Deconstructing Ideas
This lesson will cover skill building, problem solving, and corrective techniques
Skill level for this lesson: Intermediate
“It starts with a spark, but realistically a small mountain of sketches”
Kick it off with a mess. Free your hands and ideas let both spill out all over the page in a joyous ruckus. Splash over onto new pages, and then circle back if details need to be added or removed. Build nondescript short hand templates, and start over and over until you have worked the sketch out in as many forms as your mind has previously pondered, or is currently adapting to. When you have exhausted the initial inertia of the concept revisit all of the work. Circle or highlight the part/parts of each image that you find most appealing, or constructive. Then set yourself upon the task of combining each of the elements you have chosen. Identify what it is about each selection you like, so that if you must omit its current visual depiction, you can reincorporate it within the boundaries of your new approach. Rearrange and reshape the form until it feels right to you. Now do yourself a huge favor and color the final draft. Make your color pallet decisions grounded in reality with colors available to you on the market. If you can not combine or layer the material in a way that produces a similar color to your pencils, crayons, pastels, or paint choose another color. It will save on artistic block later in the project. When working on new designs, techniques, and skills eliminating avoidable uncertainty will transform the project obstacles from traversing momentous walls, to configuring intriguing puzzles.
Note: This part of the project should be fun or at the very least engaging. If it's not, I say walk away and give the idea more time to mature. It can take weeks, months, or even years to allow an idea to fully ferment contextual body before its physical manifestation can begin. Don’t rush your idea it will grow alongside you. And in many cases can be better off created later when you have more experience. I promise you have many other ideas worth exploring as you uncover new facets of your curiosity.
“But I don’t want to think ahead! You really think it will help that much? Okay, let’s break down the sketch into components”
Picking components to sculpt before assembly is key in creating structurally sound projects. By removing thermal and physical obstacles in this portion of the planning you will be able to avoid major losses, and make educated guesses through the more difficult unknowns of the project. So what is a component? A component is a part or element of a larger whole. When deciding what pieces of your project will be separated for individual builds it is a good idea to think about why focusing on single elements is important in the first place. Key things to consider when parting your project are:
1. What type of movement will need accessible to you when sculpting?
2. Where will the component need heat during the build?
3. Can this component be built half on the base, and half off?
4. What type of issues could you face while welding the part to the base?
5. How much tension could this add to the internal and external friction of the glass if welded incorrectly?
Now that you have an outline examine your project carefully to insure the easiest path to success. Even if it includes a few extra steps along the way. “Well begun is half done”- Aristotle
“How does one go about making a thing? For I have never made such a thing.”
If you have never sculpted a similar form, structured a symmetrical model, or pin pointed the scale of your design there are tools available to problem shoot through some of the kinks before lighting the torch. Using other craft mediums will play a vital role in fabricating your project. Mediums such as clay and play dough allow you to see what kind of method, direction, composition, and proportions will lay the foundation for your final form. If you are looking to make 3D measurements wire and paper are excellent means for creating blueprints, and can be used as templates for engineering the architecture of your project. And last good old pencil, compass, & ruler on kiln shelf will allow you map out the fine lined network of a detail dense arrangement.
“Assembly? Oh no, I don’t think so. I’m fine, just peachy. Can you tell I’m nervous? Could we walk though it together before I start? That will make me feel a lot better.”
At this point you already know which pieces of the project will be added to the base, their size, color, and how many or few pieces you have added or removed from the final sketch as the piece has taken physical form. Now you will decide how to attach them by segmenting your project. It can be vertically, horizontally, zigzag, spiral, wiggle, or squiggle. It is completely up to you as long as the portioning ensures that the components are spaced out in a way that allows you to weld each part to the base while allocating room for the next component and its subsequent weld. These segments can be outlined with small dots of color making a visual pattern that will be covered by the attachment’s connection point, it could be a scored mark from a tool like tweezers or a knife, and it could even be a naturally occurring striation of color made by the glass itself. Just make sure to not blindly weld without holding up each attachment next to the previously attached component before welding to ensure that the position hasn’t shifted due a slight deviation of placement. If your component is organic or abstract in form make sure to mark the top or bottom in a way that allows you to weld it in the right direction. These little acts of mindfulness will keep you moving right along without making easily avoidable errors.
“I’ve gone an oopsied. Ohhhhh no. Oh no. What do I do? HELP!”
Welded two pieces together on accident? Did the attachment end up in the wrong spot? Melted the wrong thing? It cracked, huh? Why is it leaning like that? Well, let’s go over some ways to correct small errors.
1. If you accidently tack weld two pieces together, and they have been cold sealed you can just tap, or even wiggle the attachments apart. If they are firmly welded together use a pinpoint flame, and slowly apply heat around the weld while lightly pulling to separate them. Some pieces will be salvageable with minimal resculpting, others will not, and need to be remade entirely.
2. If you have welded a component in the wrong spot you can either alter your planned pattern, or you can remove the attachment from the base, and rake away any extra glass or color left behind using a clear rod or tweezers. You might need to even out the surface by focusing the heat on the divot, and then directing the flame to the perimeter of the radiant heat while turning the project at angles that allow the glass to flow back into its self with gravity. Or you can add glass if you have taken too much away.
3. If the direction of your heat is unintentionally moving other attachments first take your project out of the flame, and let it cool down for a moment. Second see if you can turn the piece in a way that allows you to continue working without affecting the other detail work. If the radiant heat is going to be high enough to affect other components, and you still need to work next to them without disturbing their placement make a small weld from the component you want to stay stationary to another close by to stabilize both by anchoring them together. Ideally this bridge can be a hidden, or disguised. These mini bridges will strengthen the project over all. But if bridges are not properly alleviated of stress, fully melted in without hard tack welding, they can do the reverse, and undo all of your hard work by breaking off in segments along the stress line.
4. Cracks come in a few forms. Some come from too much pressure, and those will look like mini irruptions. Luckily those can be easily fixed by removing a small portion of glass, and allowing angles/gravity to do a lot of the work for you when melting the piece together again. If there is not enough glass the piece will separate as it shrinks while cooling. This type of crack has a distinct gap with visible space. For a tube add glass then readjust the wall thickness with air pressure and marvering. For a solid structure press the halves back together from the back end of the crack to the surface. This pushes out any oxygen, and avoids catching air bubbles. Then add glass to even out the surface if necessary. Another way to fill this type of crack on a solid piece is to add glass. Pull a stringer, then heat the interior of the crack. Starting at one end of the crack melt and push your stringer down and over filling the opening in a single, or in multiple layers. This type of filling can be very tricky and can catch air bubbles so be very careful if you decide to go that route. And lastly the most common and easiest crack to fix is a surface crack. A surface crack happens when the piece has lost to much heat in a certain portion of the project, and only sits on the surface without connecting to the interior wall. It essentially is a warning that you are close to losing a portion of your project, but is still in a stage to allow recovery of the lost heat without much effort. Wash the project in an annealing, high propane/low oxygen, flame and it will heal when at the proper temperature again.
5. If the piece has experienced a small explosion the thermal contrast was so significant from one portion of the project to the other it could not endure the rapid expansion of the internal and external tension caused by the introduction of concentrated heat. In other words make sure the overall heat of the project is relatively the same at all times. There is little you can do than completely rebuild everything you have lost at this point. So remember to soak your project in the kiln, or in annealing flames so you don’t lose the project to a pin pointed flame.
“Remember its playtime so have fun”
Making or doing anything can be relatively stressful no matter the situation. It’s important we spend our time undertaking the necessary steps at the beginning of our work to negate the physical and emotional pitfalls from preventable mishaps. In doing so you free up so much more space to experience joy. What you are doing should be entertaining. If it isn’t you should very seriously take stock the meaning behind your desire for this creation. Let the unknows of the work propel you forward into the marvelously diverse methods of solution. Try each and every way your mind composes steps for your techniques. You might not get exactly what you want, but you will learn new skills to apply in the future. Or you will find that it turns out far better than expected by simply allowing yourself to work with your hands, and the heat to accomplish things you never thought possible before. Let your work satiate, and ignite your passion simultaneously. Let it give you grief, and in return give it hell. Really go for it. Feel the fluidity of your motions. Bridge the worlds of imagination, and creation right in front of your very own eyes.
"Wow really loved how you wrapped that up at the end. And to be honest I am feeling very inspired. Unfortunately I am harboring this stage form of guilt, and creative block that is not allowing me to complete my project, or even step into my workspace."
Sometimes you just have to let the air out of your lungs and breath. This lesson is here to give you tips on how to problem shoot new ideas. If you need to toss structure out of window by walking straight up to that torch, and just going for it. Do that. Whatever comes to your mind let it out. Some people will not create, and fully detach themselves for their creativity entirely, if they feel tethered to an idea that no longer serves the narrative of their work. If that happens to you just let it all go. Trash the sketches, restrictions, expectations, perfectionism, self limiting/unkind internal dialogue, and intentions. Remove it and start from a new head space. If you don't want/need an A to B format then tap into an open/honest flow, and create unapologetically. I hope that if this is the type of artist you are that you were able to figure something out about your process in this lesson even if it was, "This isn't going to work for me." Because knowing what you don't want is exactly how you find what you do need. Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you. And I will see you next time.
-El
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