glass casting results

So I managed to restrain myself from turning the kiln on for 6 days!!! Are you as impressed as I am?! I'll admit I was going to put it on sooner but on Tues I bumped into Sue Chalk and she said she'd recommend leaving the molds to dry out for about a wk so I sensibly listened to her advice.

After 30hrs in the kiln I broke open the molds and this is what I found. Some of the edges were a little sharp, especially on the lagoon green shell which was the one that had got buried in the plaster, so I had to start grinding off the edges.

I love the level of detail that remains in the glass after its cast.

Last week I experiemented with fusing the lead crystal glass into flat shapes and was quite pleased with the results. I'm now wondering whether to use shapes like this as a base to put my sculptures on top of. What do you think?



What colour combinations/contrasts do you like best? I think I prefer the green shell on the bluey base, do you agree? mmm decisions decisions.....and what shall I get making next?....oooh the possibilities are endless.



glass casting 1

Back in October I went on a glass casting workshop with Sue Chalk and have finally started to experiment with it at home now. All it took for me to get going was discovering that the gorgeous lead crystal glass I needed was on sale at Glass from The Past in Billericay and I was away :o)

Last weekend while I sat on a craft stall at Hylands House I spent several hours making mini sculptures. Using plasticine, shells, a pencil and a craft knife I began to create the 3d forms I wanted to cast in glass.

Now anyone who knows me won't be surprised to hear that I was far too keen to see how they would come out to wait for too long to make the molds. By sunday evening my kitchen looked a bit of a mess with plastic pots, a jug, bags of glass, newspaper, plaster, weighing scales and various other bits n bobs cluttering the worksurfaces.

Some of the castings worked perfectly....

...but the one with the air bubbles didn't look quite so good....

 

...the plasticine had come unstuck from the base and moved inside the mold but armed with a handy craft knife to dig the plasticine out happiness was restored :o)

 

 

 

By the time I went to bed on Sunday evening the glass was secured in the molds ready to go in the kiln

All that was needed was patience in waiting for the molds to dry out before I could turn the kiln on....and that's not something I'm too good at when something this new and exciting is concerned. How long will I be able to wait before I programme the kiln?