Glass & Nail Polish

At the end of January I ran a clay lesson with a group of second graders from Apple Valley Elementary. I did this lesson last year, too. I didn't take pictures while I was running the lesson, but the woman running the event said she'd send some and I'll post them once I get them.

the original glass necklace

At the end of the event one of the volunteers asked me about my necklace and then told me how it was made. Like most of my jewelry, the necklace was a gift from my mom. I never thought much about how it was made, I just assumed it was cast glass.

the pendant, front and back

According to the woman, it is just a piece of clear glass with nail polish painted on the back. And, looking more closely at the piece, I can see that she's probably correct.

some of our pendants

Naturally this became the family art project for the weekend. We bought some clear glass "stones" (the kind used for filling vases at weddings) and collected the various nail polishes we had in the house. We set up the project on an old cutting board in the room with the bad carpet and started painting. My daughter and I each painted about five glass pieces before we ran out of energy and color options. (Next time we might need more than just glitter and pink polish.)

cardboard attached to the back shows through the glass front (and some of the polish)

We quickly realized that we could replicate a paperweight's decoration on a small scale by attaching a sticker or a picture facing the glass. The stickers worked particularly well and were pretty simple to attach with a bit of clear polish on the face and more polish over the sticky back.

my daughter's necklace and a sticker pendant

Then we used some memory wire and beads we already had to make a round necklace without a clasp. My daughter's bead choices on the necklace were more adventurous than mine.

my necklace and a painted pendant

I tried to copy the twisting metal bail that attaches the original glass piece to the necklace but I didn't have an appropriate gauge of metal and I kept snapping off the end. I decided to create a looser loop to attach to most of the glass pieces. The loosely looped bail also slides onto the necklace easily.

another painted pendant

I'm not sure I'm going to go into production with these, but it was a fun, easy project for a winter afternoon. And fun and easy is about all I have time for this winter.

three painted pendants and two with attachments: the top one had cardboard behind nail polish, the sunburst is a sticker with pink polish behind 

Movements, bulbs and melting glass

A full table of drying sculpture helps me feel a sense of accomplishment. This week I finished three multi-part pieces (each piece has four or five completely separate clay sections that each need to dry and be fired separately) before Friday. 

table of wet work from this week (plus one dry pitcher plant)

I don't like to start new projects on Friday, since the clay will dry over the weekend. I also didn't feel like throwing today because I'm trying to let my broken pinkie finger heal (I don't think throwing is exactly recommended with a damaged digit).

kids flossers in a bulb

I have been making bulbs for my installation regularly all summer, but I cranked out a few extras this week. It's a little hard to keep track, but I think I've now built 85 (out of 100). My self-imposed deadline for all studio building is Halloween. After that I will glaze for a month.

flosser bulbs in back

After 80 some different bulb surfaces, I start looking for a little more variety. The more recent bulbs are a bit more mechanical in feel, probably at least in part influenced by the big work I am building when the bulbs are cast. This week's bulbs included 5 with non-ceramic additions that I plan to add after firing. They don't look like much while they are drying, but they should be interesting once complete. Hopefully they won't look too wacky as part of an installation.

holes for glass to drip out during firing

Instead of diving into a new set of big work on Friday, I decided to do a few experimental pieces. Friday afternoon I mostly worked on small pieces to test movements or experiment with glass inclusions. The glass pieces are harder to show when wet, since they aren't so much pretty as experimental and results are reliant on the glass melting during firing. I had intended, as part of my sabbatical, to test some non-ceramic materials. I have tested some, but I still have a few ideas that I would like to work through.

base to catch glass drips

I think an obvious extension of mechanical inclusions in clay is to create movement with the finished piece. I have previously made interactive pieces in graduate school and as part of my senior show in college, but I wanted to look into a movement that is fully integrated into the piece itself. Last night as I was pondering this issue again, I realized that I had a bike part with ball bearings in a box in my studio. It's small, but the movement is smooth. I decided to try a test piece at a small scale. The top will be attached on the outside, the base fits inside the piece and the bike part provides the movement. 

base and top of "ball bearing" piece