The next masterpiece started. An onyx frog as a center and some green glycerined
needles. We went on a hike around the loop with Judy before we left for Las
Vegas for the Glass expo. Here she is in a field of wildflowers. We drove to
Vegas at the beginning of the wind storm.
John and I drove to Las Vegas so I could attend the Glass Craft and Bead expo.
There was a tremedous wind and dust storm, up to 50 mph gusts. We could not see
much of anything from the hotel window. People in the elevator who did drive
through it told of broken windshieds and a blown over semi. I took a class Thurs
evening till 930 Pm with Cheryl Frech on use of satin shimmers, sepia and
dichroic slides (decals). Here is Cheryl doing a demo and the before and after
of my class projects. I got up before dawn the next day to take another class.
The dust storm went away, but there was still wind. Here is the view of Red Rock
canyon to the west from our hotel room. Since classes started at 8 am I got a
room at the casino where the expo is.
On Fri I took a class called Learn half –tone and dithered processes for glass
from Liz Haas. We learned how to turn photos into sand blasting stencils and
how to sand blast them onto glass. Here is Liz in the dress and boots working
with us on sand blasting our pieces. I had seirous blaster envy over these
units,- I could pick one up as a show special for only around $5,700. My piece
at the top after I blasted it with the stencil still on it and in the middle
after I painted it and removed the stencil. It looks better with the light
shining through it. The bottom one is the piece Jill who sat next to me made.
Great class. I spent the afternoon at the exhibit hall and viewed new products
and sales. The photo shows the exhibit hall over the Gallery of Excellence. The
pieces shown in this photo were made by high school students. The lower pieces
were made by a professional –Eli Mazet in the blown and flame worked
catagory. I only bought a few things at the show. . .
Bob was helping us make spiral pendants in the Cress Kiln booth. They heated up
strips of glass piled up and at 1400 degrees dropped the bottom of the kiln down
and we grabbed them with pliers and rolled them up. I love these kilns too. I
got this pendant free if I made another for someone else. Also at the casino
was a western horse show in three indoor arenas and a bowling tournament. By
the bowling allies was a few exhibits from the International Bowling Museum.
There is a photo of a mummy wrapped with a bowling ball and the history of
bowling shoes. It was an interesting mix of people, glass artists, cowboys and
bowlers plus the gamblers.
Here are some of the beads I bought for baskets. I love the little glass animal
beads, cats, dogs, turtles and giraffs. I also bought some dichro on sale and a
sheet of decal paper for cutting my own decals. I got this Kiss my Glass shirt
free from a booth just by looking up the facebook page for Glass Campus and
telling them their logo and while I was there I joined their group.
On Saturday I took an 8 hour class called the BlueBird of Happiness from Peter
McGrain. We learned the Vitri-Fusaille Technique. Here is Peter helping one of
the students with her piece. These are two glass paintings that Peter did that
were showing at the Wissmach glass booth at the show. The second one is bigger
but was not lit as well. It is called Party Animals.
The class lined up at our kilns programing them and Peter in the background
instructing us. My master piece looked like this. The first photo is the cut
glass pieces before firing. The next is it red hot in the kiln. The next one is
after the third firing. I traced in black around it, fired it and the next
step was to add the shadows and fire it again. The last photo is with the
highlight layer painted on. It needs to be fired and I was not going to be
around the next day to pick it up after it was fired overnight, so I took it
home and will fire it when I make it back to my kiln in Colorado. It was a
really fun class. I am looking forward to getting into my studio and working on
all these new things I learned.
Flowers on the loop trail above Shoshone. The frog basket is progressing.
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