Fused Glass

There's such a transformation from firing the crushed and powdered glass.  Here's a before and after comparison...

Fabrication 7

Almost there...

Interior view from the small end:

It feels like it's taken forever, but finally the outside strips are complete!

Image designs by UTC students

The last few science images being created by students at UTC Oxfordshire: 

  

  

  

Fabrication 6

Finally finished all the strips along the right-hand side:

  

Cracking on down the left side now...

Fabrication 5

It's a painstaking process, slowly but surely working my way around adding the side strips:

The view inside shows all the welds:

Fabrication 4

Sculpting has slowed down whilst I've been concentrating on the glass, but it's still coming along...

I'll send another update after the summer break.  Have a good one!

Fused glass sessions

For the past few weeks I've been working with local students and residents to create the coloured glass background discs for the front of the Reach sculpture. 

We worked with fusing glass, adding different grades of crushed and powdered glass to build up layers of colour.

UTC Oxfordshire year 11 students selecting glass background pieces.

Aureus year 7 students adding coloured glass "frit".

I also ran two sessions at the Northern Neighbourhood Community Centre on GWP, where residents designed and made glass discs for the sculpture, and also experimented with different techniques to make their own fused glass artworks.

 

     

NNCC sessions

     

Glass discs ready for firing.

The glass really comes to life  once it has been fired in the kiln.  The powders become thin, subtle tints and the crushed glass makes intense spots of colours.  By mixing and layering the materials, you can get some beautiful results...

I love them!  They're a different kind of lush when back lit, but I couldn't get a decent photo of that; you'll have to wait until the sculpture's up to see!

Fabrication 3

I've started adding the sweeping strips of metal that form the "skin" of the sculpture...

There's very little tolerance when getting the adjoining edges to align.  The most practical way is to make a cardboard template for each strip:

It's fairly demanding as even a gap less than a millimetre is quite obvious.   Also, as I work further along the fingers, access gets more and more restricted.  Fortunately, the front of the hand is full of holes which I can work through.

That does make for some particularly fiddly welding though!

Three-and-a-half fingers to go...

Fabrication 2

The hand now has all it's fingers.

Adding a rounded edge...stainless steel rod bent and welded to follow the outline. 

All the welds will be internal, leaving a smooth finish on the outside.

Once the finger angles are adjusted I'll be able to begin the contour "projection" lines:

Fabrication

I've now started making the sculpture itself.

The hand sections were water-jet cut from stainless steel sheet.  I'm introducing some gentle angles along the seams so the palm isn't completely flat.  

.Only six hundred holes to fill with etched glass designs!