On Monday I started blogging about my bullseye trip, so today’s blog is going to talk about the techniques we used in the workshop.
Our class was a special class created for bullseye glass distributors students “Explore Bullseye Workshop”. Our class was with Tanya Viet because we are all students of Tanya. She put out a call about a year or so ago and we all jumped at the chance to come to bullseye with Tanya. There were 10 of us all totaled including Tanya and Dana. It was unique kilnformed glass printing techniques including: Relief Print Kilncasting, Powder Printing, and Enamel Printing. Our instructor Louise Krampien (a fabulous glass/print artist) and Bonnie (her TA), (instructors in the Research & Education Department at Bullseye).
The Relief Print Kilncasting was something I had never done before and it had various steps to it. We got to carve a design then build a mold around the design. After the mold was ready we added the glass and fired it. Because the glass and mold were very thick it took a couple of days to fire. After it was finished we broke it out of the mold, coldworked it with the flatlap, diamond pads, and then sandblasted it. After all that we added some enamel and will fire it again. I enjoyed the carving but I didn’t necessarily like losing the mold, albeit I understand the reasoning.
We also did a couple of different powder printing pieces. I really enjoyed this technique and have done it a couple of different times and even have a couple of screens at home. That being said, Louise is a wonderful print artist and taking the class from her definitely increased my confidence and ability in using this technique. It was also good to create the screens again. I so wish I had a light table so I could burn my own screens.
The last technique we did was enamel printing. This is the first time I have done the enamel printing and it’s not as easy as powder printing but the pieces are so vibrant and beautiful it’s difficult not to love this technique. Again Louise really knows her glass printing and made it pretty easy for all of us. Made me really want to learn Photoshop much better than I do.
All of these techniques are for the advanced fused glass student. They also take a lot of time to prepare and complete these fused glass pieces, but I think they are so worth it. They open up a world of possibilities.
Louise also provided us with great handouts so we can continue to use the techniques. She also showed us other artists that use these techniques. Again, endless possibilities.
My next bullseye blog will be the highlight of my entire bullseye trip.
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Keeping my Kilns warm,
Karen
