Check out these cold glass artists:
Aleksandar M. Lukic
and
Steve Meyer
Aleksandar is from Siberia- I wish I knew someone who could write Siberian so I could speak with him in greater depth than simple comments, but still it's nice that we can reach out to one another and get a dose of inspiration.
Steve sent me pictures explaining his process, which I found very helpful in understanding how to properly sculpt with cold glass. The basics of it are something I foresaw before, that I'd have to start with a copper/brass frame and apply the glass from there.
I also want to hook up with my friend Jake, who does some amazing concrete work- check it out at Zen of Concrete. I think that this would work well for bases to some of my work- like a pedestal. A solid weighted base would allow me to create pieces that are more weightless and free-formed.
I would like to get a mannequin soon and start working on a couple glass outfits, then possibly get into Fusion and Fashion 2009.
So I've got a lot of ideas right now. Unfortunately the bank account demands that I get a 'normal' job asap, so I wont be able to take my leisurely time with glass anymore. Time to grind, and quick.
I am very ambitious to take cold glass to a new, sculptural level. Maybe in ten years time I'll switch to hot glass, but right now I'd like to develop my skills with cold glass and get that out there.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Dear Patron
Dear Patron (or bill collector):
I have spent the past several years exploring my creative talents, but with few leading influences I found myself lost in scribbled out sketchbooks. I will admit, I began this search as a crafter, and distinctly knew this was not art. Anyone can be a crafter, but only artists know how to apply their vision.
My first step was sculpting clay. The second step was painting. The third, stained glass, is what caught my ultimate attention. My earlier works with this material were as similar to the work of a stained glass crafter as they’d ever again be. Flat panels and simple mosaics became technical studies rather than compositional ones. A few candle holders made their way as art; sculpting the glass into colorful forms soldered freely together. At the age of 16, stained glass was a creative outlet that was mine and mine alone, while I let my sister take the spotlight as a painter and illustrator.
The prospect of college brought on yet another pursuit, drafting and interior design. From the day I had my own bedroom, I’ve dressed and undressed enough spaces I could do it with the lights out. Discovering the ease at which I could convey something, anything, through perspective and mechanical drawings opened my eyes to it’s real-world potential. Naïve about the actual consequences of going to college and living off loans, I rushed myself to attend Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design for Interior Architecture and Design. I dropped my so-called hobby of stained glass for a drafting desk, pencils, and paper, which would never be worth anything more than a few points for the portfolio.
Not two years behind the desk and I was feeling the frustration. Entrapped behind construction-weight lines and vellum upon vellum, not to mention a clean-slate apartment, my creative visions were wearing thin. A call from Minneapolis turned me around, and the next thing I knew, I was designing furniture at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. This wasn’t so bad, I thought. I could still use my drafting and design skills, but on a more manageable scale. This was also an invitation to explore upholstery, which I studied not long after I picked up stained glass. Unfortunately, I was starting to see the financial burdens of being an unemployed student so I dropped out after one semester.
Leaving the classroom gave me the time I’d been craving to examine my creative skills once more. Unlike high school, where I was granted the freedom of creating anything out of anything, college taught me structure and reason. So my first project, a herringbone lampshade, examined stained glass as something that could imply dimension and form. I’ve seen artists manipulate materials beyond recognition to an amazing degree, but stained glass, as it seemed, was untouched. The opportunity to do something incredible and new was tempting and unavoidable. I have since practiced many new methods of approaching the art, to a point where I can only call it sculptural.
This insatiable desire to master the art of stained glass is burdened with debts to previous educational institutes and the small but hopeful market for stained glass artisans. I can’t help thinking back to the master artisan of Victorian times, Louis Comfort Tiffany. Son of the famous jeweler, Louis defied his fate to study color and play with glass. His story is an inspiration to mine, and I only hope that what I’ve yet to discover and reinvent within this art will be as revolutionary as what he achieved. The most difficult part of being a successful artisan now is my lack of ‘professional’ experience, which sits mostly in the field of upholstery, another thing I plan to master down the road. Most successful stained glass artists today have had twice the years of experiences frosted with instruction rather than self-education. I, on the other hand, have entertained this art for myself alone, silently exploring its every potential to form something besides a cute kitty sun-catcher.
Where do I see myself in the future? Since defining myself within the name Glasshouse | Dollhouse, I know I will be in hot pursuit of being the next glass artisan. Not abandoning what else I have learned, Dollhouse will eventually cover the field of furniture and fashion rehabilitation and design.
Understand that the road that got me here was not affordable by any means. America told us that education was the only way for us to learn. Not true, Patron. I’ve learned well enough that a person who is passionate about something will pursue it, by any means possible, and I am telling you now, you will not meet many artists more passionate than I. You could take away every penny and I would still ignore the other bills to break more glass and manipulate fabric. I could sell many possessions in effort to monetarily appease you, but when the time comes that I can pay my own bills without ignorance, I will feel a deep loss for the things I had to give up for that one moment of peace. Lend me some karma and I’ll come back around, when business is alive and prosperous. Long live the artists.
Sincerely yours,
Sharron Jean
I have spent the past several years exploring my creative talents, but with few leading influences I found myself lost in scribbled out sketchbooks. I will admit, I began this search as a crafter, and distinctly knew this was not art. Anyone can be a crafter, but only artists know how to apply their vision.
My first step was sculpting clay. The second step was painting. The third, stained glass, is what caught my ultimate attention. My earlier works with this material were as similar to the work of a stained glass crafter as they’d ever again be. Flat panels and simple mosaics became technical studies rather than compositional ones. A few candle holders made their way as art; sculpting the glass into colorful forms soldered freely together. At the age of 16, stained glass was a creative outlet that was mine and mine alone, while I let my sister take the spotlight as a painter and illustrator.
The prospect of college brought on yet another pursuit, drafting and interior design. From the day I had my own bedroom, I’ve dressed and undressed enough spaces I could do it with the lights out. Discovering the ease at which I could convey something, anything, through perspective and mechanical drawings opened my eyes to it’s real-world potential. Naïve about the actual consequences of going to college and living off loans, I rushed myself to attend Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design for Interior Architecture and Design. I dropped my so-called hobby of stained glass for a drafting desk, pencils, and paper, which would never be worth anything more than a few points for the portfolio.
Not two years behind the desk and I was feeling the frustration. Entrapped behind construction-weight lines and vellum upon vellum, not to mention a clean-slate apartment, my creative visions were wearing thin. A call from Minneapolis turned me around, and the next thing I knew, I was designing furniture at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. This wasn’t so bad, I thought. I could still use my drafting and design skills, but on a more manageable scale. This was also an invitation to explore upholstery, which I studied not long after I picked up stained glass. Unfortunately, I was starting to see the financial burdens of being an unemployed student so I dropped out after one semester.
Leaving the classroom gave me the time I’d been craving to examine my creative skills once more. Unlike high school, where I was granted the freedom of creating anything out of anything, college taught me structure and reason. So my first project, a herringbone lampshade, examined stained glass as something that could imply dimension and form. I’ve seen artists manipulate materials beyond recognition to an amazing degree, but stained glass, as it seemed, was untouched. The opportunity to do something incredible and new was tempting and unavoidable. I have since practiced many new methods of approaching the art, to a point where I can only call it sculptural.
This insatiable desire to master the art of stained glass is burdened with debts to previous educational institutes and the small but hopeful market for stained glass artisans. I can’t help thinking back to the master artisan of Victorian times, Louis Comfort Tiffany. Son of the famous jeweler, Louis defied his fate to study color and play with glass. His story is an inspiration to mine, and I only hope that what I’ve yet to discover and reinvent within this art will be as revolutionary as what he achieved. The most difficult part of being a successful artisan now is my lack of ‘professional’ experience, which sits mostly in the field of upholstery, another thing I plan to master down the road. Most successful stained glass artists today have had twice the years of experiences frosted with instruction rather than self-education. I, on the other hand, have entertained this art for myself alone, silently exploring its every potential to form something besides a cute kitty sun-catcher.
Where do I see myself in the future? Since defining myself within the name Glasshouse | Dollhouse, I know I will be in hot pursuit of being the next glass artisan. Not abandoning what else I have learned, Dollhouse will eventually cover the field of furniture and fashion rehabilitation and design.
Understand that the road that got me here was not affordable by any means. America told us that education was the only way for us to learn. Not true, Patron. I’ve learned well enough that a person who is passionate about something will pursue it, by any means possible, and I am telling you now, you will not meet many artists more passionate than I. You could take away every penny and I would still ignore the other bills to break more glass and manipulate fabric. I could sell many possessions in effort to monetarily appease you, but when the time comes that I can pay my own bills without ignorance, I will feel a deep loss for the things I had to give up for that one moment of peace. Lend me some karma and I’ll come back around, when business is alive and prosperous. Long live the artists.
Sincerely yours,
Sharron Jean
Thursday, June 11, 2009
flower bomb
I don't know what to do with this 'flower bomb', I was trying to make it more spherical but it's having troubles doing that. I might continue on, though I've run right out of good pink glass. I mostly wanted to make another flower bouquet (like the Ikebana mirror) but construct it strictly out of flower shapes. Honestly, its turning out quite boring and I might just scrap it for something else. I just feel stupid because it's all lead-free solder and took a few days to work on. This was a month and a half ago though, so I feel like I have better things to do with my time now. Like re-upholstering these chairs:
Monday, March 9, 2009
Beautiful and Dirty Rich Yellow Vase
This project got a little out of words/ out of reason. Being that it's covered in chunks of broken glass, well, little should be expected. It began haphazardly; shapeless pieces fit wherever they could. The rawness of this was compensated later with swirls that would start to make sense of anything. Then a peachy little phrase was scribbled in, "Fuck you pay me", stuck at the foot of a pink-faced model hugging to the vase in her teetering stilettos. The Lady Gaga song, "Beautiful and Dirty Rich" took some free head space along with my favorite color, Yellow.
This is something of a self-portrait, sculpted from vibrant, broken glass with a touch of the unexpected.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
a few more projects.
Here's a few things I've got on the table this week. Also check my updated posts on the micro-suede and oil glass painting. I finished the suede couch a few minutes ago [till the next burn, anyway].
Probably the most exciting achievement yesterday was fixing Preludio. This lamp was first wired with a red pvc cord, which was SWEET, but that wouldn't support the weight so it needed a chain, which looked pretty tacky. As you can see in the pic, I have a decent collection of brass parts, so I was able to put this together. It's clean and shows off the lamp really well! All I need to do now is hang it up and wire it to the ceiling somewhere in this house [perhaps the stairwell..].
I picked up this green chair a couple weeks ago, I'll get around to re-covering it someday but I'll leave it for now. However, that skeleton of a chair by the window needs to happen soon, since I rushed to tear off it's skin [the day after I got it home].
This is a music box I'm polishing, big deal right? Well I also need to figure out how to fix the 1948 music box itself.. if anyone knows anything about fixing those let me know =).
And last but not least for today's post: the piano bench. I have a wonderful book on fabric manipulation, and one of the ideas that struck me was these circles. They actually fluted the gathered fabric of the inner circle, so they look like sea urchins! I didn't want to spend that much time on it though, but it's still all hand sewn. I like the way the composition is going, so probably a couple more twirls of aqua on the lower edge and I can be down with that!
Probably the most exciting achievement yesterday was fixing Preludio. This lamp was first wired with a red pvc cord, which was SWEET, but that wouldn't support the weight so it needed a chain, which looked pretty tacky. As you can see in the pic, I have a decent collection of brass parts, so I was able to put this together. It's clean and shows off the lamp really well! All I need to do now is hang it up and wire it to the ceiling somewhere in this house [perhaps the stairwell..].
I picked up this green chair a couple weeks ago, I'll get around to re-covering it someday but I'll leave it for now. However, that skeleton of a chair by the window needs to happen soon, since I rushed to tear off it's skin [the day after I got it home]. 
This is a music box I'm polishing, big deal right? Well I also need to figure out how to fix the 1948 music box itself.. if anyone knows anything about fixing those let me know =).
And last but not least for today's post: the piano bench. I have a wonderful book on fabric manipulation, and one of the ideas that struck me was these circles. They actually fluted the gathered fabric of the inner circle, so they look like sea urchins! I didn't want to spend that much time on it though, but it's still all hand sewn. I like the way the composition is going, so probably a couple more twirls of aqua on the lower edge and I can be down with that!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Oil painting on glass...?!
I've been painting on this greylite glass [the same I used for the discosphere]. It is composed of layers of scarves and images of glittering jewelry. I recently discovered that it looks much different under florescent light at night than during the day [I've been working with natural sunlight up till now]. Galen warned me that switching lighting can totally altar your technique so I think I'll take his advice, though it did show me things I wouldn't have caught before. I'm starting to use more of the oil thinners as well to make transparent layers.
The first image here was taken last night, showing the jump from stone skin yellow dress girl as well as how much more contrast there is between the glass. Painting on top of a mirror might have something to do with this whole thing too... Might be fun for a self portrait, incorporating background and foreground space as well...
The first image here was taken last night, showing the jump from stone skin yellow dress girl as well as how much more contrast there is between the glass. Painting on top of a mirror might have something to do with this whole thing too... Might be fun for a self portrait, incorporating background and foreground space as well...
Friday, February 6, 2009
How to fix burn holes in a micro-suede couch
A few months ago I was smoking the hookah while watching [probably house] and to coal took a dive. Everyone had to quickly comment about my careless move. Seriously, maybe it was an artistic decision to do that. Anyway, the cat I had in January pissed on the couch three times right before I got rid of her, so after cleaning the covers I decided it was prime time to get this done. The scale is sad, like, "huh... that's cool..." but, I'd rather someone compliment me on this than on the skillful burns that were there before. So next time I burn the couch, don't fret when I tell you don't worry about it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
