New pictures of old things

A few days ago I put an end to six clayfree weeks. This also inspired me to bring my blog into shape and today I finally added pictures of the things I made in the past couple of months to my gallery. It's a bit frustrating though to see that I wasn't able to do more. Others could probably do that in less than a week. But at least I made them at all. As you can see I'm very fond of bowls.

Hot Glass

Some days ago I went on a trip to Glashütte. This name means something like 'glass foundry' in English. It is an idyllic village not far from Berlin with a tradition in glassmaking. Now it mainly serves as a museum. It shows that the working and living conditions of glassmakers were far from easy or romantic in the days when every single mass produced glass item like a bottle was blown solely with the power of lungs under exploiting conditions. These days only two glassmakers still work there. They show their art of glassblowing to visitors. To see the working process is most fascinating! I'm so fond of it! They are very passionate about it and are full of love for their material. A glassmaker today is designer and worker in one person, which I think must be very satisfying.

He made the small bowl you can see in the picture below.
On the left side are jars with ingredients to colourise the glass, behind him is the furnace, and in the background is the kiln to anneal the finished items.

Blowing the pipe.

This guy is crazy. He touches molten glass with his (wet) fingers for a split second.

On the right side still on the iron is the drinking glass he just made.

My purchases. I like the bowl for its liquid look and
I had to buy some handmade millefiori beads of course.

There's no place like home

This was my home for 22 years.

Beads

Making beads is particularly exhausting for my wrists and fingers but I hope it strengthens them. I have some doubts though. Making beads is also a lot of fun! They need a lot of practice. I made bookmarks of my first sets and along with candlesticks I had made I gave them as gifts to some very nice people. The reactions I received were so positive, it still makes me glad.

My first face cane

I made my first bowls in May. Meanwhile I've done some more. It's still like magic. I can't get my eyes off them. I love the patterns so much.


I also made my first face cane. It's features and paleness are inspired by designs of Margaret MacDonald and Charles Rennie Mackintosh and so are the stylised rose canes I built.


If you look closely it looks like this one has a tear falling from the eye on the right. But that's just an air bubble that got trapped between glass and clay. Usually they show up in less appropriate places.