11/52 - Riveting Swirls

 

This challenge piece was made on a workshop I attended recently, Art Clay & Glass Cold Connection by Riveting taught by Erna Piechna-Sowersby. It was at Creative Glass in Rochester, UK. 

Erna had brought some beautiful sample pieces to get us inspired to start with. During the workshop she also found time to show us examples and photos of some of her other amazing work. She is very talented! :)

There were eight of us on the workshop and we were a mixed bunch! Most people had glass experience and none or not much Art Clay experience. For me it was the other way round. I've played with fusing glass but have never been on a workshop on it, so most of my knowledge (such as it is!) is gleaned from the internet, and I didn't really know anything about cold working glass. 

We all had a great time and there was a lot of fun and laughter. 

On the first day we each started off with two pre-fused blanks of iridescent glass. One was circular and the other roughly semicircular.

During the morning we learnt how to cold work the glass to shape and engrave it, and also how to add texture and colour using Color Line Enamels. In the afternoon we went on to using the Art Clay Silver to make silver elements to be attached by riveting. Overnight the glass was refired to fire polish it and the silver was fired.

So on the start of day two all our efforts were out of the kilns and waiting for us.

 These were my two pieces of glass. A bit strange I know, but I was more concerned with playing and learning techniques than what I actually made!! :)

During the second day we learnt how to correct any problems with the glass or silver pieces and how to connect the pieces with riveting!!! :) Hitting a piece made of glass with a hammer was a bit nerve wracking for me to start with!! We had a choice of brass or silver rivets, I really liked the contrast of the brass so I went with those.

We had worked on both sides of each piece of glass so I made this piece reversible.

I like the second side the best, it has some lovely colours in it. (I've also learnt iridescent glass is not easy to photograph!!).

My challenge piece only has silver on one side as I wanted to try both methods of riveting.

Everyone made amazing pieces, all of them had wonderful colours. I didn't manage to get a photo showing all the colours very well...still you get the idea! :)

You can tell we enjoyed ourselves!!!

Finally when I got home I decided to add a beaded necklace to the piece I liked the best. A bit of beading mayhem ensued...

...and I put together a mix of amethysts, carnelians, garnets, pearls and lampwork glass beads. I was quite pleased as it is only my second piece of beading :)

I'm looking forward to finding a bit of time during the year to play more with these techniques. 

Erna is a wonderful teacher and I thoroughly recommend this workshop if you get a chance to go on it!! :)

Have fun!

Joy x