A Plea to Artists

I've been considering this post for a couple of months now, but I don't feel I can put it off any longer. I'm hoping what I'm trying to say here will come through. A short time ago we remembered the anniversary of one of the most shocking events in US history, the tragic events of 9/11/01. For a time after this horrific event, this country pulled together, felt united as I had not seen for a long time. Today, I feel that we are so divided, and I wondered how anyone could pause to remember that day and not feel how different it is today.

Of course we are in the middle of a presidential election. This has created some clearly marked battle lines. What really worries me, however, is how this battle is being fought in social media, especially FaceBook. Someone creates a meme that shows how they feel, twists statistics to support their viewpoint, and thousands forward the meme as gospel truth. It does not matter which side you support, it's happening in every topic!

Let's look at some non "hot button" issues for a second. Every time FB makes a security change there are half truths and outright lies about the effects these changes will have. Post about privacy settings and legal use of timeline information went around six months to a year ago, and now, all of a sudden they are back. They are completely useless and non protective. Do you ever hit the share button? So, are you not supposed to share if someone has said don't use my pics or info on my time line? (And as artists, don't we want the share to happen? As long as someone else is not taking credit for our work, that is!) Amber Alerts are another one. Of course we all want to be on the lookout and possibly save a child, but any time you see an Amber Alert without a child's name, and certain descriptive information to look for, it's not a real Amber Alert!! Want to sincerely help there? Most states have a system you can sign up to get real Amber Alerts sent to your phone.

So now we come to the nastiness that is the current political race. It's very interesting to me that I see citizens of other countries forwarding some of the memes that are going around. I think that what we do and the choices we make do have an effect on the rest of the world. I hope we can make those effects be for the better. Here is my plea, especially for my artist friends as we go through these next few weeks:

 1) Register to vote if you haven't already. Please.

 2) Do NOT get any political information from FaceBook. Most of it is crap, with a spin put out there to support one viewpoint or another. Be extra cautious about what you see on the news as a good number of programs seem to have lost their ability to be objective. Go out and research, look up actual statistics. Get informed. It's more important now than ever. Get the facts and then if you support one candidate strongly, then get involved in the political arena in your community. Stop spreading misinformation around FB.

 3) Here is the important one. We are artists. We are supposed to be bringing beauty and grace to our environments. We should be looking to uplift and bring thought with our art. I am asking you to rise above the nastiness and craziness out there right now. I'm asking you to help me rise above it. I suffer from depression, and I have a hard enough time fighting that fear of failure. I look to my fellow artists to be inspired, to make me work harder, to be determined to do better. I no longer want to see the mocking, degrading and just completely uninformed mistaken information being passed around. I'm asking you as artists to just stop it. Focus on what you can create and share here, and lets lift each other up. We all have bad days and it's ok to vent to feel that community support and love out there, but let us focus on the positive. Let us be the community leaders in fighting ugliness. If we don't do it who will?

I'm grateful to be a citizen of a nation that supports freedom. Freedom to vote, to express, and to do what I wish to do, which is to create. I ask that you consider the above, join me, and if you like what I've written, please share so that other artists will do the same. Thank you for that, and thank you to my artist friends who have been there for me. It means more than you'll ever know.

klc

School Glass Installation

Last November, I became involved in a program for a charter school here that they call "Discovery". I was asked to teach two groups of students (grades 1-3 first for 4 weeks, then grades 4-6 for four weeks) about fused glass. This ended up being such a fun project!

First of all, I have never been in a situation where small-fry kids opened the door for me! It seemed every time I was hauling stuff in and out of the library, where our "class" was set up, there was a student there holding the door for me, and not just the older students. There were hardly any discipline problems for the two hours each day I had the students, and they really seemed to have fun! For the younger grades, I already had the glass cut for them, and I cut any additional pieces they may have needed. The older students were taught how to cut the glass themselves. They were taught about compatibility and melting temperatures. I showed them a video of how glass is made and they tried their hand at making frit. They made drawings of their glass ideas and then put glass pieces together that I took home and melted in my kiln. The last day of each module, the students split into two groups, one group would tour the other Discovery groups to see what they did, the other group presented what they learned to the other students. Of course, they switched half way through.

Each student made 6-10 pieces. There were almost 200 pieces used in the actual installation, each student got one piece to keep, and the rest were made into magnets for school fundraisers. This week, the two ladies at the school responsible for the Discovery events and I arranged the various glass pieces to go on a glass window over the library doors.It took about 5 hours to silicone and tape each one of these pieces into place (with help from those wonderful ladies during the last hour!)

We decided to match up each piece with another one of similar size, and put the fused pieces on both sides of the glass, so that you would see the art no matter which side you were on. The library is directly in ahead of the front doors of the school, so people will see the pieces when they walk in the door, and the students can enjoy the art while they are reading or on the computers in the library.

I went back today and did the final touch ups. I love the bright colors! It was so fun to watch the reactions of the students and teachers as they walked by and saw the project take shape, the students who were involved smiling as they found a piece that they had done.

They've invited me back for this next fall, and we've discussed some ideas. While it's a lot of work for 8 straight weeks, I've decided that end result is so worth it! I really look forward to going back!

Experimenting with Molded Glass Frit

A year ago I met Linda Steider, a glass artist who has come up with her own medium to use when molding glass frit. She graciously gave me a couple of samples to try.

I decided to use it a month later to create leaves for a fountain I was building. It worked very well, but I didn't spend a whole lot of time playing with it. At the next show where the fountain was displayed, a couple of guild members suggested I do a demonstration on this medium, so I agreed. That demo happened this last Sunday and this is to document the things I discovered while playing with the medium.

Linda uses glass powder when making her molded pieces. When I had done my leaves, I used fine frit and free formed the leaves. One leaf I let dry on a barrette mold for the curve, and I also fired it on that mold to keep the curve. For the demonstration I decided to use powder in the molds and free form a piece as well. Linda's blog lists her instructions for general use of her medium and more detailed instructions for using candy molds to shape the medium:

www.steiderstudios.wordpress.com/tutorials-glass-paste-aka-glass-clay/
www.steiderstudios.wordpress.com/tutorials-glass-paste-in-candy-molds/

It suggests starting with a 50/50 mix of medium to frit, but when I talked to Linda she uses a higher ratio of frit. During the demo I used a 2:1 ratio of frit to medium. When it comes to getting the pieces out of the molds, Linda advises freezing the medium for about an hour. Then either letting the pieces slowly dry on their own or putting them in a dehydrator to speed up the process a little bit. For some reason, once I unmolded the pieces, there was added moisture, the pieces did not hold their shape, and they started actually melting! I checked with Linda, and she had never had this problem. My freezer is fairly new, whether it is that or the difference in elevation, I'm not sure. I found it wasn't my mixture ratio, because I compared a piece I was able to unmold before freezing and one after freezing from the same batch of mixed frit. The one that dried naturally before freezing was fine, while the ones from the freezer started to melt. So, I got around this problem by using my hair dryer on them as soon as I unmolded them. This helped dry them quickly and helped them keep their shape.  There were one or two that broke as I was moving them, so I tried to put them on a piece of glass glued together to see if they would be ok after firing. For my first batch, I used the following firing schedule:

375F to 1280F 20 min hold
Full to 900F 40 min hold
200F to 700F off

The results were ok, but I felt needed to be a little more shiny. Linda suggests holding them at the top temperature for more shine. The free form piece was not frozen, just allowed to dry naturally because I didn't used a mold.

The second group got slightly over fired. The second firing was as follows:

375F to 1300F hold 15 min
FULL to 900F hold 40 min
200F to 700F off

Some of the pieces lost their definition. Also, the piece I tried to glue together on a piece of glass didn't work quite so well. It came apart along the crack lines obviously. Not such a great piece, but maybe a good self portrait! :) And, I did like the shine, but the next pieces will not be fired to as high a temperature.

This is definitely a method you should try! To purchase Steider Medium go to Linda's website:

www.steiderstudios.com

Would you rather make your own from scratch? Then go to Barry Kaiser's website, get a pass word and then read his tutorial on making your own glass clay:

www.kaiserglass.com

There is also a commercial glass clay available, but of course, this limits your colors to what they choose:

www.glassclay.com


If anyone is interested, I own my own glass forum on Yahoo:

Glass Fusion Group

Click on the link, tell me you read this blog or you're a member of GAGU and you'll be approved to join. Linda and Barry are both members and available to answer questions, and newbies and experienced glass fusers are welcome to join and ask questions or offer advice.

In summary, I'd recommend Linda's method to begin with. It's easy and fairly inexpensive but like any new glass technique needs a little tweaking with your own kiln and experience. I will try and add to this blog later this week with new pieces and let you know how I tweak my kiln schedule. Also, anyone who tries this method is welcome to add your comments and experience below. Thanks, Linda for allowing me to try this and share it with others!

The Trek to Delicate Arch

My husband's niece and her family decided they were coming to visit Utah and thought it would be great for us to meet them in southern Utah and we could see some sites together. Moab is beautiful, there are at least three national parks within 35 miles. It's a great place to visit, so many things to do! But in July... it's HOT!!!

We mostly drove around Arches and Dead Horse Point the first day. Getting out of our wonderful air conditioned cars to look at the sites next to the road and take a few pictures. One of the wee ones was sick, so not everyone was along on that trip. But it was a nice drive, incredible scenery was everywhere you looked.

But if you go to Arches National Park, you want to see Delicate Arch. It's the symbol of Utah, in a way: There was the incredible picture of the torch at sunrise for the 2002 Winter Olympics; (Olympics) Delicate Arch is on one of Utah's license plates (license plate) . Well, Delicate Arch you just don't see from the road. So the next day we all set out to see this beautiful scene. It involves a 1.5 mile hike that starts out on a nice graveled trail that lures you in... "this isn't so bad", you think and you look ahead of you and wonder what all those people are doing on that rock face up ahead...

Well, that rock face is part of the, ahem, "trail". I say "trail" because there are actually times no discernible trail is visible. No, you're not left to wander finding your own way, little cairns mark the way to guide you when the terrain is too rocky to have a normal trail.

In other words, this is not a stroll.

14 of us, ranging in age from 52 (that would be me) to 10 months, started out on that trail. Our niece Jodie, and her kids turned back first. The altitude and heat combined were really affecting them; we're down to 10. Our daughter Nikki was carrying the 10 mo old in a carrier that had a metal frame. Every time the poor baby relaxed her legs, the hot metal would burn her little legs. Nikki saw the rock face up ahead and was pretty sure she wouldn't make it over that. She, my husband and her 5 yo son turned back then. Then there were 6. Near the top of that rock face, our daughter in law, who was spending most of her time carrying her 22 mo old son, decided he was done with the trip. She has made the trek before, so she said she'd go back and my son could go on and make it to the top. The almost 8 yo DJ decided to go back with her. This left my son J.T., 3 yo Emma and myself to hike to the finish. We passed a lady dressed in what I believe to be representative of the Hindu religion. Quite an older woman, she was quite excited at the site of the red hair of my granddaughter. She held out her hand, which Emma immediately "high fived". She then brought her hand to her mouth and kissed it, evidently happy to have touched some form of good luck.

Emma was the one who was sick the day before, and no amount of urging convinced her to go back. She wanted to stay with Nana. So on we went. We made it to within about 8 minutes of seeing this beautiful work of nature when little Emma hit her wall. She was done. I sent J.T. up ahead to see how much further it was and stayed in the shade with Emma. He went up, took some pictures and then came back, waited in the shade with Emma while I climbed the final leg. There was more shade after the rock face area, there had been very little up to that point. The "trail" led to what was becoming a ledge, I paused in a shady spot to take this picture.

Beautiful, but not what I had come all this way for. Climbed further, onto another ledge. A few people resting in the shade here. The ledge gets higher and higher and you finally see the end of the ledge...

You climb up, round that corner, and there it is. It's like you hear all the Native American tribes chanting in respect for it's beauty as you round that corner. It's an amazing sight. Yep, I've seen it on TV, seen tons of pictures, driven a car with one of those license plates. But nothing compares to struggling up that trail and being rewarded with that sight.

Now, we just had to make that trek back. We had very little water at that point. We thought we had planned, there were water bottles for everyone, a couple of small water jugs and at least one hydration pack. Nope. Not enough. We really watched Emma on the way down, making sure she would drink at regular intervals. We ran out of water about half way down. J.T. took Emma on his shoulders at that point and started going down as fast as he could, being dehydrated and carrying 25 pounds on his back. I walked slow, my legs were shaky and when I looked down at my hands at one point, they looked blue. Hehehe. There was a large rock with a few small rocks underneath it that provided some shade, just about the only place on the lower trail that did. After a short rest I took Emma by the hand while J.T. power walked up ahead to try and get water and bring it back to us. We ended up not being that far behind him, but the site of him coming back with a bottle of ice water was beautiful. VERY appreciative of the gift of water at that point. Emma was such a trouper!!!

Today is Pioneer Day in Utah. We celebrate the journey of the pioneers on their trek to Utah for religious freedom. I have ancestors who made that trek, not in the original company, but in several of the ones that followed. Conversation turned to that trek more than once this weekend. Amazed that people walked day after day, covered from head to toe in several layers of fabric, some women giving birth, some children being buried on the way. People left everything they knew to go to some unknown place and start over. In the burning heat; the driving rain. Crossing rivers, desert and mountains to "make the desert blossom as a rose". I hope we make them proud, because I'm not sure I would have been strong enough to make it. I am very grateful, especially after this short hike, that they did what they did for me. Thanks.