Prepwork for some mini self-portraits dried while I was away....
Underpainting in acrylic-gouache; hastily scrawled kiln schedules in the background....
Switched over to the "dirty side" of the room so I could break out the powdered glasses.
Testing seven Uroboros (System 96) powdered glasses and some homemade milled colorless frit, plus a 50/50 mixture to see how dilution works. Sandwiched between two pieces of hand-blown cylinder sheet glass.
The kiln is running overnight....
Late April and May have been physically challenging to say the least. Whirlwind of pain, medications, confusion, illness, lethargy, maybe even a spot of existential panic.
I've not been in studio often, and when I am, I am more drawn to looking at very old pieces of past projects, or raw components for making larger things, than I am to creating a new project.
Handmade sheet glass from pre-2010, filled with air pockets and imperfections.
With family on my mind, I came in one day, delirious & discouraged, and created a portrait for each of us. I never did like how they turned out, but I preserve them as-is, as a testament to how I felt about my kin, that afternoon, that week, that year.
Left & middle undecided which is Mother and which is Child; right is Father. To the right a small grease marker sketch.
Detail of Mother?, flat black gouache and Phano grease marker.
Detail of Father, poured gouache and MSG solution, scratched with patterning.
Personal challenges abound this month, and yet symbolic objects, tiny projects, omen-like scribbles continue to emerge from my shop, egging me on, making me make.
Things are in flux at the studio I work out of, both inside my space and out, so I thought today was a good day to completely wipe clean the "gallery" wall, put the salt experiments in storage, and start fresh.
Close-up of the only thing on the wall. Flat black gouache, crystals and sequins.
Mail came today! From Greece, New Zealand and from Bullseye Glass :) Just a couple of nose rings from Etsy plus kiln shelves, kiln posts, and four sample packs of their full sheet fusible line. This will help me order glass in the future without any guesswork; their "striker" colors which change tone after hitting a certain temperature have already been fired, eliminating any confusion.
A deadline I've set with a new client prototyping a clear cast tank....
And lastly something silly I spilled for myself before locking up for the night, because I believe in the restorative powers of "not taking yourself too seriously" on days when you've taken yourself much too seriously:
I haven't had much time for the studio until today, Sunday, and I got in early before everyone else, basked in the sunshine pouring terribly, beautifully, through my skylight, and played with a few things....
A sort of sketch with origami papers, saltwater and gouache.
Crystalline little coastlines.
I added some crystals and tried to re-imagine the scale. What if these were a distant range of mountaintops?
Gold and silver foiled origami paper. See how the salt crystals only clung to the un-foiled white paper? That was unexpected.
I've also unabashedly been having great fun playing with sequins. I source mine from Cartwright's and I have kept about a hundred or so varieties and colors for about three years without knowing exactly what to do with them. I like that they add 3D and volume in miniature doses. I love the glitter, the iridescence and the plastickiness.
Transparent colorless mini-sequins.
Using a light adhesive to create clusters solid enough for a salt pour.
Novelty sequins can be so humorous and pretty at the same time. I like the slight milkiness of the wet gum cement here.
Like lilypads crowded onto a pond.
This month, we're also going to begin shooting these sketchbooks I worked on all through 2013. The first three volumes have 50 images each, while the contents of the final book are more nebulous––this is when my paintings started getting larger more regularly, more three-dimensional, and more difficult to contain in a book.
Compiling these black books into a digital book format will be an ongoing project.
My second-most favorite pair of Dansko clogs...
Lastly, these lovely little air-plant arrangements have appeared, quietly, along the walkway by my studio. Who has put these here? I love them so very much!
Aerophytes in geometric arrangements!
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.
