Glass Workshop

What better way of doing some Christmas shopping than learning a new skill and making some presents at the same time! Especially if lunch is included too ;) I recently did a glass workshop at a local gallery The Beetroot Tree with Stevie Davies.

At the start of the day we were given a starter pack of glass pieces to have a go straight away so that we could get one fired on the day to take home. These are the pieces I got...

Here are my arranged pieces of glass in the kiln ready to be fired with everyone elses - it takes about half an hour to get up to temperature, then about 2 1/2 hours to cool down.

Next it was on to designing our own pieces to use as jewellery - here are Stevie's samples that we used to get our inspiration from. We also had a go at practicing to cut glass with some cheap window glass, I was surprised at how easy it was to cut and the minimal amount of tools needed for the entire process. Points to take into account were to disguise where the findings were going to be placed and to balance your glass pieces so that they wouldn't slip in the kiln.

I wanted to keep the glass work true to the artwork I've been recently creating. Using the glass to create lots of transparent overlapping layers and a mix of shapes and colours with a sense of movement around the piece. I was very hard to work with the glass without any idea of the final outcome. I asked so many questions but learnt a lot! 

3 hours later - my first piece was fired and ready to take home!

I collected the others a few days later after they had been fired. I managed to get 12 pieces ready for firing by the end of the day. Some of them are pictured below - the rest I'll keep a secret until after Christmas - I dont want to ruin the surprise for anybody!

I really enjoyed the workshop and it's opened up lots of possibilities for my artwork. I was overwhelmed by the amount we managed to get done in a day and am very pleased with the results. I'll be buying some glass in the new year from UK suppliers Warm Glass, and having another go. Thanks Stevie for all your help!