A certain individual (OK, it's my wife) has been pestering me for several months now to post pictures of my newest work. I've been delaying for lots of reasons which I don't care to elaborate on right now. This is work I've been thinking about for a while, but has evolved to where I think the pieces are good enough to share.
I wish pictures could impart the texture of the pieces. Glass is normally pretty smooth and glossy. These aren't. They are actually pretty rough. The surface feels a lot like about 120-grit sandpaper. This is in stark contrast to the lips, or tops, of the pieces, which are ground to a very high polish. In this grouping, the silvery blue color on the top half of the piece is very reflective, but still exhibits the texture. When you look down the top you can see the yellow interior reflected and the look changes as you change your viewing angle. Neat.
This work doesn't yet have a title - one of the things I'm still searching for - but the working title is called "Rothko", after Mark Rothko, the abstract expressionist painter. I love Rothko's work - one example shown here. The texture and color and interplay really are wonderful. You really should check out the "Rothko Room" at the Tate Modern gallery in London.
This year has been bad in Michigan for the economy - unemployment is over 17% and people just don't have a lot of spending money these days. For me this downward spiral started last summer about twelve or even fourteen months ago. I usually do a few art fairs a year where I do some pretty strong sales. I stay away from the big one here in the area - the collection of independent fairs collectively called the Ann Arbor art fair. I blogged on this previously. However the fairs that I've had the most success have been cancelled, at least for the time being.
So I'm left with a lot of pieces that I've made and they haven't yet been sold. I've had to pack, and repack them, several times as I look for a specific piece for someone. It's good that I have pictures of everything, but my anal-compulsiveness hasn't gotten so far as to actually track which pieces are in which blue tub. I love blue tubs. I have more than fifty of them. But that's another topic for another day.
I came across this piece packed away. It has a long history. I made it several years ago, and I really liked what happened with the colors. There is an interesting reaction with the "veins" that wrap the piece. They are a gold based color, but reflect several different shades of gold, silver, and blue, depending on the light. At outdoor shows, I made sure to put this piece in a sunny spot, which usually meant it moved throughout the day. I can't even begin to count the number of people that have ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the piece. Everyone loves it. Or at least, that is what they've said. But nobody ever bought it. It wasn't expensive - in fact I had it listed for about $95. Maybe it was too little. Other pieces, that didn't get as much attention went flying off the shelves.
At this point, the piece is occupying one of the coveted prime display locations in my house where the best glass pieces get some time on display. I'll create something else that is new, and therefore "better", and this piece will get packed away for a while. Maybe the next art fair will change things and it will find a home.
I promised to write about each of my favorite pieces. I've already written about the "Bird" earlier. Here is another one. I call this one "Cracked Ice". Old paintings have a nice texture that is not done on purpose, rather it results from the cracking of the paint over a long period of time. We see the results after sometimes centuries and feel that look is what was intended. We also see this same effect on old houses and furniture where the paint is cracking and peeling. Crafts people go to great lengths to reproduce this effect in their "antique replicas".
In glass, this effect can be created, but the results are not always predictable. This piece is a good example of crackled glass. The base color is a deep cobalt blue, which certainly is reminiscent of cold, snowy climates. Before the piece is fully blown, it is covered in several layers of white powdered glass. This is similar to a nice snowfall building up depth on the ground. Once a sufficient quantity of "snow" is collected on the piece, it is reheated to a very hot temperature and the plunged in a bucket of cold water for several seconds.
That is when the magic happens. If there is the right heat, and the right length of time in the water, and then the piece is blown out just right, you'll get the crackle effect pictured here. The picture doesn't show it, but the cracks are quite deep, and there is a very tactile sensation when you touch the surface. You only get a short period to form the vessel as the white tends to melt into the blue and lose the nice crackled texture on the surface.
The way that the white fades out on the rim is quite interesting. Again, it is all chance in how the final piece will turn out given all the variables of depth of powdered glass, heat, cooling, and shaping that go into making the piece.
A certain individual (OK, it's my wife) has been pestering me for several months now to post pictures of my newest work. I've been delaying for lots of reasons which I don't care to elaborate on right now. This is work I've been thinking about for a while, but has evolved to where I think the pieces are good enough to share.
This work doesn't yet have a title - one of the things I'm still searching for - but the working title is called "Rothko", after Mark Rothko, the abstract expressionist painter. I love Rothko's work - one example shown here. The texture and color and interplay really are wonderful. You really should check out the "Rothko Room" at the Tate Modern gallery in London.
