At present I am enjoying the online Warm Glass Zoom Course which is giving me many ideas about using glass powders within fused glass. This is being tutored by Madison Morgan from the USA.
Images to come later.





Due to 2020 Covid-19 lockdown the only courses that I am able to attend at present are the online ones, which are proving to be excellent. In October, the Warm Glass Zoom Course with Claire Hall was experimental using dichroic, reactive and various colour layer glasses with decals to produce seascape and sunset scenes. Definitely one to recommend which gave me lots of ideas for the future to use in either jewellery making or panels.

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MOULD MAKING WITH BECKY WILLS - September 2016 at Warm Glass, Wrington

I learnt new techniques about casting small pieces with positive and negative casting.
Using wax based clay, models were made and then cast in plaster. Using moulds glass was added before being fired in the kiln. I used frit (crushed glass), scrap glass, sheets or billet (large blocks of transparent glass) to fill the moulds. The fish image shown was cast with billet.
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PATE DE VERRE WITH CLAIRE HALL - July 2016 at Warm Glass, Wrington

At this interesting taster course I learnt how to make moulds and use crushed glass to develop vessels. The bowl shape was initially made with clay, then cast with economy plaster. A second coat of plaster reinforced with fibreglass strands was then added to give extra strength. The plaster is kept damp whilst the crusted glass is added around the inside of the mould. When the vessel is fired at a low firing schedule, this produces a sugar or crystal appearance, but if a glassy finish is wanted then a higher firing schedule is used.

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PHOTOGRAPHY WITH SIMON BRUNTNELL - 5th March 2016 - Science Park, Wolverhampton

This one day course concentrated mainly on the photography of glass. We were given techniques in the use of our cameras, lighting, display etc. Simon Bruntnell is a well known and respected national photographer in this field.




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DROPOUTS WITH AMANDA SIMMONS - September 2015 at Warm Glass, Wrington

Amanda Simmons is known for her kilnformed and cameo-engraved glass vessels. Amanda has exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery and her work can be seen at:
www.amandajsimmons.co.uk

This 5 day Masterclass focussed on the subtleties and variables of slumping kilnformed vessels and the many coldworking processes to finish the form.I made a range of small and medium vessels to fully understand each process involved. Experimentation in form and colour was encouraged throughout the course.

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POWDER & CRACKLE WITH BOB LEATHERBARROW - April 2014 at Warm Glass, Wrington

This 5 day Masterclass with Bob Leatherbarrow was intensive and particularly productive. I started with the basics with using powders and over the days became more confident at manipulating the techniques.
http://www.leatherbarrow.ca/iindexs.html
Bob who is based in British Columbia Canada and works with glass as an artists palette using glass powders to give texture with added colour.

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LAMP WORK WITH CORINA TETTINGER

A delightfully amusing Masterclass with Corina who had travelled from the US. Constructing frogs, bringing them to life and dressing them up in Scuba diving kits were part of the agenda!









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LAMPWORK ORIENTAL BEADS WITH ANITA SWEGLER
Visiting tutor at Mango Beads, Barnstaple, Anita brought an inspirational workshop showing us the basics of Oriental Bead Manufacture. From the simple to the complex bead, round,oval,compressed and freely formed shapes to Oriental Big Wheel Beads, Oriental Lens Beads, Oriental Bead Earrings, Oriental Bead and Disc Pendant.
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LANDSCAPES IN GLASS WITH BECKY WILLS
This great 2 day workshop was held at Warm Glass, Bristol and emphasised the use of frits and powders, plus lots of experimentation with the use of flexiglass and glassline pens.
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FIND YOUR CREATIVE VOICE WITH SILVIA LEVENSON
Silvia Levenson is both inspirational and generous with her experiences. Levensons work is more about the emotion of a piece than its technical characteristics, for this reason her work is widely collected and highly respected. I attended a one day CGS workshop held at Warm Glass, Bristol focusing on how we as artists can express ourselves and convey our message to others.
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REVEALING THE UNEXPECTED’ BEADMAKING MASTERCLASS
with Andrea Guarino (USA) at Creative Glass UK, Rochester, Kent. This was a wonderful opportunity to experience the advice and expertise of such an internationally acclaimed flameworker. She loves to combine colour, metals, foils and enamels to create distinctive reactions within the glass
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