Pretty in Purple

Shane took this picture today out in our front garden. There are a whole bunch more blooms yet to open, but just this much has me inspired to go make some purple beads like my friend Dawn does! The local studio has been down for some upgrades, but it should be operational again soon so I can go play!!!

Final Goblet

Here's the last one from class. Isn't it fabulous??? Perfectly symmetrical, nice proportions. ok. Its not really mine. I mean, it is mine, its just that I didn't make it. Robert made it. He made one for every student in class. How cool is that???

Smaller Goblet

yes, this one is the smallest of all the goblets, but it has the best shape of them all. I think it is my personal favorite of all the goblets I've ever made. Plus, it has blue and what's better than that??? Granted, the blue is a little hard to see in the photo because when I put the twisty in the stem, I made it extremely thin and whispy. So while it is a solid line in real life, the camera has a had time picking it up.

Encalmo Goblet

Here's the 3rd goblet. The first one that has some color in it. This was made with a technique called encalmo, where multiple sections of tubing are joined together. In this case, its two sections that are both clear tubing, with a ring of yellow in between. Unfortunately, when I joined the sections together, I forgot to make sure that 1 of the ends was open. This means the entire length of tubing was sealed off, which causes the heat inside to expand, until the tubing pops - in this case, right at the seam, making the yellow ring bubble in a couple spots. Remembering to open an end would give a much cleaner look. Guess this is one of those mistakes you only need to make once and then you will always remember!

2nd Goblet

Here's the next one.

Goblets have arrived!

Yes, my goblets from the Robert Mickelson class have arrived. They all survived the shipping without damage. I'll try to post a new one each day for the next week or so. I'm starting with the worst one, hopefully you will see them gradually start to improve each day!

Thanks again to Bette for letting me play with her photo studio to take these!

Studio Setup

Its spring cleaning time and earlier this week Shane went out to clean the shed. I found out last night that while he was out there he rearranged some things and assembled my glass bench and hood! We started looking at what would be involved with getting ventilation going out there. For starters, it seems that the fan that came with the hood is not sufficient for that size hood. I would need 3 of those fans! I don't really want 3 big holes in the shed. Or one really big, loud, expensive fan. hmmmm. It sounds like it is possible to partition off part of the hood in some way so that I can get by with just the single fan, but we're not too clear on how to do that so more investigation is required.

We have a spare window we can install in the shed and Shane has a plan on how to set up some ducting from it to provide the makeup air. Will have to do some more checking to figure out if the window would be big enough to support both a small A/C for summer and ducting for makeup air. A small space heater on the floor should be sufficient during the winter if I direct the makeup air in the hood area rather than the room in general. The final hurdle will be getting power. This could be the most difficult as I am guessing I will need at least 3 circuits, one for kiln, one for oxy generator, and one for the rest of it. Probably is going to involve professional electrician which could be pricy :(

Safety Gear

Since I have recently started working more with boro, especially large pieces of boro for goblets and such, the heat coming off the piece has started to increase. I've found that my upper arms in particular are suffering - one day I came home and discovered a nasty heat rash all along the inside of my arms. I decided it was time to invest in some heat gear. I bought a pair of kevlar arms sleeves. They look like this:I like the hole on the side for the thumb to stick out so that the sleeve can actually cover the back of my hand and part of my fingers. However, the hole is too big, so the whole back of my hand around the thumb and into the palm gets really hot. Also, the sleeve is 24" long. This is the largest size I could find anywhere. Unfortunately, my arms are longer than that, so the sleeve leaves several inches of bare skin at the top. So, I bought another chunk of kevlar and did some custom modifications. Sewing had to be done by hand and was not easy. The results aren't particularly pretty either, but the sleeves fit great now and solve the problems I had with them before. I still wish there was a way to have the fabric cover more of my index fingers as those are closest to the torch and still get too hot. But I can't figure out a way to cover the side of the finger to protect it while still leaving the pad free for maniupuating the glass. Trying to spin a glass rod while wearing gloves just doesn't give enough control...
Finally, working with boro, especially colored boro, requires some additional eye protection. I haven't had good luck with the clip on lenses that go over the regular glassblowing eyewear, so instead I've been using a welder's shield. Plus, this blocks some of the heat and UV from my face. Here I am all dressed up and ready to go. Next step, full body silver space suit!

Steve Sizelove Goblet Class

So, a month or two ago I took a one day goblet class from Steve Sizelove. Here's the 1 goblet that I managed to make. It took the whole day (actually it took another hour or so beyond when class was supposed to finish). The goblet in front is mine. The much nicer one behind it is the demo Steve made us. That foot is actually clear glass, it just has some sooty stuff on it from flame annealing, but it will wipe off. That is by far the best goblet foot I ever made. It was worth the whole class fee just to learn to make the foot!