May 12
Paperweights are one of those things that people think are not useful anymore. I guess they hearken back to when you would have your desk next to an open window because you didn’t have any AC or indoor lighting and needed something to keep your scrolls and missives from blowing out into the sheep …
May 20
I made this on the first day of class this session, sort of as a warm up. I generally like to use the ‘hodgepodge’ frit, the frit that’s left over from other frits, or that’s been mixed in. I can’t say it’s my best paperweight. I like them to be rounder, not so pointed. Also, …
Mar 07
This is a paperweight I did at the end of my first intermediate glassblowing class. This sort of paperweight is generally easy, and I thought I could do an iris inside. That didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Also, it got a crack in it, so it’s going to split in half at some …
Aug 03
For the third paperweight, this one, I decided to use the optic mold. This is a star-shaped mold that tapers to a narrow point. I believe it’s made of aluminum. After rolling my first gather of glass in the frit and melting the frit into it, I put the jack glass-side down and push, incising …
Jul 31
This was my second paperweight I made at the one-day workshop I did in May. My idea was to quickly pull a bird into shape out of the hot glass I’d gathered. This is easier said than done. My bird quickly became a melted taffy impersonation, and it was all I could do to loop …
