The Artful Dragon Changes Direction!
Christmas 2014 brought a new challenge for The Artful
Dragon. I was looking to create a new Collection for my Studio and after a lot of research, decided on adding some
fused, dichroic glass jewelry. Never worked with
glass before, but I already had a kiln for my fine silver work and so the
outlay would be in the glass required.
So, I sourced out some glass locally and set about trying my
hand at fusing glass. The new process I
had to learn was involved, but fun and I liked the fact that I really wasn’t
sure how things were going to turn out until I opened the kiln door after the
last firing.
Have to admit to many cuts on my hands, a few were quite
deep, but I think that is a given with glass. A
large supply of band aids required!!!
The dichroic pieces I began to make were coming out quite
well and so I forged ahead with some new ideas.
These pieces make up the Collection – “Artful Glass”.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) I also managed to catch the
flu, have a sinus infection, as well as bronchitus and then an infected
tooth. This meant lots of time indoors
resting. Well, resting could also be working
in my studio, I thought!
When March came
around I was beginning to feel better and began some new glass processes, which
I really enjoy. I have called this Collection “GlassScapes”, as they are more scenary than just colours. They combine layers of fusible glass and dichroic glass,
cut and put together in layers. The
layers are fired each time one layer is complete, with a final firing time of
approximately 45-50 hours for each piece, as well as grinding and
polishing. These are definitely my
favourite to work on, as you really have no idea what they will look like until
the final firing is complete. It’s
Christmas every time you open the kiln door.
Each firing also takes a long time to cool down and, did I mention, I’m
not a patient person!
My head is buzzing with more ideas, so I had better sign off
and get to work.
Please check them out on my Flickr page here.
Keep on creating!
Lea
