Lis Simpson's new work

Glass Mask Making – 3 kiln Firings

When you are combining glass components, such as in a mask, you have to take care that the glasses are compatible.  Otherwise they crack or explode when heated or cooled in the firing process!  The base of this mask is two layers of green and clear glass.  The eyes are layers of several other colours.  This got a full fuse firing in the kiln.

For accents I used glass rods, which I worked into different shapes on the torch.  I also created “strings” of glass for the hair.  Bits of rods were cut for the “teeth”.

After the base had cooled from the kiln, I arranged the rods to become eyebrows, nose and mouth.  I put in “teeth” bits between the lips.  Look he’s sticking out his tongue!  This design tack fused all the bits; tack fusing doesn’t melt the pieces totally down flat.

Finally the mask was slumped in the kiln to create the rounded shape.

Strawberries As Art - Lis Simpson

Since Stouffville's annual Strawberry Festival is in full swing this is the perfect time to share some of the ways that the delicious strawberry can inspire art!

Below, jewellery maker and Studio Tour artist Lis Simpson explains how she was able to create a replica strawberry from glass!

Last summer I made a glass strawberry in class.... 

Take a fresh strawberry and put it stem down into clay:

Coat it with a release resin and build a plastic cylinder around it to create a mold:

Add plaster; when plaster is set, remove the plastic cylinder and fire the mold, burning out the strawberry.  Fill the mold with glass frit, and fire again.  

When cooled, break the mold away from the glass strawberry.  Voila!

Thanks Lis! 

Karen Wootton

This is a slumped plate with pansies.

One of the latest pieces created for the Stouffville Studio Tour!

Karen Wootton Studio #12

Lis Simpson

Thanks to Lis Simpson for sharing her new work with us. 

Lis will be at Studio 4 along with Deb Kirk, Florence Booth and Rita Staniford.
Four artists, one location!

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During a spiritual retreat this summer, a new artistic vision came:

Creating exquisite, small art glass of light, colour, and texture for inspiration and transformation – beads and beyond into objets d’art!  Look deep inside to see what may come.

Immediately after I went to a four-day intensive workshop in Advanced Fusing at Glasstronomy Studio in Markham. The primary focus of the workshop was using and creating molds for glass fusing in the kiln.

This is one of the projects we did, and some pieces I have made since for the studio tour:  making and using plaster cast models.

We used flexible molds into which we put the plaster slurry.  Remember to be careful when disposing of plaster – never put it down your drain!

 

I love shells and other objects from the sea.  Doesn’t this look perfect?

 

Next we needed to build the frame on the kiln board to hold the objects and to put the glass over them.

We were doing two blocks at the same time so there was a common wall between them.  In one of the blocks I put a fern leaf to look like seaweed as well as plaster shells.  The smaller block merely held a plaster shell.

Then we had to continue to reinforce the walls so the molten glass in the kiln wouldn’t leak out!  Don’t want a mess!

In order to cover the objects well, we put in clear glass frit, which is tiny bits.  We covered the objects up to their tops.  I also added some blue and green frit to the smaller block which had the single shell.

We added several sheets of clear glass to the very top and into the kiln they went (Glasstronomy uses a large kiln, so there were two different projects being fired at the same time.  See my pieces on the bottom right?)  What a wonderful surprise when the firing was complete!

Here’s the front view.  The fern burned away too much, and I couldn’t see but just a faint image.  So I decided to use glass paint to fill in the “seaweed”.

Here’s the second block with the blue and green tint and the single shell.

 

‘Course, then I wanted to make some more at home.  Others like this one will be at the Studio Tour in October.  I have such a fantastic time creating with glass.

Jewellery maker - Lis Simpson

Lis Simpson, hot glass artist and jewellery designer, has been making one-of-a-kind jewellery pieces for about nine years. Her glass beads are made on a torch from rods hand-pulled in the glass factory in Murano, Italy, and accented with shimmery dichroic glass and other unique textural elements, compatible with the molten glass. She puts these fine art beads on handmade sterling silver head pins and adds bead accents and precious metal chain to make her hand crafted jewellery, “wearable art”.

Torchworked glass beads are relatively new and unequaled in the jewellery industry. Although glass bead making was an ancient, secretly guarded art, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the techniques began to be shared in North America. It can take from one half to two hours to create the bead on the torch, without any stopping! If her cat calls to come into the studio, he is ignored or the bead thermal shocks into tiny pieces! It’s a tricky business working with molten glass. Her passion for working with hot glass and her repertoire of skills continue to expand as other artists working in hot glass and in other mediums inspire her!

Glass beadmaking has only been offered at art schools within the past few years, so Lis began with a few lessons from another Toronto beadmaker, and then honed her skills on her own torch. She has branched out into fused glass, making both pendants and more recently paperweights. As well, she became a certified instructor for the innovative fine silver medium of Art Clay Silver, and took the wirework course from George Brown College. She now teaches these jewellery techniques both in her own studio and at various venues in the Greater Toronto Area.