Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: Frank on October 06, 2010, 04:57:43 PM
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Two weights made by Mike Hunter in his well attended demo at the conference may be offered in the near future... and I am also sure we will get some good pics of the demo up soon too.
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First of all I would like to congratulate Frank on this event. With the help of Shiona Airlie and the helpful people at the Edinburgh College of Art a great event was realised - with many interesting lectures and several demonstrations at the ECA glass studio.
In his first demo Mike produced two paperweights, the first being a millefiori closepack. Here is a selection of images from this demo - in two parts, as only 4 images per post are allowed.
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... continued ...
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Mike then used the left over glass from the first weight for a second one, by "painting" stems and leaves on the surface with thin green rods; in a second step millefiori canes were added as flowers.
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... continued ...
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:clap:
Your pictures are far better than mine, Wuff (it was lovely to meet you there :-* )
Mike moved every time I hit the button (so did Alistair Macintosh), so my pictures were all taken late - the irritating thing about digital cameras is they're only good for stills!
I eventually gave up ::) because I was missing seeing what was happening.
What I didn't miss, was noticing that when he got his kitchen chopper out on it, and started dividing the two weights in the middle of the bundle of canes, THAT was when the dome-shape of the cane pack appeared in the clear crystal he'd put over them.
He then trimmed the residue of the canes in the clear glass off, leaving himself with just the blue glass on the punty ready to make the next weight.
Given he'd pulled all the stops out to put the best possible mix of unusual canes into the close-pack, I couldn't help thinking the bit he'd trimmed off should have gone into the annealling oven - I'm sure somebody would have loved it as an oddity!
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And his assistant is Mrs Sue Hunter. This was a good example of thinking on your feet, as Mike had planned something completely different but the big torch thingy (not sure what the fuel was) he was planning to use decided that it wasn't working at weekends. The blue bit wasn't supposed to be left over! The glass is full lead crystal. I'll see if I have anything worth adding later.
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Sorry, if my wording was not quite clear: the blue glass was "left over" from the first weight - not to be thrown away, it was planned to be used for a second one (fortunately a replacement torch was organised, when the planned equipment wouldn't work).
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I understood that the first weight was to use the blue glass and the closepack and that he had to change what he was doing almost completely, or am I confused (as usual)?
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Well - to me it looked he did what he had planned to (apart from the change in equipment): the green rods and millefiori for the flowers (already brought to temperature in the annealing oven) didn't just "happen to be around" - this type of weight for the second part of the demo seems to have been planned.
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Perhaps what he changed was the order of doing things.
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THe first torch he had was oxygen - which was running out. That was when he thought he might have to change plans for the blue surface-decorated weight.
He normally uses oxy-acetylene.
The original plan was to make the two weights, the clear crystal close-pack and the blue surface decorated.
I think they've found that it's a practical and economical method to do two weights at one time - it certainly was for the purposes of this demonstration because he wasn't using the glass from the pot, but his own crystal and things which were kept in a second annealling oven - perhaps with the temperature set for his needs there on the day.
When the second torch was produced, he was able to continue with the original plan.
Wuff has very kindly written to me privately, to point out my error in thinking that interesting bits of the canes might have been left behind in the bit of the clear crystal glass which was chopped off. :-[ :-[ :-[
The actual canes had been "squeezed" into the dome - the outer ring of white-surrounded canes were slightly longer than the others - it would only have been a few squished bits of them.
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Here is another image of the canes set up - showing clearer that the outer white canes are much longer, to form a sort of basket in the final weight, with the complex canes completely within the closepack weight.
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Planning such demos takes a lot of work and especially when a particular type of glass is needed and particular temperatures. It is a caveat in the cap for Edinburgh College of Art that they were able to accommodate the needs of two different glassmakers in quick succession on the Saturday and a third on the Monday. Not to mention a split screen presentation and live video of an engraving demo on the Sunday.
ECA technicians prepared everything in advance and everything ran smoothly, including me between the three widely separated lecture rooms 50 or 60 times on the Saturday.
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We were all well impressed with the smoothness of things. I was just trying to work out if Mike was using Plan A or Plan B
Heating the cane setup for the close pack (a mix of Mike and Aaron Hunter canes, plus a mixed Mike and Aaron cane)
Most of my other bits are video
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Mike Hunter also gave a second demonstration: making a small vessel using the Pastorale pick-up technique. I have posted a selection of images in the glass section (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,36642.0.html).
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I have really enjoyed the photos and all the comments/observations, etc. Thank you all for taking the time to share your experiences at what must have been an amazing conference.
In appreciation ..... Lily :hiclp:
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Both of these weights and one donated by Peter Holmes that was the last of the edition of 32 Paul Ysart homage weights made for the 2005 conference will be non-profit auctioned on Scotland's Glass from the 1st to 14th of November.
Proceeds will be used to meet the costs of the Edinburgh conference, with any surplus going to the Glass-Study.org to preserve glass web-sites.
I will post in market-place closer to the date but as weight collectors have made it clear they only look in this forum I am posting here now so no one misses a chance at these rather special items!
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The demonstration pictures for Mike Hunter are now on Scotland's glass along with details of the paperweight auctions.
http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/
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Color me stupid, Frank, but I can't find the auction details on the provided link. Can you give instructions on where it is or provide a more detailed link?
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I'm not saying anything ;D
Top left menu (latest news): 400th Anniversary Auction (http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=163:400th-anniversary-auction&catid=31:scottish-glass-general&Itemid=17)
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Thank you. I kept clicking on the big block below ... :thud:
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Click on the read more under the auction info on front page intro.
We already reached reserve on the first weight and the auction has not started yet :thup: but I don't want to lose the bids so added them in.
But even more exciting is that we now have videos of Mike Hunter at work on the flower weight at the demo, thanks to Christine link (http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=172:2010-twists-demonstrations&catid=21:scottish-glass-makers-t-z&Itemid=15)scroll down for 4 videos.
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Last day for the Twists close-pack, auction is front page now. 7 hours from this posting.
Proceeds will help Scotland's Glass get a more powerful server, as the present is struggling to cope with the database now and 1,000s more to add