Sculpting: Where to begin?

I know that the very idea of sculpting with glass can seem daunting to a beginner. Where do you start? I faced this very same situation when I was a beginner and my artistic ambitions led me in that direction. My answer? Just do it!

Dive in and don’t be afraid to make something that is totally hideous and unrecognizable. Don’t worry if your glass falls off the mandrel or you light your table on fire (although DO stop and put it out before continuing) or if you pull so hard that your bead release breaks and your mandrel twists up like a pretzel. Those are all things that WILL happen, so don’t fight it, don’t be afraid of it, just GO with it, it’s how you will learn.

Having said all of that though, I will now rein it in just a tad and suggest that, while letting yourself go and “just doing it”, you begin with something fairly simple and attainable. Having big dreams and ambitions is a wonderful, healthy thing, but let’s face it, Leonardo da Vinci probably did not paint the Mona Lisa without first drawing a stick figure or two.

How did I begin?

I made turtles…

This my friends is as simple as it gets, sculpturally speaking. I would encourage all who wish to learn the fine art of sculpting to go forth and make turtles. What you are actually making is a round bead with a large dot for the head, four dots around the bottom, which are lightly flattened, for feet and a black dot on top of a white dot for eyes.

I say simple but honestly, when I first made these, I was sweating bullets. I was worried the whole time that the bead would crack (I was still working on a HH at this point), it felt strange to hold the mandrel relatively still while working on the head and feet. We learn from the very beginning to keep the mandrel rotating constantly, but with sculptural work that’s not really necessary. It’s really ok to stop rotating the mandrel, it’s ok to hold the mandrel in weird positions, as opposed to trying to keep it horizontal so your bead will stay balanced. Many of these “rules” tend to fly out the window with sculptural work. The most important element of  sculptural work is learning heat control, maintaining just enough, but not too much (I will talk more about this in the future). The second most important thing is to RELAX… With every turtle I made I learned to relax a bit more and I gained the confidence to try even more complex shapes.

For me, these little guys represented a “breaking free” from the conformity of the standard lampworked bead, I felt like I was walking on air when I finished my very first turtle.

Don’t get me wrong, I spent about 6 months as a beginner, learning to make all the standard shapes, learning to make a neat footprint, learning to keep a round bead well rounded, learning to apply stringer and to do dot work, learning to use hand tools, learning to keep my beads warm so they wouldn’t crack, but not so warm that they dripped off the mandrel like honey. All of these things are very important to learn, if you intend to do your sculpting on a mandrel. It’s time well spent and will only help you venture out into new areas, so don’t neglect the basics.

By the way, the little green turtle was made using the techniques from my tutorial on copper leaf. The difference is that I used Effetre transparent Pale Emerald Green glass for the base, I applied a transparent green enamel from Thompson’s Enamels, then rolled the bead in copper leaf and burned it in, then I rolled the bead in some rather course homemade Vetro Crystal Clear frit. The green enamel tends to congregate between the cracks where the frit comes together and it looks like dark veins. Sort of like moss agate. It’s really beautiful. Feel free to use this combination however you like.

I have much more to say on the subject of sculpting and I will continue over the next weeks and months to write about it. I am starting at the beginning, which seems like the right place to begin, and will slowly work into more complex aspects. I would love to recieve questions that are specific to sculpting as they will help to structure what I write about. If there is something you’d like me to cover, just ask and if I can, I will.

Edited 11/10/09 – (I’ve recently continued what I began with this post, I’ve made a few changes to my original plans for this column, I’ve renamed it “Tuesday’s Torch Tips” and it’s now a weekly column offering tips and thoughts on many subjects including; sculpting, design, photography, marketing, selling, etc.)

~ by lavendercreek on February 27, 2009.