7 thoughts on “Stuff…”

  1. Busy busy. I’ve never done castings, but a lost wax bronze last year got me a little interested, and a lack of crystal to engrave. Considering all sorts of variations for engraving. Australian ignorance of engraving, and maybe a result of glass in ceramic departments, means the emphasis is on material and making. Then again I might just buy Krosno and stuff em all. How long does it ake for that size?

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    • I love casting, de-investing’s always like xmas – full of anticipation; sometimes a dud, but joyful in the main. I like the edge of mystery and the odd, unexpected gift from the kiln gods. This lot isn’t very thick and so take about 3 and a half days in the kiln (but of course the waxes take a few days, then a day for investment and a day to steam.) Am getting a roll of fibrefrax this week, so will start to play around with some fusing…

      I suspect the dearth of appreciation re engraving has more to do with a lack of accomplished drawing skills. On the one hand you have the Gordons and the Tony Hannings, but on the other sits the majority, with only rudimentary drawing ability at best. I remember at ANU that one associate lecturer (a prominent practitioner) used to bang on about the importance of drawing everyday, which is perfectly fine, of course – except that the crappiness of her drawings (she’d show them in her slide presentations) was beyond bemusement. And I’m not talking quaint or witty stream of consciousness (if only it had been) – it was just unutterably pedestrian. Graceless, even. So when you have it, Pete, you’ve gotta use it. It’s a gift. Go the Krosno if need be; plenty of peeps in the glass establishment founded their practice on blanks. Besides, in this day and age it could be viewed as ecologically responsible.

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  2. Drawing is the main point as you say. I find it very hard, never had that as a kid I think is the prob. We just never had pencils etc. Tony Hanning I met a few times, down the highway. Drawing technical excellence. I found him stuck in the 80’s as most of that Uni. crow around gippsland area.
    I wanted to do more of the experimenting I did with fusing and odd engraving techniques. Developing cameo bits then I got locked out of galleries pissed me off. I started “ariel” and “graal” experiments that looked great, so maybe I’ll get into it again. Also got a yen for recycling somehow, which is when I look twice at casting.

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    • Jeez, the majority of the glass establishment pack is stuck in the mid-70/80’s by virtue of the fact that it’s their era/when they started – and they’re caught in a kind of mental aspic. This is a generational norm, of course, and not confined to glass – my mother still listens to Marty Robbins, you know what I mean. (Mind you, when I’m 85 I’ll probably still be listening to Eric Clapton so, hey, same same.). Tony’s more enlightened than most, I’d have thought.

      There’s a density about casting that’s appealing – and I like it best at its least ‘glassiness’. When there’s ambiguity in the materiality…which gives flight to the metaphorical…yadda yadda yo(!!)

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