Don's Present - the Vortex

Oct 1st:  Don got a present today.  It is a new glass "thing" that I made last week.  In the summer time, most people dump tomatoes and zucchini on their poor friends ad nauseam, but in my case my poor friends have to suffer through piles of glass "creations" that they may or may not appreciate!  Some have told me politely that there is no more room in their houses for my glass works!!!  :)  Luckily for me, Don liked this and wanted it, so now one more piece of glass has a good home.

I think this turned out to be very cool, even if I should say so myself!!! :) 

Stephanie named it "Vortex"
Too bad the photo has shadows

What I like about it is...

1. The concentric lines are very, very tight - almost mesmerizing.  Those lines give it a "tree trunk" look,
2. The details are very fine
3. The touch of black that I gave it pooled in certain spots and did not disperse evenly across the whole plate
4. There is a different look and feel when the light comes through it (transparent) vs when the light reflects off it (opaque)
5. Can you tell I really, really like how this turned out????  :)

 

Close up of the line detail

How I made it:
This technique is called a Pot Melt.

Step 1
Got a 6" terra cotta pot from Home Depot

Step 2
Cut glass in to small pieces and filled the pot.  2/3 clear glass, 1/6 transparent orange, 1/6 transparent red.  5 tiny pieces of opaque black, 2 tiny pieces of opaque white dispersed throughout the pot.

Step 3
The glass studio fired the pot until the glass melted and dripped like honey through the hole at the bottom of the pot, on to a kiln shelf.  It creates a big "splat" of glass on the shelf.  This is the "piece of art" in its raw form.

Step 4
I sandblasted the front and the back to clear out impurities and irregularities.  Then I washed with soap and water, and dried and cleaned up again with pressurized air to blow away any lingering sand particles.

Step 5
It was then set on a kiln shelf and re-fired at 1500F to smooth out any remaining roughness.



Pot melt photo fom Steph