Sunday 23 September 2012


Hey hey, sorry for the delayed update. To say that Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend's class was full-on would be a gross understatement. If you haven't see her work here is a few examples and you can follow this link to see some more: http://susanstinsmuehlenamend.blogspot.co.uk/


These works are created by layering multiple panels of glass that have all gone through numerous kiln firings. Susan also uses variety of techniques to translate her images and ideas onto the glass such as; decals that are fired, painting, blasting and many other techniques.  





We were each given a light table and a tool kit containing a variety of brushes, pallet knives, rulers, painting rests, etc. the light table helps you see what's you applied paint and its consistency will look like.  


Susan demonstrating how she mixes up her enamels ..... I don't have any experience with this .... and it's actually a lot more involved then I ever imagined. 


One of the focuses of the class was creating depth within our paintings. This was a demo where Suzan painted on both sides of the glass, black line work of one side and colours on the other. 



We were absolutely spoiled in this class for technical demo's, not only did we have Susan's expertise but we also had Jeff Zimmer as out teaching assistant. 

Jeff is known for creating many ....... many ......... many layered works that are both beautiful and thoughtful. You can find more examples of his work on his website: www.jeffxzimmer.com


These works are created by dividing up the scene into many different layers with each being painted on separate sheets of clears glass. When they are stacked, framed and backlit the illusion of space and depth is mesmerising. 






This is an image I created using a product called Razist. It is photosensitive sandblasting resist that allows you to translate black and white images into stencils that can then be blasted away in a sandblaster.
I am rubbing black enamel into the sandblasted texture. 


After it was fired I added colour on the back of the panel that was inspired by the colour of the local lichen. 

Working out the layering.




We used frames to allow us to see our works in different ways. 

Using Platinum luster, which goes you an "old mirror" look.

Creating test tiles for the Platinum lustre. 






Again we were really spoiled for technical expertise ... this is Mieke Groot, the creative director of North Lands and an all around amazing artist, demonstrating her techniques for enamel working. She primarily works on blown and 3-D forms and if you don't know her work I highly recommend that you have a look at her website: www.miekegroot.nl/


Mieke with antlers and mixing enamels. 




The wonderful and knowledgable Michael Bullen who made popular such songs as; "how am I supposed to live without you" and "When a man loves a woman" ...... no wait ..... was that Michael Bolton? ... Well either way famous musician known for cheesy love songs or not Michael Bullen is one of the go-to people at North Lands and is like a walking encyclopaedia of glass painting ... among other things ..... and for those of you who are to young for encyclopaedia's they were like google in a book ... or many books .... yes ..... so to clarify Michael Bullen is like the physical manifestation of a google search on glass painting .... except without all the cheesy pictures of sun catchers ..... so I guess he is nothing like a google search on glass painting ..... and more like a factual collection of books on the subject .... so ....... I guess you could say that he knows a lot about it.   



Michael worked restoring historic stained glass windows for around 12 years and is full of tips and tricks of the trade. 


No comments:

Post a Comment