Julie Ann DENTON is going to be here at the Glass Furnace for a 3 days workshop. The first lesson is at the 2nd of March. Here is the detailed information:

 

Part 1: " Fun with Figures "

This class is designed to introduce the beadmaker to small scale sculpture in soft glass without the use of a mandrel. We will study the Italian technique of creating figure pendants in soft glass and borosilicate by building up ‘Gathers’ and sculpting them directly in the flame. An appreciation and understanding of auto-annealing glass whilst working in the flame will inform the building of larger, more complicated sculptural items. The Venus will encompass tool usage including scissors, exercises to make the perfect ‘loop’, gold and silver fuming is covered, and a realisation of the need for sensitivity during the cooling and pulling process will gently become apparent. The torso expands on the aforementioned topics and includes the use of punties (glass holding rods), spot heating, classically truncated appendages, and the use of tungsten pick to create voids in hot glass. In the afternoon figures become more detailed in order to push the maker to their limit whilst basic annealing cycles are covered.

 

Part 2: " Fun with form an introduction to Borosilicate " 

It is designed to gently introduce the beadmaker to quirky off mandrel forms, such as a penguin, a fish, an elephant and a flamingo. These forms will teach the student a variety of techniques including how to ‘gather’, how to work with scissors and scaled up ‘mashers’, how to make use of the ‘glass tripod’ to create a stand for your animal, ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ punties are necessary depending on the style of animal and ‘auto-annealing’ whilst you work is a learnable necessity. Towards the end of day one we shall begin to create a larger scale piece of sculpture in components, which takes the form of a flower. This shall be made with borosilicate glass and it will focus on the use of multiples as a way to create a more complex form, we will utilise glass ‘bridges’ to help us construct the form easily and the flower will demonstrate just how versatile borosilicate glass can be. On day two we will create a small Venetian mask pendant in borosilicate, finish off our flower in time for annealing and later sandblasting. Whilst the flower is annealing we shall create a number of small borosilicate objects including a heart pendant which will allow us to delve into the extraordinary colour palette which borosilicate has to offer.