Time.... What is time....

Ok here we go.... It has been a little while sense I posted so....


First of all I went to Florida to see the Brother and Parental Units. Then got back to work and it looked like a hurricane came through the office and everything had hit the fan out on the construction grade. Well for two day all I did was file and put out fires out on the grade to get the job somewhat going again due to all the problems that were there was running the other engineer to becoming a crazy loon that ran around pulling out his hair. After helping out and getting everything straigh I left for Montana. It was cool went to Yellowstone and saw some Elk and a Bison (American Buffalo) and the hot springs along with Old Faithfull. Then went to White Sulfur Springs to see the wife's parents relatives. Well lets put it this way, I thought my parents town was small (square mile) White Sulfur Springs is even smaller. :-) It seemed like it had more bars than gas stations and deli's combined. I have some Glass picture from before going to Florida but go to be home to upload them to the blog. Going to Florida again at the end of September for the Brothers Wedding. I will be there for a little over a week and get to blow glass again on the 10 and 11 of September. So that is cool. Well I am not sure who all looks at this thing and reads it from time to time so if you read this leave me a comment or something so I know.

Till then "Gravity is your Friend..."

Optic Mold Pieces....

Here are my new creation here with the new optic mold. I have made these two bowls. This one is mandarin orange, canary yellow, and steel blue.

This bowl is garnet red, mandarin orange, canary yellow, and some kind of light blue. I like these group of colors it turned out well. Just needed more red on the bottom but still turned out great!

Ok this is an iris Orange so they say but it does not turn orange in anyway at all. It seems like it is a great piece due to everyone likes it and wants it for some reason.

More Pictures...

Ok here is a Vase that I made at some point in time not really sure when it was made. It has Silver Blue in the inside and a light purple frit on the outside of the piece.




Ok I bought a new optic mold to use at the shop. Of course I was so excited to get the mold I forgot to even take a picture of the mold. But it is a 12" high 8b I think it is called it looks like the one posted on Gnat's page. If very fun to use....I have been making a lot of pieces with it. As you can see from the following pictures.
Above is a Steam Stick I guess you would call it. It was made from a paper weight to form a a bubble inside the paperweight. I made this so that I could place scented oil inside the piece and put in the house as an air freshener unit.

OK some pictures.....

Ok here is a little catch up here with the pictures....... This is a piece that was made by either me or my brother don't really remember. But it is a really thin piece. It was great that he had a chance to come out to California and see the shop that I get to rent out and hopefully he really liked it.

Ok here is a few more pieces from the same day that I made some glass here at the shop with my brother. Was one of the best times that I have had making glass due to showing my brother I am not a total loser at making glass and I do have a little skill.

Pictures

Ok I got some more pictures just not the time to post them right now. I will get them up as soon as I get some more time.

"Gravity is your friend...."

Sloth

more pictures

Well this I would have to say the biggest thing I have made yet and the heaviest. It is about 8 inches across and about the same in height. I has become a pot of a plant due to the nice size of it. It has a piece of silver blue bar stock and white powder on the out side. This was one of my attempts on the crackle look that ...... well did not come out but still looks good.

More Pictures

Here are some bowls that was done a couple weeks ago and I am just now getting it posted up on the page. The first one is a fushcia bowl it was the first one of the day so nothing fancy. The second one is a piece of red bar with white frit and heating it to the point of floppy and putting it in the optic mold. The last one is a something I am not even sure what the bar stock was but I am sure that olive green was the frit and of course it has a white lip wrap.

Catch up on Post..

Ok here we go this is an apple that I made for the wife's teacher. When she was subbing in the class she knocked off a pottery apple off the desk and broke it so this was the replacement of the one she broke.

Here is a fluted bowl that was made out of a piece of white bar stock and turquoise frit. Using the optic mold to make the lines.

Slacker....

Ok I know that I have been slacking on writing in post. I just need to make some time to get some pictures up on the blog. I got all kinds of stuff to post just no time. Maybe this week or this weekend, I can get the pieces from the last 2 sessions at the shop in here. Till then remember "Gravity is your friend.."

Paperweight "How to Do"

Had a question about the paperweights in the Febuary section of my blog, so here is how it is done. The paper weight is really easy to make. The core is just a gather with some frit melted down to make it somewhat solid. At this point you can do anything you want with the core to make it the way you want it to look. The outside is beach sand actually! It is from Pensacola, FL where I am from... LOL the funny thing is that is illegal to take the sand from the beach now. This came all about from Gnat when the hurricane came through and blew the sand up 11 stories to our parents condo. I decided to take some home when Gnat started to make the paper weights there in Florida. The guy here said that most likely the paper weight would crack if I placed the sand in it but he said go ahead and try. So I did and they survived. The spin in the paperweight is just an optic mold that after applying color or sand you just heat it up really good and place it into the mold. There are a few different ways that you can get the spin into the piece. Can you a block, marver, or use the diamond shears to spin the piece. In my opinion the easiest way is on the marver but a lot of people like to do it with a block. A little more advanced is the shears. Thus here are the steps in short:

1. Gather glass
2. Add color and reheat
3. Do what ever you want with the color to make the core the way you would like.
4. Gather again.
5. Add color again and reheat.
6. Heat it rippin hot and place into optic mold.
7. Reheat
8. Marve low to cool the section close to you then marve the top but don't go across the maver....marve in one spot you will see it start to spin.
9. Let cool and gather.
10. Block to desired shape and set jack line.
11. Cool piece and break it off.
12. Put it away.

You can place it into the optic mold as many times as you want it will give you many different looks to the piece. So have fun with it and try new things.

Sloth