So Simple

There were just a couple of pieces of glass left over from the coaster project, so decided to, once again, try some very simple jewelry. 

Pendant - transparent aqua with aqua and white marble in the center - re-purposing scraps

 As you may recall if you are a regular reader, my last jewelry attempts did not come out so well.  If you look to the right, I have added the earlier post of that 'tale of the wrong glass....."

Pendant - transparent aqua with aqua and white marble in the center - re-purposing scraps

The clarity and simplicity of combining these two pieces of glass and simply full-fusing them is very appealing to me. 

Pendant - transparent aqua with aqua and white marble in the center - re-purposing scraps

For this to become wearable, however, requires a way to attach the glass to something.  Adding a bail would work.   Gluing one on, however, would mean that the back of the bail would show through the transparent glass detracting from the piece.  Drilling a hole and adding a pinch-bail might be a good solution, however that does require a drill - and better yet (with glass,) a wet drill.  There are some advantages in using opaque glass.

I can't decide if this would look best vertically or horizontally.  Traditionally, something longer like this would have a curve that follow the curvature of the neckline and look somewhat like a collar or neck-cuff.  At 2.5 inches, I think it could be suspended horizontally.........probably should resolve the bail issue first!

Front to Back Contrast

On a side note, we enjoyed a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with friends recently.  Busy lives and 700 miles have made connecting challenging as lives have evolved and changed, so it was fun to catch up and connect. What a delight to see their children and grandchildren enjoying a vacation together.  The beautiful little girls I knew as pre-schoolers are still best of friends and have helped their own children be close and value family.  They said they have done spring break together for at least 10 years.  All of their children, ranging in age from 7 to 20+, prioritized this week together and were all there.  It was great fun to see our life-long friends surrounded by this loving, high energy family. 

Jelly Nightlight - View from the front  - Clear anchor, freeform stringers, pre-fused buttons, dichroic frit, and cyan fine frit

The picture above and the one below provide a great opportunity to do a compare and contrast on the front and back of one piece.  The piece above allows the tentacles to dominate the space, particularly with the intensity of the darker blue.

Jelly Nightlight - View from the back  - Clear anchor, freeform stringers, pre-fused buttons, dichroic frit, and cyan fine frit

Looking from the back, the tentacles fade into the distance, and the dominate pattern is the mesh-like pattern around all of the clear dots.  Since this is intended to be a nightlight, it will have a lightbulb behind the image.  Because of that lighting source, the image will again change depending on the side of the image that is facing out, or away from the source. 

Jelly Nightlight - View from the back  - Clear anchor, freeform stringers, pre-fused buttons, dichroic frit, and cyan fine frit

With the lighting source outside, shining on the surface, the background is very dominant from the back view.  I think that grid background will be dominant no matter which side is facing out, once the light is behind the glass.

Jelly Nightlight - View from the front  - Clear anchor, freeform stringers, pre-fused buttons, dichroic frit, and cyan fine frit

My hope is that the location of the bulb is not right behind the cap of the jelly so that all you see is lightbullb.  I suppose it would have been helpful to buy a nightlight housing prior to designing the glass that will later attach...........hmmmmm...........as I share earlier - it's all a "work in progress!" 

Second Interpretation

As I mentioned on April 2nd, I have been working on a much more stylized version of a jelly fish.  Once again, I was able to use some of the freeform stringers Sheri, at the Bonita Center, has created.  Two different colors of blue were available........

Stylized jellyfish nightlight - pre-fired dots and wedges, freeform stringers and frit on clear COE 90 glass - front view

The area around the largest jelly image (above in the header) is simply glass.  Originally I had planned to use clear "dots"" to create textured water in that piece.  Several weeks ago, I dug through all of my scrapes and made all of the clear squares, chunks and shards that were smaller than a nickel in dots.  Since I decided not to use them, they were still waiting to be used when I began this nightlight. 

Stylized jellyfish nightlight - pre-fired dots and wedges, freeform stringers and frit on clear COE 90 glass - front view

 Once I glued down the dots, I dusted light cyan frit over them.  As long as the dots are not wet, the frit quickly flows down, inbetween the dots and does not remain on the dot surfaces. Since glass colors often change in the firing process, I hoped that then color of this background water, inbetween the clear dots,  and the stringer tentacles would be compatible.

The cap-like wedges of this jelly are also re-purposed from another planned project.  It is  such a relief that this experiment actually resulted in an interesting and acceptable image. 

Stylized jellyfish nightlight - pre-fired dots and wedges, freeform stringers and frit on clear COE 90 glass

 - front view

Watery Wonder - the Jellyfish

It is not until you tilt the glass sideways, and take a more vertical view, that the image looks more like a bas relief than a 3-D sculpture.  Even though the free form stringers had depth and volume, the heat of the kiln and gravity once again combined, to bring the waves and curls to the lowers horizontal surface. 

 

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

The majority of time, the viewer would be gazing at this piece from straight ahead and not at this contrived angle, so the jelly representation is maintained.

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

The bottom 3  images are consistent with a traditional viewing.  Perhaps the possibility of the viewer to reposition him/himself multiple times in relation to any art form is the test of the piece's integrity. 

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

I would argue that part of the test of the art's integrity is forever linked to the intent of the artist.  Perhaps that is part of what keeps us so  connected to painting, sculptures, vases, etc. created by long deceased artists.  (For some viewers it is certain to be the monetary value, as well. )

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

Begs the question - How do we know the intent of the arts?  If they have recorded their thinking in text or video, etc., are we to take each at face value?  Does it matter, or does the viewer have carte blanche to assign whatever meaning chosen based on their experiences???  Viewing judges, just the the latest nominee to the supreme court, have yet to be appointed!

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

So, for now..............................choice is YOURS!

Watery Wonder 2

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

The focus of this fabrication was to replicate the jellyfish realistically.  The opportunities we have to view them safely are in aquariums where the combination of their undulation and the pumps circulating the water keep them constantly in motion.  It is tricky to capture all of the details even though they are structurally very simplistic.

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf  paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

I was so fortunate to have access to the freeform stringers created at the studio.  There is no way I c.ould have used a candle and bent clear, rigid, straight stringers into these delightfully curving and fluid kiln-products.  The kiln, freeform pieces lend a tremendous sense of motion and authenticity

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

Under the cap, where the tentacles are emerging, I added dichroic frit.  In just the right light, it has the electric, neon-esque aura much like the "real deal."  In the lighting of this photo, the dichro takes on a slight lavender hint, but it's pretty subdued.

The foundation glass for the piece is actually transparent, clear glass.  I tried photographing this in several settings, but the emphasis in each image shifted from the jelly to the background image.  This "background" is actually plain newsprint paper that is about 2 feet away from the jelly.  The next jelly I tried is much more stylized and the glass is resting on a white background to emphasize the contrast.  Check the post on the 5th to compare these two interpretation.

Watery Wonder 1

Watching others at the glass studio experiment with hot-extruded, curly stringers gave me some ideas to experiment with.  I currently have a jellyfish painting in the juried show at the Bonita Center for the Arts. It is a 12' x 24" painting that is primarily water and one jellyfish.  Watching these undulating, gelatinous swimmers is mesmerizing.   I decided to further explore some of the visual properties of "jellies" with glass.  

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

When these curly stringers emerge from the bottom of the kiln, they are screamin' orange, molten HOT.  Their irregular lengths, diameters and shapes make it fun to locate just the right ones for a specific application.  Often they are tangles and nest-like in their accumulated mass, but fortunately (and surprisingly) they are not fused together in this big, unruly heap! 

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

It becomes a puzzle, of sorts, to place these convoluted stringers on the flat surface, to create an image, prior to firing.  Not only are the stringers wavy from side to side, they are also three dimensional - adding to the challenge.  When heated they transform from 3-D to 2-D.  The essence of carefully planning is to predict where the elevated portion of the stringer will melt and relocate to when fired.

Freestyle fabrication - gravity stringer, dichroic frit, clear and reactive white glass hand shaped on grinder, with heavy shelf paper cut to create 3-D surface for cap and 3 tentacles.  Tack fired.

On this particular piece, I also cut heavy fire paper to elevate specific portions of the shape to add a subtle 3-D effect to portions of the jelly.  I am not sure this adds enough visual diversity to warrant the process, but I am glad I tried it.  I do find the overlap of the curly strings and chunky, clear and dichroic frit to be very visually interesting.......a jelly caught in time?????

Subterranean Layers - Front or Back?

Using all transparent frit would have created a very interesting look, as well.  The place where the non-transparency is the most noticeable is on the watery layer on the front side of the piece.

Subterranean Landscape - Front view

In the image above, notice the hazy periwinkle over the central portion of the waves.  This is where I did not brush the frit granules away from the black stringers, so as it fired, the frit remained on top of them.  Comparing the front of the piece to the back shows a different look.

Subterranean Landscape - Back view

On the back side of the same location, the stringers, for the most part, rested on the anchor glass, and therefore there is no periwinkle haze "over" the waves.  It is interesting that on all of the stringer pieces, a stray frit granule has managed to get between the stringer and the anchor glass to give the black a somewhat shimmery effect....wonder if I could do that again - it certainly was not planned.

Subterranean Landscape - Front view

The bumpy texture of the large rocks in the image above are much more visually appealing and interesting than the same rock on the back of the piece, as seen below.  Not only have the rock lost their texture, they have also lost the streaky pattern characteristic of this type of glass.  The movement of the green frit granules around the rocks is also much more noticeable on the back side than the front.....I am not sure this is detrimental to the image, but worth noting when thinking about future projects. 

 

Subterranean Landscape - Back view

The grassy stringers present the same type of issues when comparing front and back.  The texture of the grass is appealing on the front, but the pronounced reactive layer between the green and the cyan is distracting.

Subterranean Landscape - Front view

The anchoring of the grass roots in the cyan layer is very visually appealing, as seen on the back side of the image below, but the beauty of the texture of both the grass AND the small rocks is lost. 

Subterranean Landscape - Back view

It's a tough choice between front and back - both have wonderful features and distracting features.  Once again, it goes back to function.  I look forward to making a night-light sized one of these and perhaps a trial one using transparent glasses and frits.  I still don't think the transparent glasses are very desirable for night lights.....more experimentation needed.

Subterranean Landscape - Back view

Subterranean Landscape - Front view

When you look at both sides of this tack-fused piece, which do you think is the most visually appealing and why?