Patty Gray AND Denyse Schmidt In One Weekend

Patty Gray's Glass Fusing Class

Things have been busy and fun.  Why is it that you can have nothing planned for months, but a lot of good things happen in one weekend.  Well, June 24-28 was unbelievable because not only did I attend glass fusing class at Pacific Art Glass with Patty Gray, but the wonderful LA Modern Quilt Guild hosted Denyse Schmidt for a lecture, a beginning and an advanced improvisational patchwork workshop.  I wasn't able to attend Denyse's lecture on Friday night (because I was in Gardena in Patty's class), but took a day out of glass class to attend Denyse's advanced improvisational patchwork workshop.  It was exhausting and fun and I was giddy with enthusiasm doing two of the creative things that I love -- fusing glass and improvisational quilting.  I almost forgot that I missed one of the lectures for our Tel-ART-Phone show at the Beacon Arts Building.  Too many good things in one weekend.

Patty Gray is an amazing teacher.  She has her class down to a science, and considering it's 5 days, we produced a lot of projects -- pattern bars, molds with glass frit, mosaic, bas relief, combing and raking, circular plates, 8"x0" pieces for roll-ups and learning cold work (using grinders, sanders, saws, cutters).  I was able to complete approximately 20 projects.  We all depleted Patty's bag of band-aids by about half because handling, sifting through, cutting, and leaning on glass calls for thousands of cuts to the fingers.  My worst day was a 3 band-aid day.

We started out making 2 different types of pattern bars, that would eventually become plates or roll ups (vessels blown by Ryan Staub and Eric Anderson from Seattle, WA).  BTW, I like Ryan a lot better with a shaved head.  I'm sure it's cooler, too, for blowing glass.  Here are some examples of the work I was able to complete, in addition to the collaborated work with Ryan and Eric.  The pattern bars were fused, sliced and refired, and Ryan completed the piece into an amazing bottle for me:

Fused pattern bars (above), then sliced  and put together Rorschach style (mirrored).

Pattern bars ready for fusing to become roll-up

Fused roll-up that became this beautiful bottle.  I can't believe it's mine.

The first piece that I finished is the following plate.  There is a lot of cut glass (and there were lots of cut fingers) to get this one done.  I love the colors and I'm going to slump it into a plate:

It was fun cutting the pieces for this piece (before firing).

Side view of plate, some blocks are stacked 4 levels of glass high, some only two, but the glass wants to level out at  1/4", so it's all good in the end.

Fused and finished and ready to be slumped.

 I did this round plate and realized that this is a common design (totally subconscious) that I have used over the years in many different configurations.  It keeps popping up in my work:

Plate pre-fused

Post-fusing

I also designed another roll-up for my best friend.  Ryan did a really good job finishing it up for me:

Pre-fusing

Ryan's interpretation of my drawing to perfection. 

Advanced Improvisational Patchwork Workshop with Denyse Schmidt

Ok, I'm already freaking out from happiness with the glass class, and my break on Sunday is Denyse Schmidt's workshop.  I am tired (and my hands are cut), but I'm ready for this experience.  The workshop was at Sew Modern, so it was really laid back, and everyone was pretty excited.  Denyse was fabulous and also very laid back.  We were so ready to get to work.  But, I was upset because I forgot my book for her to autograph.
 

But, we had work to do.

Our first set of improv blocks

 Denyse had us pulling fabric out of the following bags:

It seems to easy to pieces of fabric out of a bag and stitch them together.  No peeking and no put backs.  That part was difficult.  As an control freak, especially when it comes to creative work, it was hard, especially when I pulled the most unbelievable solids -- colors I would never ever buy (or look at), but I let go and it worked out.

My first block.

Our second set of blocks.  I hated mine and will not point it out.

My two blocks at the end of the day (first and third--remember, I hated the second one).  I added a piece of fabric to the mix.  These will be used in my finished quilt.

Here's Denyse discussing our third set of blocks.

Denyse discussing Liberty's block that refers to her collage work.

Everybody was happy and it was a great opportunity to expand out thought process when designing our quilts in the future.  And here we are:

A pretty happy group of quilters here.  Photo by Alissa Haight-Carlton

And Back to Patty

Ok, so I missed Sunday's session of glass class (see above), so I had to make up for lost time.  Everyone had done their plunger, so I had to get started on mine.  It involves cutting half inch strips of glass and putting them in a metal mold lined with fiber paper.  It is then fired to about 1700 degrees.  The kiln is opened and the molten glass is combed -- in my case, in a spiral pattern.  It is then annealed, coldworked (ground down to remove burs and fiber paper).  As you will see, the result is fabulous.

1/2" glass strips

Happily combing the piece in molten state in spiral pattern, coached by Patty.

Ground and ready for blowing.

Instructions for the boys.

I'm a happy girl.

A very happy girl.

 Here are the boys working on a piece.  Ryan is forming and Eric is lighting one of the torches for Ryan to use:

The boys working hard

This is our class -- Patty's in the middle of us.  The pieces are from the class the previous week.  None of the work from our class is shown here.

Tel-ART-Phone Exhibit Closed

Our show has closed and it was a huge success.  The lecture series went well, and the closing was fun as a pancake brunch was served (via IHOP).  The panel discussion was entertaining, including Mat Gleason (Coagula Art Journal) (our fearless leader), David Pagel (LA Times), Shana Nys Dambrot (LA Weekly), Peter Frank and Doug Harvey.

Back To My Denyse Schmidt Blocks

I started working on my blocks this week and added a third one.  That's as far as I'm going to go with blocks for this quilt.  I like the way it has turned out.  Denyse's random choosing turned out to be a very nice way to work for me.  I added Robert Kaufman Kona in Ash to sash the blocks and to finish the  quilt top.  I added a single 8" piece to the right of the sashed blocks.  To the left of the blocks, a thinly pieced strip of DS fabrics with solids from the class (and my Hari Juku print) at the bottom.  At the top, I pieced the RK Ash in the same random fashion, only just pieced in the same color.  That is one of my favorite things to do.  I did the same in my DS inspired quilt done for Rob and Teri (shown a few entries below).  I'm going to quilt the hell out of this when she's ready, but she's in her early stages yet, as you can see:

DS inspired blocks sashed with RK Kona 'Ash'.  The bottom block is the new block.

8" of Kona to right of blocks.

Thinly pieced block to left of blocks with monochromatic piecing above.

Detail of micro piecing

Detail of monochromatic piecing

 I had to stop working on the quilt to pick up artwork from the Beacon Arts Building, since our show closed.  But, I'll be finishing the top this weekend, while I wait for the cable man.  My cable has been out for 2 weeks and I've been too busy with all of my activities and work, so I couldn't make an appointment and be home for hours waiting for them to show up.  But I have a SUNDAY appointment.  I've never had a Sunday appointment before.  Nice.  Hmmm, we'll see.

Until the next time.