Topic: How was this made? Graal? Fused? I'm stumped.

[krsilber]

I agree with this part:  "decorated and flattened separately and marvered in."  The yellow was applied before the disks, though, to the whole thing, I'm pretty sure of that.

I wrote the winner to ask about it, but received no reply.  With any luck that's because he/she was away for the July 4th weekend and will get back to me yet.

I'm afraid the ebay images will disappear any day!  Maybe I'll write the seller to see if I can post them directly on the board.

[Frank]

Good idea.

[krsilber]

Mt Paul, a couple questions:
You say "brown enamels or fine frit" - what is your definition of the two?  These terms have been discussed in past threads, and it would be nice to hear your take on them.  I think I misunderstood you before, believing you meant the enamel was painted on.

You mention the yellow was applied by rolling in frit.  Looking at the rim, though, it looks more like cased to me because there's a clear division between the opaque white and the yellow.  What do you (and others) think?

The basic steps here appear to me to be
- opaque white parison blown
- cased in opaque yellow
- vase shaped, disks marvered in
- cased in clear by dipping
- annealed
- yellow areas cut back slightly and satinized with acid; bottom ground

This leaves out the brown inside.  I don't know what's up with that.

[Fuhrman Glass]

I think MTPAUL was pretty close on his technique description. 'It appears to me that it was started as a white gather and blown to a larger size. Then it had bits applied as he suggested of ewnamels and some silver based glass that will change to many different colorations when placed in either a reducing or oxidizing flame. Then the yellow was applied with very large bits being trailed all over the piece. I thought I noticed on the bottom that the yellow was actually over the top of the same glass used for all the decoration, leading me to believe that it was put on later and it was placed a small bit in the middle of the large frit bits to make the donuts. Some of the bits were then manipulated to make them appear like leaves rising from the base.
Trying to get a good yellow to stay nice like this without encasing it and doing repeated reheats is always a challenge, unless it was encased in clear and then it can still be a challenge. ellows like to go orange unless they have enormous amounts of cadmium in them and very little selenium.
That's the way I would go about making it.
Fuhrman Glass Studios
Tenn. Tom

[krsilber]

Thanks, Tom!  That's terrific, more input from a blower!  I really think we're making headway.

I take back what I said earlier about my idea that the yellow was cased.  Looking at it again, I can see how it might be just frit.  I do think it was applied before the disks, though, and I'm afraid I can't imagine how it could have been applied in trails to achieve this result. 

It's weird how I can still look at the photos and find things I didn't absorb before, though I've thought about this dang thang SO much. 

I'm very intrigued by the silver idea and the way it behaves.  Have to try to find some examples in my books - or does anyone have photos of a similar application of it?

I got a very nice reply from the seller, including permission to post the photos here.  Yay!  These are courtesy of Bob of Snappyauctions14 (ebay ID).  He wasn't able to provide too much additional information, apart from the report from the consignee that it was bought in the western US, and that it's glass for sure.

I hope permission includes the right to write on them, 'cuz I did on a few to point out a couple things I mentioned earlier.  Some of the photos will go in the next post, since I can only add 4 at a time.

[krsilber]

last two photos...

[mtpaul]

big yellow parson .. probably white fritted up to have yellow outside surface. don't think any clear glass used this piece...  bit of brown and black enamel ..might have been dumbed in optic mold to create some of those lines on applied bit work ..perhaps bit might have been rolled in various shades of blacks and browns then reheated before being tooled on surface of piece
might still be some silver glass in bit work also ..will ponder pictures later ..nice decoration technique ..
fun thread ..reverse engineering ..is fun to figure out others tech's ..peace out guys
think hot work hotter ..woof ..mt paul

[Fuhrman Glass]

There is something about this piece that makes me think it might be a very old John Lewis piece? Does anyone else get that same feeling? probably 25+ years old before he got involved in casting bigtime.

[krsilber]

Wasn't familiar with John Lewis.  Found this page showing a bunch of his older pieces, but the image is quite small.  The descriptions are interesting, though.  Many of the vases say "paperweight technique"
http://www.treadwaygallery.com/3-19-2000-sale/catalog/art_nouveau_glass/pg168.html
There are some other pieces of his in the same catalog.  Hard to find other older stuff with Google, most of it's new.

[krsilber]

   Sorry, I just keep posting and posting.  I'm having so much fun with this thread.  I like the reverse engineering too, Mt Paul.

And 3 professional blowers in the thread!  Thank you all very much for contributing, and a big wecome to the forum to Tom and Mt Paul!   With no experience with hot glass, I need someone to rein in my imagination.  My idea about how the disks were made, for instance.  Forget for a sec whether they really were made like this, would it hypothetically be possible to
- paint a glass rod with enamel
- heat it until malleable
- bend it into a circle and press it flat
- and marver it into an object?
Would it work, and if not, why not?

Please, I'd really like to know more about what you guys are calling enamel, and how it's different from frit.  If the enamel were suspended in a liquid of some kind, could you paint it on?  Same basic ingredients and result, just applied wet or dry?


I just realized something.  It's always puzzled me that there were thin, relatively uniform black lines encircling the donuts and rimming their holes.  They even extend to the ground areas on the bottom, where they are more noticeable.  But if this is acid cutback, the whole thing could have been rolled in black before the disks went on, and all the black but those thin lines removed afterward.