For some time I’ve been toying with the idea of not attaching fruits onto branches in a natural way, but of including them in the piece in an abstract manner.  The first piece I am working on in this vein of thought is a tree trunk with acorns.

The piece started out as an idea and a quick sketch.  Since making the sketch a couple months ago, I have been contemplating various ways I might go about building the structure of the trunk, and how to include acorns in the piece. 

I settled on the idea of “drawing” the trunk in lines with dark glass rods, and including a knothole into which I can place the acorns.  

First I built about half the trunk, as if it’s cut in half vertically.  I love this process of “drawing” with the glass rods.  It’s a fun process – a discovery every time.  Although I have an idea in mind, the piece unfolds in the making as much through my interacting with and listening to the glass as through imposing my will upon it.  Each color brings its own life as well, which is part of the discovery. 

Next I made the knothole.  I need it small enough that it won’t dominate the piece, yet large enough that the acorns can be retrieved out of it, and the gaps in the knothole must be small enough to prevent the acorns from falling through.

Now comes the very difficult part:  attaching the knothole to the trunk and building the rest of the trunk.

The difficulty lies in the large number and the close proximity of connections being made.  The knothole must be connected onto the trunk in a number of spots in order to be secure.  Given that this is not a life-size piece, all these connections are in very close proximity to each other.  This situation is very challenging – as I heat one connection spot and meld it together, I can easily flash too much heat onto a neighboring area of the piece, inadvertently cracking it.  Given the nature of the type of glass I work with, it is too difficult to keep the entire piece hot in order to avoid that issue.  So, I must work patiently and calmly, working from connection spot to connection spot, gradually building the trunk over several days and repairing each inadvertent crack along the way.

At this point, I have most of the trunk complete, the knothole connected in, and a few unwanted cracks to repair before I can complete the trunk, finish the ends and add the leaves.  In this image, I have sandblasted the piece-in-progress.  This removes the shiny surface, enabling me to find the cracked spots.

When it is complete, I will post another entry to show the final piece.

A point is the basic building block of many flameworked glass pieces.  A point is a section of glass tube with stretched “handles” or points on each end.  One of the handles is open on the tip and used as a blow tube.  (The “handles” and the completed unit are both called points.)

This sketch illustrates the process of making a point, and photos of me making a point follow. 

First, the artist heats and softens the center of a glass tube while rotating it in the flame.  The tube is pulled apart to stretch the softened area into a long, thin section, which is then cut in half with the flame.  This leaves 2 halves of the tube, each with one “handle” or point.

Working with one half of the tube now, the tip is broken off with a tool to produce a hole.  This becomes the blowpipe into which the artist will later blow while making the desired object. 

The artist now heats the tube one to three inches away from the beginning of the first point, softening another area.  When soft enough, the tube is again pulled apart to create another long, thin section on the other side.  Again, this long, thin section is cut apart using the flame. 

A point has been created.  This point can now be made into the bowl or the foot of a wine goblet, a vase, cup, head or torso, a bird, balloon, clown, or in my case, a fruit or a set of leaves.

Pulling points is a basic and relatively easy task; however, pulling points well is a difficult skill to acquire!  In order to make a symmetrical, balanced goblet bowl or foot for example, the points must be completely symmetrical and balanced.  On a good day, 5% of my points are symmetrical and balanced.  Luckily, fruits and leaves do not require perfect points, so I have not had to perfect my point making. 

Here are two artists who have mastered the art of flameworking and who, on a good day, make 100% of their points perfectly symmetrical and balanced, then go on to make extraordinary, elegant pieces out of them. 

Cesare Toffolo   http://www.toffolo.com/gallery/

Roger Parramore   http://rogerparramore.com/indexhp.html

One of the most pleasurable types of work I do is designing and creating art for a specific person, couple or business.  Drawing from my prior career experiences in organizational development, educational design and management, coaching and leading teams, and my over 20 years studying philosophy, I have developed the skills of listening to people and discerning what has meaning for them, what brings deepest satisfaction to their lives, and then designing works of art that will signify and represent that meaning and satisfaction. 

Given that my clients are not all local, I have developed a process of working with long-distance clients to design and create such works of art.  Here is the story of one of these art works.

Dawn Repola and Dan Hancock of Littleton, Colorado, asked for a special work of art to celebrate and signify their appreciation of each other and their years of marriage together.  Through my design process we decided the piece would reference one of Dawn and Dan’s favorite activities – cooking together.  Southwestern fare is their favorite.  They grow tomatoes and peppers in their garden so their culinary creations are fresh with just-off-the-vine vegetables.  Growing the vegetables, experimenting with different types of tomatoes and peppers each year, discovering new recipes, and cooking together is one of the activities and rhythms of life that strengthen Dawn and Dan’s marriage and friendship.  We decided the artwork would include tomatoes and peppers to celebrate this aspect of the life they have built together.

Once we settled on this general idea, I went to work on the design of the artwork.  Working with yarn and colored paper, I sketched the layout of the piece on my big table.  This enabled me to “see” the piece in actual scale and to know how many of each type of tomato, pepper and leaf I would need.  Throughout this process, I emailed Dawn and Dan photos of the work in progress so they could be involved in its creation.

Dawn and Dan’s home is decorated in burgundy, teal and sienna, and their other works of art are equally as rich in color.  Their art piece would need to be robust in color and form to stand up within this colorful environment.  I researched tomatoes and peppers online.  I spent a good deal of time experimenting with various combinations and layers of colored glass to achieve a variety of reds from the deep wine reds of heirlooms to the sunny orange-reds of the jubilees. 

Slowly but surely, glass tomatoes, peppers and leaves replaced their paper stand-ins on the table.  Metal vines replaced the yarn.  I made glass vine sections and built clusters of the tomatoes and peppers that would hang on the metal vines. 

Eventually all the parts were complete and the piece ready to ship.  I traveled to Colorado to install it with Dawn and Dan.  I thoroughly enjoyed the delight of Dawn and Dan discovering their piece, cluster by cluster as we unpacked and installed. 

 

 

I titled the piece Picante (definition:  prepared so as to be very hot and spicy) in reference to the zest Dawn and Dan bring to their life together.  Picante now resides in their living room, celebrating Dawn and Dan’s marriage and partnership and it’s continued growth.