Time to update, the last three weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of
Glass making, excellent friends, a lot of hot dogs and lets not forget the
slugs......
The excellent Pilchuck Glass School where I spent two weeks as part of a
multiples and mixed media class with the awesome Lance Freidman as teacher,
Karen Donnellan and Jonathan Chapman as TA's, I have to say I had no idea what
to expect (apart from knowing the class would be about multiples, mixed media
and connections) and that was a good thing, the first project included eggs...
Now let me explain, the initial project was about finding a way to think
outside the box when it comes to connecting identical objects leaving the
objects (eggs) visible and an integral part of the design, but also being able
to carry and transport them easily. Using elastic bands this is what I came up
with, I am not going to go into to much detail with the projects but hopefully a bit later on I will be able to add some images of the work I made during the class.
I was incredibly fortunate to be re-united with some very good friends
and JamFactory 2008/9 team Amanda Dziedzic and Mariella McKinley, I worked with
these guys for two years straight! Having left Australia in February I haven't
seen them for a few months, so this was an amazing coincidence that we were all
selected for classes in the first session at Pilchuck Glass School this year!
Amanda and Mars were both selected for Karen and Jasen Willenbrink-Johnsen's
class which looked astounding as you can see from the owl that Karen chose to make in a demo (pictured below). Picture above courtesy of Amanda Dziedzic.
And Now for the
Glitter......
Yes as with many
summer school programs there are the essential parties that one simply must
attend! This one involved a lot of glitter and very odd costumes.....also beer
and dancing, fun was had by all.
And my first Hot Dog.....
Now to the serious bit, making the glass, below are some of the expertly crafted tools used to produce some beautiful, inventive contemporary glass..... and yes that is a carrot.
The above pictures show the 'Magic cup competition' which is basically 'who can make a cup using the most absurd
tool imaginable', you only get one and you don't get to pick it yourself, mine was the
cinder block and this was my cup, I was pretty pleased with myself.
NOW for the serious glass....Amanda Dziedzic making a beautiful and awesome Japanese inspired radish and lovely life like Fruit made by Mariella McKinley. These gals made some amazing work in there hot sculpting class and I heard they learnt quite a lot as well.
Below I have added a few images of the work that was produced during the class I was taking, my desk shot is the first one. The class wasn't about producing finished pieces it was more idea's based and everyone managed to produce some incredible work in a really short amount of time.
Beautiful Sunset, our view from the Lodge
Well I think that's it for Pilchuck
Now on to Seattle and New York....
