Insanity, and now a lull

The studio has been turned upside-down for the past week working on a prototyping project. Although the finished product hasn't come to fruition yet, I thought I'd share some pictures from the past week or so. It's been exciting, frustrating, with hardly a moment to breathe.

Smooth-on's Rebound 40 brush-on rubber product

A quick sweep with a heat gun works wonders in smoothing out Castilene surface while leaving the cold core structurally stable.

An old pal & wonderful artist visited, and performed the Ceremonial Setting-up of the Table in a corner of the shop. He may or may not drop in from time to time to do a little work and share some of this space.

Asymmetrical table love!

Always an adventurer, that one.

Exploring the Choi residence's dirtier corners.

Haystack Session 5: Glass with James Mongrain

I received exciting news from Haystack Mountain School of Crafts this morning––my acceptance letter into Session 5's goblet-making class with James Mongrain. I feel infinitely grateful that I will be able to learn from a dude who makes incredible things like this:

Venetian-style blown glass by James Mongrain

I've always been interested in goblet-making and it was one of my most favorite things to do in the hotshop, back when I was blowing/assisting 40+ hours a week. I find it to be such a conceptually rich kind of object that can be looked at and played with a thousand ways––but I never had as much technical prowess in that regard as I wanted. I'm glad for the chance to learn a little more while enjoying the phosphorescent waters of Deer Isle, Maine. And eating Tom's delicious Haystack food! And chasing the cats! And meeting new people!

Update: and I am thrilled to note that my old friend and very talented glass artist Keunae Song will be at Haystack at the same time!

Sequins, kiln unload, more salt & alchemy

At the studio today: unloading the first batch of kiln tests/future pendant blanks. "Blanks" meaning here that they are unshaped, raw pieces that will eventually be cut, faceted, and polished in a cold shop.

Testing laboratory glass slides with specimen wells, Glassline brand paints, white glue + mica flakes, Uroboros powdered colors and handmade sheet glass (blown cylinders from Spectrum 96).

Also continuing with the salt solutions––picking up and examining yesterday's dried vellums, and pouring new batches onto little plastic sequins to see what sort of half artificial/half crystalline formations we can create.

Carefully staged action shot...

Iridescent little flowers...

Examining one of yesterday's paintings in the sunlight pouring in through the skylight...click the image to see the studio shots.

We then moved on to organization. Over twenty different kinds of hand-dyed cultured pearls in all types of gorgeous nacred pastels and jeweltones, rebagged into glassine envelopes.

We had some sorting of silver and gemstones to do, as well...so I used my folded-silver boat ring from my very first jewelry class as a scoop...

Scars, hairs, African textiles from ASOS and my most favorite birdie scissors.

We've got the "gallery wall" on the close-side wall of the studio up and running.

Finally, my long-awaited copy of Cumbrian Alchemy, featuring the work of my friend/atomic priest Bryan Wilson and his colleague Robert Williams. You can purchase a copy by contacting artshop@cumbria.ac.uk.