Recycled Glass Artists

I am so pleased I have been accepted in  the Recycled Glass Book.   Cindy Coldiron the  from  USA is writing a book on glass artists using recycled glass... the book is being published by Schiffer books they publish about 250 art related books annually... it is expect to be available by the summer of 2011 ...

Cindy sent out an international call to artists to submit their best professional and original images of their recycled glass sculpture. I am very please to have been accepted in to this group of world renowned artists... I have been accepted in the craft section of the book. My blue cast boxes, one, a solo shot and the other of multi boxes... below are two photo that have been accepted....

Jack and Ball out of the kiln no cold work has been done yet each piece is approx. 6 inches... so too big to use that's for sure

I am so pleased to be finally getting some results that I am hopeful with.

the fluted end is to be cut off in the next few days ... that is where the glass pours in from a reservoir above the casting

still working on my jacks and ball the repaired jack and the new jack and a new ball the ball did not have enough glass so it has a flat bottom which I am okay with from a safe exhibit point of view... I am happy with the shine/gloss of the ball and the new jack... much work to go to get them where I want but I am excited about the progress on the second firing... here is a couple of pics after 9-10 days in the kiln ...

Jack and Ball take two

sorry for the picture quality of these shots I just don't seem to have the patience for the camera lately....

my mended jack getting ready to refire now that I have put a new end with ball on it... I used my tile saw to cut off the offending end and to match the size to the new end...you can see the seam repaired with lard and beeswax...called bondo .... I used the "bondo" to smooth out some divots and rough spots too... I put it in the freezer for a couple of hours before making a container to remold the jack and recast..

into the bucket using the lid for the base sculptors clay is the blue stuff I need to balance the jack on skewer sticks soak in veg. oil and cut to the right lengths...I will be able to dig out the sculptors clay and then pull out the skewers after the plaster has set. I did not want to use any other wax as I don't need to steam anything out... I am going to do a burn out of the bondo. I will add a small amount of glass to the reservoir to help the glass move.

this is my prototype with a styrofoam ball and cone for a sprue then dipped in wax and then I made a plaster/silica mold ...dissolved the styrofoam with acetate and steamed out the wax. It worked nicely, now to attempt it in the size I want for the jack ...
the larger styrofoam ball worked out well a lot easier than the first attempt with the beach ball...

the first try with my jack went fairly well but one ballend did not fil...l so I need to make a ball end and recast the whole jack

here is the wax covered 6' Styrofoam ball and sprue in the right size you can also see some of my wax jacks in the picture

Jack and Ball

The jack and ball are inside the plaster molds that are then in very tall terracotta pots with sand in the bottom just in case the molds don't hold and there is a glass flowing accident. the s96 nuggets are placed on top of the molds in another terracotta pot to melt and flow through the sprue to the void in the mold... the large chunk of glass you can see in the smaller pot is a 3 lb glass plug I made to slow the flow of glass allowing the inside of the molds to heat up closer to the temp of the flowing glass .

top pot is the ball mold with 16 lbs of glass in the reservoir... also notice the wire reinforcement at the top of the mold the wire is wrapped around the mold about 1/2 inside the plaster.

bottom pot is the jack with 5 lbs of glass all crystal clear s96 nuggets. the jack had 5-6 layers of brush on plaster/silica then I poured the plaster/silica with sand added to give it strength ... it worked out nicely... I think the result was very smooth because of the brush application.

demolding the jack the glass reservoir is at the bottom of the picture.

jack and ball had lots of fissures and the jack is missing a ball on the end where the reservoir is (at the back of the jack )

lots of fissures and dimples on the ball

I am going to remake the ball and add colour to it and repair the jack ...stay tuned...

well I fired the jack and ball in my casting kiln the one I built last summer from a free potters kiln.... 3 zone 36" around x 36"deep. It was perfect size for this project.. I had made the plaster molds before a month vacation and was surprised how wet they were when we came home.... anyway after 10 days in the kiln I took them out yesterday ... for me this has been a very difficult project which I find stimulating for sure. the ball is whole but lumpy from vents pushing against the beach ball pattern... it is too large in scale for the jack ... I also think the ball would look better with colour added to the s96 nuggets I used... I thought about this before but I really wanted to look at 15 lbs or so of clear glass and see how it looked.

I am going to try a different technique for the ball pattern this time I am going to cover a Styrofoam ball with multiple layers of wax and then make a plaster/silica mold . I will "melt" out the Styrofoam with paint thinner and then steam out the wax....I would like to make the ball the rubber red I remember from childhood not sure of the yet. I am making a 6" ball this time so we will see how it looks ...


the jack turned out better than I expected but again far from perfect....after doing some more cold work= cutting, grinding, polishing I will need to fix some of the errors with wax remold it in plaster/silica and then fire it again.

Jack and Ball

Jack and Ball 2009-2010

hello from Mexico Feb. 3 2009

I have been working on making a glass Jack and Ball (like the child's game Jacks) since June 2009 ... I have wanted to make a glass Jack for many years. There has been a big learning curve on this project for me.... I am using the lost wax method for this sculpture... I made a rubber silicon type (RTV) two part mold from my metal "jack" which I have had for years it is in the metal sculpture I made in University in 1998. there is a photo of that sculpture by our fish pond in the top right of my blogs' opening page..The Jack and Ball are approx. 6"

I made many wax patterns from my RTV mold as each failure taught me about the flow of the wax ( or lack of flow) and trapped air preventing the the wax to flow to the extremities ....I drilled many air vents into my RTV mold and making slow progress to a fully complete wax pattern on my jack. Which also helped me understand the problems I may have getting glass to flow into these areas... Then to get my wax jack into the air with vents, sprues and a reservoir for the glass to sit in... the vents allow air a way out and the glass a way in... It had to be stable enough to to withstand the pressure of 35 lbs of plaster being poured into the bucket. It was a huge challenge to get even this far.. the plaster mold is made.... the wax has been steamed out and the mold is drying while I vacation with my husband in Mexico for a month yeah!!




cloclose up of the upside down reservoir ( looks like a cone) attached to the jack ( the round ball)


this is a top view of the jack with many sprues and vents I used wax for the sprue/vents and toothpicks for air vents only.

full view

The Ball

I finally decided after a few false starts that the best way to get a nice smooth round sphere was to use a beach ball deflate the ball to the size I needed ...I added vents to the ball and poured the mold when it set up I popped the ball and removed it.

the ball with many bamboo chopsticks used as vents and wire to hold them in place and strengthen the mold as it's going to have a lot of pressure on it with glass wanting to escape...

When I get home the challenge will be to try and get the mold interior hot enough before the glass flows... then heat up the glass nice and juicy hoping to reach all the extremities in the jack and remove bubbles from both the jack and the ball... I want to fire both molds at the same time. The ball will be 13 lbs of solid glass that will take a long time to cool slowly so that the center of the ball is the same temp. as the outside edge for this reason I think it will be in the kiln at least 2 weeks to one month.... stay tuned when I get back in at the end of Feb. I will be learning more I am sure... peace Janet