Geting down to the workshop was no problem to me, I could go down on most mondays, tuesdays and thursdays; but getting down whilst a tutor isn't teaching in there or wasn't busy became difficult- especially when the day the workshop is empty is when I have a tutorial, followed by a lecture, most often followed by a discussion which takes up the whole day.

 

However, every thursday (minus when I was ill and another where she was) I have a glass technician in the ceramic workshop- meaning I can explore whatever I want with glass and ceramic!

 

Having used the table saw for cutting my previous bottles successfully and watching the hand scored glass bottles scatter, It seemed the best option to continue using the table saw until the glass cutting product arrived. Still waiting for the glass cutter we ordered- something we thought would be more effective when cutting glass and not having to rely on using the industrial saw each time.

My first arrangement is produced out of rings cut apart from a bottle. The technician hadn't actually worked with a table saw before (last time my workshop tutor took on the challenge) so her first attempts differed in size slightly and some rings even broke- probably as a result from awkward angle positions in which she held the glass or just the glass weakening as she cut more and more rings from the body.

 

I like how I incorporated both solid rings and broken rings in this monotonal arrangement, creating an almost bubble looking design which would fuse together once in the kiln. Although I like this layout, I wanted to create something a little more complicated as this will be my final chance of using the workshop before assessment- maybe adding colour and glass strands to mix my bottle pieces.

This design I'm hoping once out of the kiln will create a pendant that I will be able to wear; the edge may need to be smoothed slightly but I can do that easily with the diamond abrasive pads.

This arrangement has included both green and clear coloured bottles into a design similiar to my first; it will hopefully all fuse together successfully without merging into my pendant and the paper I have left on (being slightly lazy) with dissolve with the high temperatures in the kiln.

I decided to use coloured pieces of glass to add colour to this overlapping arrangement. The grains I poured inside the main part of bottle probably won't be visible from the top but I want to see if any of it will be visible.

 

The colour added to the left may not fuse together if the grains are not touching so it would have beneficial for me to add a thin layer of glass over the top just to ensure if effectively formed together- I would do this if I were to do this experiment again. I also chose purple and yellow as two complimentary colours in the colour wheel, but also I think the tones of the colours themselves really work well with the green of the bottle- hopefully the product will be as successful when it comes out of the kiln!

 

I also don't know what will happen to the metal around the neck- we will have to see!