Iron Fuser 3 Submission

This is my second year taking part in the Iron Fuser Competition at Helios Kiln Glass Studio in Austin, Texas. For the past three years Helios has put this annual juried glass art competition together which has had entrants from all around the United States. The title “Iron Fuser” is a spoof on Iron Chef, seeing that we “cook” glass and are given main ingredients that must be used in creating a piece of art. This year the special ingredients were a sheet of neo-lavender tint, a sheet of custom blue streaky, 6″ of copper wire, and the coolest ingredient of all, glow in the dark frit!

“Aoi Yuki”. 2012. Thanks to Helios for the professional photos.

Here are the pictures of the piece I entered, one in normal lighting and one with the lights turned off! You can go in to Helios Kiln Glass Studio and vote for your favorite piece, the winners will be announced on Friday, June 22nd. Voting ends Friday at 7:00 p.m.!

“Aoi Yuki”. 2012. Thanks to Helios for the professional photos.

Clint Prints Logo Fused-Glass Piece

Here is a fused glass piece I made from “float” glass, a.k.a., your standard window glass. The technique used to create the squid involves kiln carving and glass glazes. It is the logo for local gig poster artist, Clint Wilson. I nicknamed the mascot “Squidly”, inspired I know. Unfortunately this adorable cephalopod broke clear in half, but I was able to fix it with some serious UV glue. You can still see the crack, but its still a fun piece regardless. The dimensions are roughly 13X15″.

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Fused Glass Latticework

I sat in on a glass fusing class at Helios on Anderson Mill and we were making what they have coined “glass latticework.” It’s a non-traditional technique using strips of glass fused together with large spaces in between. This technique has a more overall organic shape after it is fired than what I generally lean towards with my jewelry and glass art designs, but I figure it’s good to try everything.

Piece prior to fusing.

I forgot to take a picture of the second step before slumping it. So the the pictures on here are the first and third steps of the process: pre-firing and post-slumping. After it slumps it will look like a glass basket of sorts.

It seems that one of my corners came undone during firing, so it didn’t do what I expected. So now I have a glass basket with a long hoop for hanging. Which is a neat accident, as far as accidents go.

One side looks like a human ribcage, complete with upside down xiphoid process.

If you’re interested in learning to make fused glass, check out Helios.com’s Beginners class schedule.