An Interesting Challenge

[Ian]

Hi All
Started a new project today. The client has a commission to do a mixed mural for one of our local government offices. What she has decided on is a mixture of pottery and fused glass.
There are 2 sets of 18 inch plates each one being 3 across and 4 down. The plates will be ploughshare shaped with the centre cut out in a 24 cm circle
and then each one will have the same shape glass dish shaped the same way suspended in the cut out. So basically the idea is to have the pottery as a frame around the glass. The theme is everything native to the Eastern Cape. E.G. one will have a coelacanth theme, one a Nguni cow, one an Abalone shell Etc. There will be a bit of copper work, wire beaten in various shapes, sepia decals, plant material fused into the glass etc.
I started today with the matting of the glass in blues and browns which will be fired by Mon morning and then comes the placing of the decals and wire and some dichroic paper and then the capping of the bowls. It's going to be interesting from a technical point of view and all done in float glass. I should be able to post some pictures on Mon
Regards
Ian

[CnZsMum]

WOW!  Your description is very interesting.  I can't wait to see it.  It sounds fantastic!

[Becki]

Ian, this project sounds very interesting and challenging. I look forward to seeing your progress.

[Lady Helen]

I would be interesting for all of us if you (or Elizabeth) could take some work in progress photos.

[ct4mom]

I agree sounds like a wonderful project, hope you post some pics.

[JoanFrances]

will be watching for the pictures.  Can't say I understand the process, but it will be something to watch as it evolves

[Audrey]

Totally confused and can't wait to see this. Sounds very interesting.

[Barbara]

Will be interesting to see.  Sounds like a challenge.

[Anne]

An intersting challenge for sure Ian!  Even sounds like something that would be a great entry for the Spring forward glass challenge! Sure looking forward to watching this come together.

[Glassic]

Interesting indeed! I've been poking about on the web, what a beautiful part of the world you live in. Didn't find much on the pottery but loved the long bread platters I did find.
How many artists are involved?

[Kev]

This I can't wait to see!

[Ian]

Herewith some photo's These will now be fired to tack fuse the Sunshine paints. A bit of history. The lady was a witchdocter back in the day and she got it into her nut to tell the Xhosas {who live in the Eastern Cape} that if they kill all their cattle then the White man will be driven onto the sea and that would be the last they see of them. Needless to say, after they did what she said , they all went through a very bad time because they had no meat or milk. And the hell of it was that they could'nt even sue her for malpractice because that term didn't exist as America had'nt been invented yet.

The Abalone shell will be backed with dichroic paper which will shine through all the white areas that you can see in the picture so that it will look like mother of pearl. This represents the abalone farm that has been established to farm the abalone meat to sell to the Far East. By all accounts these guys eat Abalone like peanuts because they believe it is a powerful aphrodisiac. Like they need that!!

The Nguni cow is native to the Eastern Cape tho I'm not sure where they came from if all the cattle were killed like the story goes. Obviously some people didn't believe her and hoarded their cattle

The aloe is also synonymous with the Eastern Cape and is tapped for aloe juice for pharmaceutical purposes. Also the treesnake known here as the Boomslang {I used a capital B because it is a very dangerous snake} loves to curl up in the crown of the aloe and chow the Sunbirds that come and drink the nectar out of the blossoms. We used to throw darts at them when we were kids

The coelacanth was caught in a trawlers net just off the East London coast and the captain was clever enough to keep it on ice til he got back to harbour. He then went and got hold of miss Courtney-Latimer {lucky she never married because then she would have been Mrs Courtney-Latimer-Whatever, which would have been a problem because even when I worked at the Museum she insisted on being called by her full name}
Any way she realized that this fish was something special and called in the expert from Rhodes University AAAAAAAnd the Coelacanth was discovered.
Okay here are the pics

[Ian]

Here's the rest
By the way the note with the drawing of the coelacanth {even tho it looks like a guppy} is her actual note she made while on the boat and the thorns
 are going to be fused between 2 layers of glass

[Kev]

Interesting indeed!

[Audrey]

WOW is all I can say. Thanks for sharing that fascinating story.

[Anne]

Wow, interesting.  Thanks Ian.

[Kev]

These Sunshine paints...are they like enamels or stainers?

[Becki]

These are wonderful, Ian!  The story behind the art makes it even more special.

[Ian]

Kev
Sunshine enamels are actually made for decorating china ware. They work on glass no matter what the coe because they are appplied in such thin layers that they have no effect as far as coe goes. They are powder paints and work in the same way as the traditional paint powders do as far as mixing and matting etc.
If I was doing the actual art work on this project I would fire at least 3 times applying more matts to get a better shading effect but the customer is always right. I would also have fired white on the back of the glass to give a some what different effect. The client is relying on the wall color when they sre hung to supply the contrast.
Ian

[Ian]

Darn it
Not one of you guys took the bait