WarmGlass.com

It's been a while since I've posted any pics of my work. Here goes.

Comments welcome pro or con.

http://mrcol.freeyellow.com/new-work/so ... t_work.htm

Ron

Cool. I like the black irid w/vanilla one a lot. Looks ritualistic.

steel blue one, OOOoooo! rosanna

This work is a lot looser than I have seen in the past. How does it feel to work like this and how do you like the end results? It looks like a real departure from past work that I am familiar with.

I like what I see, and there is a lot that is working well which grabs my attention such as the texture in the French vanilla, and the color shifts in the reactive places with the foil and blues, but I feel like these 3 pieces are lacking a focal point or some visual balance. I'm seeing a lot of variety in the imagery, but not anything that defines it.

The French vanilla piece has wonderful texture and movement. It's cohesive in respect to the colors and textures, but is a bit out of balance visually. I'm not looking for left to right, or top to bottom symmetry, but that the visual weight could be more balanced with color or shape and placement of your compositions. My eye wanders about and never really rests or finds a focal point or the comfort of balance. If those design elements you are using are intended to be an overall pattern or to exploit the lack of visual balance, then perhaps you could push it further in that direction.

The high fire piece has the same set of issues going on. In your detail shots there are some wonderful places where you get a lot of movement, but overall it is lacking any real punch and is too unified. The Egyptian blue piece is quieter and the textured band of frit is an interesting contrast to the hard line rim treatment, and this contrast gives me a reason to look back and forth between the two elements, but again, no real focal point or point of visual impact and there isn't any device that relates the textured part to the rim treatment.

If I compare these 3 pieces to your box at WG@BE from last year (or perhaps I am thinking of your box that you show with the tutorial?), the box had a unifying element of the texture on the irid finish, the curves of the sides and the slight dome of the top (am I remembering this correctly?), then there was a little surprise of a design element in a framed square of pattern on the body of the box. The lid had this delightful handle that was curved in an elegant arc that was softer, yet referenced back to the curvature in the form of the box. The unity was in the shapes that you reinforced in the lid and the handle along with the overall surface treatment of the textured finish. The focal point, or the point of visual impact was the use of the design element on the body of the piece. Can you see how to compare these concepts you employed in your box with the same design considerations you could employ in these three pieces?

I am not sure that I express myself very well in writing, so If I haven’t made a bit of sense here, I have a wonderful book that covers the design basics of a solid composition whether your work is abstracted, figurative or non-objective. It's comprehensive and easy to make sense out of. Let me know if you want the title.

Constructing a visual work is just like constructing a written work. Anyone who is literate can do it, and to be literate, you just need to learn the structure of your language. To construct a written piece, you need to understand syntax, grammar, and such. You learn the basic structure of your language, then you can play with that structure to make it more impactful or to express a particular sentiment in a particular way...It's fun. Thanks for sharing, and I hope my observations were helpful.

i like the vanilla areas on the first plate. reminds me a little of Miro. i could go for a whole plate with that loose, scribbled appearance. real nice, Ron. up until seeing these pieces, i always thought of you as Mister Precision. thanks for posting the pix. kitty.

Kitty wrote:i like the vanilla areas on the first plate. reminds me a little of Miro. i could go for a whole plate with that loose, scribbled appearance. real nice, Ron. up until seeing these pieces, i always thought of you as Mister Precision. thanks for posting the pix. kitty.

I agree with Kitty Ron, it's interesting to see you work looser than you have in the past. The path to creativity is rarely a straight line, and there can be dead ends. I like the French Vanilla piece very much, the blue one I find a little simplistic, (not necessarily a bad thing, but I've come to expect a lot from you) and the high fire I find the least successful. Not many high fire pieces that I have seen have the content of Amy's. I think it's good for you to explore other design techniqies and motifs. Brock

Kitty wrote:i like the vanilla areas on the first plate. reminds me a little of Miro. i could go for a whole plate with that loose, scribbled appearance. real nice, Ron. up until seeing these pieces, i always thought of you as Mister Precision. thanks for posting the pix. kitty.

I too saw the Miro in the French vanilla. He is one of my favorites. I like the look you got very much. Keep at it.

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

This is a new direction as you can tell. That was the whole idea behind these pieces and it isn't easy for my old mechanical mind to shift gears in a nonlinear direction. I am intrigued by more natural forms but find them a real challenge to create.

The most recent piece is the black irid and French vanilla. This piece was commissioned as a gift for our retiring department manager. It was requested that our groups initials and company logo be included in the design. They are there, blasted into the black irid and somewhat subtle and not too overrpowering. They weren't part of the original design, but when someone else is paying the bill------------. Our manager was very avid fan of my work in the past, now he'll own one.

The high fire was conceived from the scrap pile and really had no particular direction. There is still more to explore in this vein for sure.

Ron

I like the "spontaneity" of the work. The french vanilla is truly intriguing.

They are all beautiful and a wonderful addition to your other work.

I can assure everyone that they are much better in person where you can see and touch the fantastic edges and textures.

The blue/vanilla bowl is so calming.

Thanks for sharing and inspiring me, again.

Jim

What tempature you taking your high fire to ? Tried to do some melts at 1700 had little to no movement then refired to 1750 had just a few movements and was concerned about going hotter because of coe problems? Any help would be greatful. Thanks.

Dr. John wrote: What tempature you taking your high fire to ? Tried to do some melts at 1700 had little to no movement then refired to 1750 had just a few movements and was concerned about going hotter because of coe problems? Any help would be greatful. Thanks.

The piece shown in the link was fired to 1700 for about an hour. It is Bullseye glass and is about 3/8 inch thick. The process is very slow and seems to be dependant on glass density and location.

Ron

Ron,

Can you give a few pointers about the technique you used in the high fire piece? I'm fairly new to warm glass, and mostly self taught. I can see some effects in your piece that I'd like to achieve (particularly the apparent blending or 3-D appearance) but I don't really know where to start.

How does the high temperature help?

Thanks for any assistance.

Doug

Fusionistic wrote:Ron,

Can you give a few pointers about the technique you used in the high fire piece? I'm fairly new to warm glass, and mostly self taught. I can see some effects in your piece that I'd like to achieve (particularly the apparent blending or 3-D appearance) but I don't really know where to start.

How does the high temperature help?

Thanks for any assistance.

Doug

This was a learning piece for me Doug and some things worked well and some didn't. Most of the pieces were from the scrap pile, cutoffs from other work that had already been fired. Some of the soft pastel color blending came from white glass with layers of powder fired on one side. The biggest thing I learned is that pre firing pieces gives you a chance to work on colors and get combinations that aren't possible by just stacking cut glass.

Glass placement effects how things things blend and flow. I found the most effective method for flow is to give the glass someplace to go. Solid layers don't work, but bridges of glass over open areas will sink especially if you have clear glass stacked on top. Not all the glass was placed flat, some of it was on-edge.

During the firing, things will bend and flow, float and sink depending on how long and high you fire. High temperatures give fluidity to the glass which allows you to take advantage of the variations in glass density.

Another thing, keep you glass away from the edges of your form. You want the glass to flow up against the sides and not try to slide down in place. Leaves cleaner edges that way without burrs and stickers around the rim.

Hope this helps.

Ron

Ditto other's comments Ron - its a facinating shift from previous work.

Kudos for evolving

- Paul

thanks ron, keep up the wonderful work

rodney

Ron I love where you are going with the reactive elements piece. Keep exploring that. The texture in that glass keeps drawing me in.

It is fascinating to watch you letting loose and trying these outside the straight line pieces. Well yes, I know you are not just about straight lines... I agree with Brock that the high fire is less successful than this one.

From what I have seen high fires take a lot of experimenting before people seem to find their voice with them. Keep at it.

Barbara