http://www.catherinecheek.com artblog and writing resume Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:10:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The paperweight class I'd signed up for at the Mesa Art Center, though cancelled three times in a row, went off fine the fourth time I registered for it, and I was able to make three paperweights.  We were having trouble with the crucible kiln not clicking shut properly, and ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/27/hodge-podge-paperweight-2/ This was one of the cups I threw with my share of the batch of porcelain that some of our classmates mixed up.  I had some of Kurt Weiser's cobalt underglaze that Bridget Harper (my ceramics teacher and friend) cadged for me.  I've done underglaze or stain on porcelain many, ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/24/florentine-cobalt-porcelain-cup/ This was one of a series I made from my share of the batch of porcelain we mixed up.  I tend to throw 1/4 of an inch walls on my pottery, and I've gotten out of the habit of trimming down to 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch walls, which ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/21/green-celadon-cup/ I made this using the porcelain that Bridget Harper formulated for us.  One thing that I discovered about this clay is that it does not like to be thick. I made a set of twelve small trays like this (only smaller) using the same technique (slab rolled, then formed inside ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/18/fish-tray/ Here's another thing that people do when they make fused glass pieces; they make slumped bowls and trays.  I had less enthusiasm for this, because I'm a potter, and pottery makes functional, sturdy, dishwasher-safe pieces that don't cost $60 in raw materials. There's a flaw in one of the bands because ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/15/latticework-tray/ This is what most people do with dichroic glass; they cut pieces and assemble them onto a plain background, then cap them to make pretty doohickeys. I've seen a lot of jewelry like this. In fact, almost all glass jewelry looks something like this.   I admit, it's amazingly pretty, ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/12/dichroic-keychains/ Here's what I found about the iridescent glass.  When you put dichro on top of it and fuse it, it doesn't fuse completely because of the iridescence. This worked in that I was able to put masking tape over it and feel where the outline of the body and thorax ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/09/last-beetles-2/ So now I figured out that you have to fuse the dichro to the background glass before you cap it.  Here's what I also found--when you have iridescent glass in the background, the dichro doesn't fuse completely flat. That means that even when you fuse it before capping it, you ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/06/last-beetles/ These are more of my dichroic beetles, which I also fused before I realized that they would have blisters of trapped air in them.  Some of them have iridescent glass as a background, which does weird things to the glass on top of it. I'll explain more in the next ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/03/new-and-improved-beetles/ I liked my other beetles, but they really needed dichroic class. Dichroic glass looks like beetle's wings, one of the most beautiful things in nature, and I had to combine them. First, I made the legs by cutting masking tape, lifting the positive, spraying with hairspray, and dusting it with mica ... http://www.catherinecheek.com/2010/07/01/new-beetles/