Watching them slump!

Here I sit 5 hours later waiting for those vases to give me the perfect drape. I've adjusted the temp higher and longer to get the length I want and now I'm literally souring on a stool in front of the kiln peeking in every 5 minutes. What a dork!

If all goes well we have finished 3 commissions today. That is of the slump is right. I look forward to shipping these out! Cross your fingers.

Yeah! Perfect! I just hit skip step and now the temp is dropping for the anneal. Here's a picture all hot & gooey!

Another set of beautiful glass vases!

More vases for our wonderful church client.

Just a few experiments!

The last few weeks I've been teaching lots of classes and just trying to get back on track after the trip.

I think I'm getting things where I want them. Here are a few of my quick experiments on new screen printing ideas.

3 sushi plates! The 2 on the ends are completely smooth, and fully fused. The middle one has texture.

The female freedom fighter is ghosted over the landscape.

The mixing bowls and whisks have Hedy Lamar completely perplexed!

Santa Fe Powder Printing Class

I had a wonderful trip to Bullseye Glass in Santa Fe! My buddy Lisa came with me and it was awesome. We had a fantastic meal at Luminaria at the Inn at Loretto. One of the best meals I've ever had in Santa Fe. Thanks to Perry for suggesting it, I should have been quick enough to invite him and Nancy to dinner with us!

Stacy Smith is a fantastic instructor. She made the class fun and inspirational! Erik Whittemore, the resident Studio Manager was the perfect host/TA/collaborator! A big thanks to Morgan and her team for their support. Bravo on my best Bullseye experience ever! In my humble opinion, Stacy is likely the best ambassador of the all the positives of the "Bullseye Spirit!" I hope they elevate her to the appropriate status she deserves. Enough gushing! (Seriously, I hope they'll let her come teach at Wired Designs Studios.....c'mon Jim!!!!)

My fellow students were great to hang with and gave me a wonderful perspective on all of the different ways to employ these techniques. We were all doing our own things, and they were all so great and different! Thanks everyone. I got to hang with Nancy Weisser, Perry and Colleen, and we had an awesome time.

Here are a few of my samples from the class. I'll be incorporating this technique into my Printmaking Techniques for Glass classes going forward.

This powder print was fired twice; once for the background at full fuse, and then once at a tack fuse for the foreground image. I'm using imagery from my Women's Roles and Identities series.

These were images that we were given to play with in order to learn the technique.The 2 on the left are full fuse on 6mm, the 2 on the right are tack fused on 3mm. Both have equal merit and use.

Very little distortion! Halftones work really well.

Part of my Women's Roles and Identities imagery. This is all powder.....no sheet glass. Cool huh?

This was all done in a single firing! Love the effect!

Yesterday I had a private Torch Fired Enamels workshop. My student is a wonderful lady who has seen and done it all! We worked on stenciled enamels, and component projects. I had done the centerpiece of this necklace previously, and just wasn't completely happy with it. So my student and I added some components and took it to the next level.

I'm teaching this technique in Las Vegas at the Glass Craft Expo next year. It's called Glass on Metals!
I know that all my glassy friends will love doing this!!

This piece is copper enameled and riveted with silver connections.
I love acid green and turquoise together!

We were going for something Asian. These look really great on!

Finished the Climbing Piece

Here's the finished piece I referred to in yesterday's blog. The text behind the climber is a group of quotes from Ghandi. They are about inner growth and the betterment of spirit. The woman climbing represents our drive to become more evolved as people. It's something I'm really exploring right now. My work is constantly evolving, but much of my current work explores identity issues. 

This work, called The Climb, is 1" thick. 9" x 4.5".
Kilnformed glass and enamels.

Side view

i haven't determined the display vehicle yet. It could go into a light box of frame. Still thinking on that!

Printmaking on Glass

Wednesday's class was fantastic! We made silk screens, created our own photo resists, created photo transfers, worked with Gel Medium for ink transfer, and finally focused on direct painting with Enamels! The workshop, which was a consolidated version of our regular class gave everyone a taste of print making techniques and provided all the students with a sample of each type to take home. There sure was a lot to cover in a short period of time, but we did it and still managed to laugh!

A big thanks to Gary M. for his awesome seafood gumbo and homemade cornbread for lunch!  It was truly a southern treat!

Here are some pictures to give ya'll a feel for the whirlwind that was our day!

This is a combination of silk screened and photo resist samples.
There's even a photo transfer with some overlaid enamel!

More overlaid enamels!

Here's the gel medium transfers, and the photo transfers.

My sample of a silk screen thumb print under a photo resist figure.

This is a thick block that has photo resist works inside and an enamel painting on top.
This is in the kiln now! (I'll post a finished picture when it's complete.)

Here's my painted enamels overtop of a gel medium transfer background.

Here's part of the group dry filling their blasted resists!

Join us for the next one of these workshops in October!  Here's a few sample photo's.....

Bronze Clay and Etched Metals

Just a little peek at some of the finished pieces from the Metal Etching, Fold Forming, and Bronze Clay workshops. I always wish I had more time! These were my demo pieces, the top two all be made into pendants and beaded into necklace sets.  Today, we had an Into to PMC class and we made some cool stuff. I'll post pix tomorrow....that is after I teach Intro to Glass Fusing.... Wow!  Busy Week!!!

Bronze Clay Bust

This almost looks like a chocolate covered cherry!

This is fold formed, corrugated, enameled, and the flower is PMC.

This one is etched copper and brass with bronze drops.

I love art jewelry!

Strip Construction Class!

Last weekend we had an awesome strip construction workshop! The students made some gorgeous pieces. Here are some of the shots of the work in progress and almost finished. The folks did stringer tapestry and conventional strip construction, but then they really changed it up!  I'm so proud of my fantastic students.

Annie

Annie

Sunny's piece

Sue's piece

Lightly Used Kiln for Sale...

I don't know how many of you are out there reading this blog, but my San Antonio pals might be interested in this. We are selling a kiln that we haven't used in a year. Since we are an Olympic Kilns dealer (among others) we purchased this 18" square kiln when they first developed it about 3 years ago. We've used it about 30 times. It's a great little kiln, but alas... she sits lonely in the corner because we just have so many others. (I know, we are very fortunate.)

Anyway... she needs a good home where she will be used, and loved.

Here are all the specs.

We're asking $650. (The shipping alone on a new one is $150)

First come, first served! Come get her!

Email me if you want her! gailstouffer@gmail.com

Ours does not have a viewing window or punt door.
It does have a 12 key controller and a shelf kit included.
Thats a pretty good deal if you ask me.

Weekend Update!

It's Wednesday and I'm just now getting to blog about the long Memorial Day weekend!  I accomplished a lot at the studio and at home! YEA!

On Saturday I had a great Introduction to Precious Metal Clay workshop with some wonderful gals!  We had a great time! Here are a couple of the things I made. We did an awesome lentil bead too!

This was from a silicone stamp.
I didn't expect it to look this good.
I really like it. The white topaz
is bezel set using PMC syringe.

Here's the PMC lentil bead.
Beginners are always surprised they can
actually do this! It's pretty easy...and beautiful.

This was a tiny bit of left over clay,
so I made this star from an old rubber
mold I made about 10 years ago!
Those things are good forever.

Here's the piece I am still mucking around with from last weekend's metal etching class.

This weekend, it's back to glass!
We have a great LIQUID GLASS CLASS!
We'll be doing pot melts, screen melts, high fires, and combing!
JOIN US! Saturday and Sunday!

On a totally different note, I'm all set for my 2013 Glass Craft Expo classes in Las Vegas! Patty approved my workshops, so I'm good to go! Next year I'll also be teaching in Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix. I'd love to do more, but don't know how much more I'll be able to do with school. (Got an A in my first class, pfew!)

On Monday I made chocolate soufflé for the family. My Facebook friends helped me out with input on how to avoid screwing it up!  Thanks to Bert and his sister, and to Sharon, it turned out great. It just now occurred to me that I could make that in the kiln.....hmmmmm!

This was actually a kind of easy recipe - BHG!

Vessel Sinks and Metal Etching 'r Us!

Here are the 2 sinks I'm working on! Today, I drilled the hole and countersink on the silver grey one. It's packed up and ready to go to Jorge in California. It was time consuming to polish that edge, but totally worth it in the end. They'll love it!

This sink is light silver grey and silver grey fracture irid special production glass.

The golds, the blues, the silvers, and the plums...make this an awesome design.

The customer is putting this on a black countertop, but on white you can see how transparent it is!

This is the second sink. It is for my dear friend Luanne's guest bath remodel. The sink is finished, but because we adore her, we're going to do the special flattened, polished edge. It will likely take me a few hours, but I want it to be very special for her.

So tomorrow, you'll catch me hanging out at the flat lap for a while. I'm still kind of sore from the grey sink polishing, but I'll think of this as my abdominal and bicep workout! Sometimes I dance and polish at the same time just to make the time go faster. Since I'm wearing my earphones, I sing at the top of my lungs. I bet I look hysterical to anyone who stumbles in!

This sink is cast. It's a combination of Grass Green, Turquoise, Light Aqua, Clear w/Silver irid, and light sky blue. I hand pulled black sheet glass into stringer for contrasting lines. I know my clients will love it.

Also, on Sunday we had a metal etching class. Here's the project we did...

This is Nicole's bracelet. We etched copper and brass sheet and then cut, punched and connected jump rings and hand made a clasp. I bet she's wearing it right now!