Sconce

This week I thought I'd show you some of the process involved in making some fused and slumped glass lighting.  I started construction of some sconces which are currently fusing, and I'll show you the completion of the process in the coming weeks.  The first part of this sconce involves cutting a number of glass rings.

These are all loaded into a mold with a small slumped glass cone that will form the center of the sconce.  They're stacked one by one.

The number of rings will determine the end diameter for this slumped glass sconce (or, actually, the two that will be made from this cone).

Three of these are currently in the kilns.  We'll pick up next when we remove the fully fused cones from their molds.

Welcome to the Studio!

This week I thought I'd give a little studio tour, so that you can see the space we work in.  As you enter the building, you walk past our mini gallery.  There are a few hanging light shades, a few sinks, and lots of sculpture and samples.  Eventually we'd love to put an addition on the building so that we'd have a much larger space to show our work and that of other artists too.

 Nearly all of the work we do involves a kiln.  Unlike glassblowing, most of the heat is applied within the kiln.  All of our kilns are electric, and are run using digital controllers.  This is our large kiln, used for very large pieces or batches of many smaller items.  Its lid raises and lowers from the ceiling using an electric winch.

These are some of our smaller kilns.  They are used for smaller items, samples, and tests.

This is a bird's eye view of some of the chaos in the studio.  You can see large glass storage racks, work tables, our drill press, and some of our other tools.  We are working on cleaning up and organizing (always!).

This is Pepper, one of the shop cats.  Her partner in crime Bowie seemed to be in hiding this afternoon, but we may be able to track her down soon.