Uncontrolled Glass

21 November 2017

The pieces I made at Wheaton Arts two weeks ago arrived in the mail today.

The ornament came out less translucent than I would have liked, and I don't remember putting blue in there. The shape is good, for once. I had help.

The last piece we made was supposed to be a mug. I'm pretty sure that, in our enthusiasm, we all gathered so much glass that not one of us created anything that could be considered a mug. Mine came out the size of a small planter. I have also maintained my record of being unable to keep a vessel centered on the pipe. Here, then, is my blobby planter:

I'd wanted a pattern of color that would give the appearance of a liquid running down from the top. That completely failed; the top color was supposed to be oxidized silver. We forgot to turn up the furnace to flaming hot in order to create the oxidation. I like the colors anyway.

The piece I like the most is the paperweight. Skitch wanted us to use an opaque color for the core. I didn't want to do that. I think I chose blue for the core and red and purple for the outside; maybe it was a red core. Anyway, this was the most fun to make. Twisting and cutting hot glass is fun. I got the air bubbles by indenting the twisted glass before gathering the final, clear glass layer. The pattern looks intentional but I assure you it's not. The last thing I have is control.

This, from the Wheaton Arts Museum of American Glass, is control:

Today I brought one of the Ornaments of Resistance into my office. This is my beginner's collection of off-center pieces. I must document the atrocity: