Friday, August 26, 2016

progress being made



Plugging away at the second diagram, almost finished. I'll be cutting the first stencil next week. I'm really dragging my feet, keep finding small distractions, counterproductive to my desire to get it done and over with. Some of the dawdling is because I really don't know how to do this job, how to translate these photographs into etched glass, and I have to make DECISIONS. The decisions I make now determine how it is going to look in the glass, whether it works or not.


I've also been working on the cast glass. I filled the mold for the leaf plaque Tuesday and it came out of the kiln yesterday. I used transparent green in the leaves and then backfilled it with black and yes the black will overpower the green and make it very subtle. Which is what I want. The moonflowers bloom at night.


It's been de-molded and I have washed it in vinegar and the green is very subtle. I was thinking I may have needed a thicker layer of the green but now I'm not so sure. A good light will pick up the green more and I think once I do the cold work and polish the leaves a bit it will look perfect. I've balanced the moonflower on it's little pedestal on the plaque and it looks really good. Though I just had a thought about my whole plan to float the flower above the plaque on the pedestal. The whole weight of the flower and the shear force and the small surface to surface area of the pedestal to the plaque...hmmmm. Should have put a hole in the wax model for the pedestal to sit in.  Well, I have decided to have a stand made for it instead of having it be a wall piece. That could change though.

I finished the diagram or nearly enough. I was going to start the stencil today but I think I'll wait til Monday and spend the day doing cold work on my castings.




8 comments:

  1. I will be SO happy for you when that damn animal hospital project is done and DONE.
    On the other hand- the moon flower project is just making me happy. Period.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A true artist Ellen - trial and error can't be taught, only experience. It will all be beautiful when you finish. Sometimes the procrastinating shakes you into "gotta get this done" mode!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The cat in your drawing looks so real! Ha! I know you're struggling with this one but I really miss not being engaged this summer in a large project. Maybe next summer.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hard to mix colors it looks.Similar to mixing paints

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love the leaves - I think they look just right. There are so many logistics to what you do - makes my head hurt. My only comfort is that what *I* do probably makes YOUR head hurt - right? :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. It seems likely that in certain light, the green will be more apparent, as you said. The leaves came out really well in terms of shape!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love moonflowers, waiting for mine to bloom any day now. YOur casting is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete

I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.