brews and Goos - Google Book Search is amazing! This book looks fabulous!
Liquid Starch Recipe - from Field Trips in Fiber, a quilter's blog:)
From Painting: It's the Process, Not the Product! by By MaryAnn F. Kohl, Katheryn Davis : 1/4 cup (60mL) liquid starch and 1 T (15mL) tempera paint and stir.
A bit unrelated, Keith Haring Art Curriculum projects
Of course, I can't forget a favorite of mine, Ivan Chan:)

Mini Mosaic Presentation...

It's the end of my four week session with the Ms. Brown's first grade class. We've finished our mosaic tiles and our "Making Learning Visible" books that accompany the project. Here's my presentation using Google docs (which I do like a lot!) that helps to fill in even more visual content standards for the project.

What happened?!? Stressed Out!

Voila!! I had recently set my Tree of Life fused glass plate aside, adding it to the pile that I had yet to photograph. I really love the aventurine green with the iridescent amber and swirly opal green/white glass. The colors are beautiful, reminiscent of summer, and make me want to do an entire series of winter, spring, summer and fall tree plates.

However....

when my wonderful fiance was tidying the house (and organizing my piles, he really is incredibly sweet), he noticed this crack in the plate. Now, I don't know if it's the weather, or if it's just that time in my life when I get to learn about stress and glass, but instead of throwing the blame on him (He must've dropped something on it, right?), I somehow knew that I had another stress case!
But, how exactly would I know? It surely doesn't look like a case of incompatible glass. Look at that S-curve that doesn't follow any seams. It runs right through the middle of at least three pieces of glass (which are all different colors). Reference this link for a wonderfully, hideous picture of incompatible glass.
Aha! My first chance to use the polarizing lenses that have been sitting in the studio, just waiting to confirm my suspicions... Whoa, Nelly!! Just look at that stress!!! I've been told that after a stress break, you can no longer see the stress halo when the piece is placed between the polarized lenses. Well, if that's true, then just imagine the halo that was apparent before this fracture.
So, what to do now? I'm going to put my poor little tree back in the kiln. Yup, throwing her back in. I'm gonna slowly go up to 1250 F and bring down the edges, then go up to 1480 F again to fuse the crack back together. But, this time, I'm slowing down the annealing schedule and holding for a bit longer, because that, I think was the culprit. I used the smaller kiln (Paragon Fusion7), and did not hold my poor plate at 1050 F for long enough.
Hopefully, that will solve my problem, 'cuz I'm getting tired of seeing breaks:(

Welcome Nipper!

On Wednesday, I met with Cher Church of TalentedLady.etsy.com at Maya in Sonoma for the monumental transfer of Nipper Kilnwash, the CGGE (Creative Glass Guild of Etsy) Traveling Mascot. Nipper is part of the Travel Kitty Project, and as a team mascot, he is building relationships within the group. Honestly, I think this is the most exciting thing I've done with the CGGE!
It was really a pleasure meeting Cher, and we shared our life stories in just under two hours:)
And now, Nipper is just in time to catch the excitement of the Annual Summer Sale at Mitcavish Studios. I'll get to show him around to all my local glass pals and maybe we'll get out to do some winetasting, as well!

Kate Wolf Festival - Laytonville, CA

I had a fabulous mini-vacation this past week and a half, and it feels like I was gone for a month!
My dad's visiting my fiance and I in his RV, so we took a trip up north to Mendocino County to the Kate Wolf Folk Music Festival. My uncle was even able to make the trip out, and we picked him up in Santa Rosa on the way!
A few of my faves:






It was very smoky for the first few days, but thanks to some hard working volunteer firemen and cooperative coastal fog, Sunday was sunny and clear. I had tons of fun hanging out with family and friends, dancin' and hula-in' the days away!

My 20 minutes of Morning Yoga

Recently, I've motivated myself to routinely practicing yoga in the morning, rationalizing that if I have three hours to play Solitaire (yes, I got a bit hooked one day), then I certainly have 20 minutes to squeeze in some yoga. Imagine if I had filled the entire three hours with yoga! (I guess that will be my next goal!)
So, with that in mind, I present to you my morning workout with Jason Crandell...

"Maya Star" Fused Glass Quilt Plate

"Maya Star" Fused Glass Quilt Plate, originally uploaded by CalyxAnn.

My newest "quilted" fused glass plate was specially made for the upcoming 2008 Lincoln Quilters' Guild, "A Quilter's Compass -- Turning freely on a Pivot" show auction.
I was especially pleased at the secondary pattern that showed up as a star in the middle!

Fused Glass Bracelets...

Yea!!! I had been waiting for this class to come to me for nearly a year, and finally, in March, Jayne Persico came to Michele's studio to teach her fused glass cuff bracelet class!
Above is the red, orange and yellow bracelet I whipped out in the class.
Below are the bracelets I have made since. It's such an exciting and invigorating experience to actually open the kiln at 1300 degrees Fahrenheit to work with the glass.

Jayne's developed a perfect way to measure your wrist so that the bracelets are perfectly fit to your arm. The most technical part of the process is getting the measurements right, so that the bracelet fits snugly enough so it doesn't go flying off your wrist.
I've got a few more in the works, I just need to set aside a few hours to babysit the kiln:)

"Rocky Road" Dip Dishes

I am officially unveiling my newest series of dishes, the "Rocky Road" dishes.
Made up of several cut pieces of glass in browns, reds, and vanilla. This series is very time consuming to produce, but I absolutely LOVE the results!