Real life Inspires RUNNING man glass murrini

I joined the Watch Me Create team Blog to share inspiration, and to help myself. It is very important that I take time to be objective about my work. The team blog helps me do that.

Lately, I am tired, overworked, and my muse is not always around these days. (EVERY Artist goes through this more than one time!)

As I start another side job creating Autocad drawings for a family Institutional casework business, while I still raise two kids, and manage my art, do laundry, save money for shows (bead shows, and music shows), and all the other real life stuff I have to take care of (I am sure many can relate to the chaos!) ….

This is what I have created, the “running man” murrini. This is my third attempt, and I am happy with the result. (I also created a walkng man that you can see at my personal blog.)

I am always in a hurry, and this bead (believe it or not) has encouraged me to slow down.

I combined some reactive Kronos glass with cobalt, and applied the murrini in a patchwork looking fashon.

I am looking forward to attending the bead and button show in Milwakee and I am excited to see the response these beads get. When I return I will let you know what happens. Will I sell enough to keep keepin’ on? Or, will this journey slow down for a while; while I side job, and work on my Sculptures?? Hm….

Intricate murrini Love me, Love me not

She loves me, she loves me not…she loves me, she loves me not…”This bead is made with Soft glass. Because this glass melts at a low temperature, the metals do not burn out much. Which is good because, I can create beads that look like impressioistic landscape paintings.

I am absolutley fascinated with the fact that I can weld little paintings. I mix most of my landscape colors myself. The colors are mixed, and pull into rods of glass that are 3mm round x 12″ to 18″ long. Those rods are taken and welded together to create a landscape scene. The prep work for this piece included mixing the colors, creating the rods, building a millefiori/murrini petal, (those flower petals were made using millefiori building techniques I learned from Loren Stump.

When the millefiori are cut into pieces, they are called “murrini”.) I cut the murrini pieces, and polished the murrini before I build the bead. Every step of this process is fascinating, and I am proud to be able to pull these things off with confidence. It took many hours of practice.

After I weld the landscape, I apply the petal murrini one at a time. I weld on the figure, sculpt it like it is clay, and polish the entire piece, before I place it in the kiln to be annealed.The subject of this piece is similar to the process. You never really know what you’ll get in the end, the whole time you are thinking about it. Not until everything is said and done. Such is life. The fear of the unknown. Life is funny like that. We wish it was that easy. Pick up a flower and pull off the petals; play heads or tails, kind of like Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

Now that I am dependent on my sales, it is rare that I hold on to any of my work. This one is On ebay. Honestly, if I did not have bills, I would keep this one for myself. I will try another…judging from experience, I am sure it will be a one of a kind. No two are the same. That is one of my favorite parts. Really, with glass, all of it is inspiring. I have said it before, and I will say it again; you can say it with me; “I am SO, in Love with glass.” (whether it loves me or not

Not a Kitsch Halloween Witch

Kitsch and I have this Love hate relationship. Being an artists that has a tendency to “illustrate” ideas often, I worry about getting too kitsch. It is important to me that my work be soulful and unique. Working in this small bead scale, I cannot help but be reminded of all of the paranoid Fine arts students, that would never want their art to be referred to as kitsch.

Coming from a background in ceramics, in the 90’s; kitsch was a subject discussed often. (Clay is the other material, besides glass, that was traditionally used as function, and now is used to create art.) Those cute little roosters, and angels you can buy at the dollar store, mass produced in China, made of clay or resin. That is Kitsch.

Being a Fine arts student, I naturally acquired this bias. I was against kitsch, and it bothered me that I was against it. I am not sure I agree with being against any type of art. I have tried hard to repel my hate for kitsch. They tried to train me to think kitsch is cheap. It seamed that way.

So, here I am making a bead for a halloween contest, and all I can think about is not being kitsch. Holiday art, to me, is kitsch (remember, art is subjective). I think creating biases is just limiting me. I think, my Love for the philosophy of the arts, can be overwhelming sometimes, and keeps me from getting things done. Or, to be blunt; Sometimes, I think too much.

This is my Witch. I named her “The Kitch Witch”. She is in a halloween contest at Flametree glass. She resembles many, but is a one of a kind, made with soft glass. Just under 4″ tall, after murrini and color mixing, she took about 4 to 6 hours. Two marbles are made, one with an eye murrini of mine, and one with an eye ball. She was heavy, fell off the mandrel and had to be finished on a punty. She is a bead, she has a hole that runs vertical with her body. I think she will be displayed as a work of art at Flame tree Glass.

She really does not look Kitsch to me. That is another thing, I LOVE about glass made with canes. Everything has a one of a kind look. The metals in the glass react different every time. Nope, not kitsch, whew!

Happy Halloween!

Sheila Morley’s Art blog is about her works in progress, and her life as an Artist.. Sheila’s art work is currently documented in an on line gallery, and can be purchased at her website, e-bay, and she has a new shop at Etsy.

Hot and Cold Worked Glass: Works in Progress.

Lapidary work is a process that does take some time. This picture is showing you many pieces in progress. Two geode beads that are half way polished, one that has not been cut, and a pile of butterfly murrini parts for a paper weight.

I work with three glass types (most of which are soft glass); COE104 Moretti, Vetrofond, and Color is Messy (CIM). I work with schott crystal (clear) which is a slightly higher COE (with stronger magnification than COE 104), and I work with borosilicate (pyrex, hard glass; not shown here). I enjoy the different effects.

The soft glasses have many color options. Due to the low melting point, most of the colors come out with little burning or de-vitrification (Crystals form on the surface of the bead, appearing textured or pitted.) Having studied glass recipes and clay for a few years in college, I am able to determine what metals (mostly oxides) create what colors, at what temperatures and environments. I do not have it all memorized, I did keep really good notes.

This information has become very useful to me. By seeing the color, I can guess what metal it would be in the glass. The healing properties I am looking for will determine what metal I use. In this case, copper is in my work. You can read about the mental and physical healing properties of copper or Google, “copper healing properties”. (many sites exist on the subject). I will tell more when I show you my finished work.

The schott crystal glass is very soft, and very clear when it is polished. I mostly use it for encasing. Except here; See all of those little tiny crystals in my hand? That is schott crystal, peeled, and pulled into a rod of glass, cut, and then ground down, and made into crystals shaped on a flat lap. (I am very excited to make my own crystals). I will be polishing those up very soon. They will be crystal clear.

For years people have believed in the powers of rocks, crystals, and different minerals. I have heard about it all my life. As I study more, I have learned that, every religion or culture known to man has used crystals and stones symbolically or decorativley. That fascinates me. It makes me think that a Universal asthetic is taking place.

The more I learn, the more inspired I am becoming. The best part is; every time I melt glass, essentially, I am making earth energy. This gives me an enlightened feeling.

All of these parts will be polished on the flat lap, and cleaned very well. I then re-enter the pieces into the flame, putting them together, to finally apply a relief style soul gesture with emotion.

For additional information please see Sheila Morley’s Art blog. Sheila’s art work is currently documented in an on line gallery, and can be purchased at her website, e-bay, and she has a new shop at Etsy.

My Muse is inspired by a class…

Hold on! Everything shifts! Inspiration over load. In my last blog I was all about lily murrini and where I was going with that. Now, that is evolving. I will still be making murrini, I will be working on another series as well.

I recently had the opportunity to study cold working borosilicate with Andrew Brown. Andrew is a master at hot and cold working borosilicate glass (Pyrex). Not only did we work on cold working boro, we also concentrated on layering glass, creating implosions, pulling points, blowing glass, stretching glass, encasing opals, polishing my moretti (soft glass) murrini; and the list goes on. Harold Williams Cooney was the teacher assistant; that was a very useful perk. His work is made with borosilicate and much of it is cold worked. He creates many pieces that appear to be found in nature, and he makes glass rings that are beautiful and unique. Hanging out with these two; a fascinating experience that will have a rather large affect on my work.

First of all; I think I am falling in love with borosilicate glass. Although I am excited to try the cold working techniques with the soft glass (which I usually work with), I am also excited to try sculptural forms with borosilicate (pyrex).

Boro implosions inspire me to think about what is inside the glass too; not just what is on the outside. I can see my work borrowing this idea.

Andrew’s fascination with organic forms is inspiring me. He is able to create forms that strongly resemble natures geodes and crystals. His work encourages thoughts of the energies that come from those organic stones. These references open a new vocabulary for my work.

My goal is to combine the implosion organic look, with the figurative relief style I have been practicing (and murrini). The end result is to be a piece that holds so much personal meaning to the owner, that it would provide a feeling of comfort and security in today’s world. It seems the emphasis in the American society is really on making money to survive, and less on, being true to your instincts to celebrate the passions that we have.

I see myself practicing the techniques these two have taught me, and combining them with my figures. I would like to copper plate crystals and energy stones to the pieces. I am obviously borrowing some ideas from these two men. I think that is okay. For a while, my work may resemble some of the work they do; eventually it will evolve into where my muse takes it. In this time; they will get credit for being the inspiration. And if I choose to sell anything that resembles the work they do. My price will not be any lower than what they would ask. I think that is an important note. I actually hope my work inspires people to look more at the work they do.

(An objective note about “borrowing” ideas from others; Since borrowing ideas is a huge part of the post modern movement; I will celebrate that. Freedom to create! Especially since we are now leaving post modern times and creating a new art with GLASS!)

Imagining a big fat crystal above that woman on the geode; Strong piece in my imagination.

Being inspired by the hip people in this world, Yoga, and native American traditions…this is a really exciting beginning to something….

we shall see…

For additional information please see Sheila Morley’s Art blog. Sheila’s art work is currently documented in an on line gallery, and can be purchased at her website