2nd year

The cherubs came out way better than I thought they would! Proper chuffed! :D

Started new module today, Professional Practice with Pat Dillon. Should help me progress.

Jelly baby at 360 degrees.

Jelly baby is in the kiln cooling down at a ridiculously slow rate! Initial cooling after annealing is 0.3 of a degree per hour. That’s insane! Two weeks before he comes out of the kiln! I can’t wait! Not that I will be able to lift him…

Did some sandcasting today, partially to attempt making a medal (as my last attempt looked so naff!) and partially to make some glass cherubs to incorporate in to the Georgian-based ornamentation I plan to make in the hotshop. I think they look a tad creepy.

Uni just got a decal-printer! I was trying to find somewhere affordable to get some decals made but everywhere I could find wanted a minimum order of £50. I am not that rich (understatement) so once they get the balance of ingredients right I am so going to have a play with that!

Think I worried my tutors today by telling them that I had changed the direction of my project again. They said I need to do a ton of development quite quickly now. I can do that once I get my damn images printed, con’t afford to do it at uni so I’m going to ask my dad to print them off at work soon. Then it’s development ahoy!

Still excited! :-D

Got a commission to make 8 Glass trophies for a company called The Institute of Directors. So hopefully will get a little money from that, they want them by March. Super-fast making will have to be done.

Had a play in the hotshop today to get back in to it. :D Made a couple of prototypes for the trophies. I used bicarbonate of soda in one and I have decided I dont like using it! It makes loads of little bubbles in the glass which make it quite hard to shape. It took me ages!

Had an attempt at a glass medal for another competition but that failed horribly! I will have another go tomorrow after I put my jelly baby in the kiln, been waiting for the kiln technician to come back from hollidays.

I have a job! A part-time job at a glass blowing business called Okra, http://www.okraglass.com/ who are based in Stourbridge which is about an hours drive from where I live. Its a bit of a tiring journey but its worth the valuable making experience.

I am getting back enthusiasm for life and art again (yay, new tablets!) and I have decided to completely change the direction I was heading in with my work. Well lets face it I didn’t really have a direction.

Now I intend to title my project ‘The Oppulent English’ and look at the decor of English manor houses primarily in the Georgean period with maybe a little early Victorian thrown in aswell. This could take me anywhere.

I may or may not work on a series of vessels aiming to capture the spirit of the era.

I have it in my head to make a lavishly draped four-poster vase at the moment… It may or may not happen but I hope it happens!