Week Two flies past

I have no idea where the last week has disappeared to - somewhere between the Glassworks and Megalo no doubt. Since our induction into both organisations the "Glinties," as we've been calling ourselves, have been hard at work trying to get up to speed in newfound media and work regimes and conscious that we are almost half way through our residency. Yes, scary.

So, what have we been up to?? On Monday I helped Deb and George put their designs onto some photographic screens, and we spent time going through all the necessary steps so that they learnt how to coat and expose a screen themselves. Actually they were very good at coating their screens so the rest of the procedure went smoothly. The afternoon was spent printing their designs onto fabric which is always exciting as the following photos show.

George is highly excited about printing her 'Sprinkles" multicolour design.
Photo by Debra Jurss.

Nicci Haynes invited us to a woodblock printing demonstration at the ANU, and gave us a very informative talk about the types of wood and tools to use, the creative possibilities woodblock printing can offer and introduced us to a few of the students who are making large woodblock prints. As well as using the press, Nicci also showed us how to transfer the prints by hand.

Nicci using a plastic burnishing tool to transfer the ink from the woodblock.

Now, I have to confess there were a few laughs about my optimistic post last week, where I mentioned I was looking forward to opening the kiln the next day to see how our casting lesson went...haha! As anyone who lives and breathes glass will know that putting the work into the kiln is one thing...waiting for it to come out is an entirely different beast. So I waited...and waited...and then finally four days later we were able to open the kiln and retrieve our samples.

My casting samples....hmmm ... what is it you say????

After four days I was super-excited to see how things turned out.  You can't really tell from the moulds what lies inside, and what our high expectations are.  So...breaking the plaster mould to reveal what lies within...

Two icebergs have landed  in the cold room....

I decided that my first casting project would be a series of icebergs inspired by my residency in Iceland a few years ago. Having an ipad with a store of photos from that residency with me was great - I just tapped straight back into Jokulsarlon and the beauty I found crossing the lake filled with icebergs and walking amongst them on the beach.

Jokulsarlon, 2011

Yes, pretty cool

So now my icebergs are out of the kiln (...that sounds like a weird oxymoron) I am just waiting to learn how to finish them off to get rid of the jagged edges and polish the bottoms.

During the week there was also an impromptu lesson on cutting glass circles with Ruth Oliphant. Ruth was teaching Spike how to cut circles out of glass and before you know it we were all having a go - successfully too I might add.  It was very satisfying but also relevant.  For those of you who know my work, you will realise that the circular form plays a major part in my artistic concepts - referencing looking down the microscope; the circle of life; the micro and macrocosm.

Carefully scoring the glass, then snapping it

Two of my perfect circles using window glass.

Then finally, on Thursday I taught Spike how to put a simple one colour design into repeat so that she could start printing fabric lengths.  This was a major breakthrough for her, and it took her a while to get the concept between the screen width and the repeat width, but then the light went on and she was off and away. Here she is happily printing at Megalo and thankfully everything joins up perfectly. Well done, Spike!

Spike prints Cats and Ravens repeat length

This coming week I will be exploring screen printing with powders onto glass; engraving and sandblasting; organising my digitally printed prototypes and trying to fit as many working hours into the week as possible.

Until then,