Bottle slumping

For this homework, Mr Peacock asked us to do some research on 'Bottle slumping'. To start with, here is an example.

Bottle slumps are bottles that have been heated in a kiln to make new objects such as tea light holders (as pictured), cheese trays, and cutting boards etc. You can use any different bottle (including those with painted labels) to do so. However, here are some instructions on how to do it.

1) Remove the label from the bottle- it is best if the glue has also gone if possible.

2) Wash and DRY your bottle completely effectively- moisture can make the bottle explode!

3) Devitrification spay CAN be applied to the bottle to prevent a hazy or scummy appearance on the bottle after its been fired.

4) If you would like to hang your bottle or you are making wind chimes; take a piece of 20 gage copper wire shaped in a U and insert it in the bottle top before slumping.5) Use a mold that has been pre treated with glass separator and again dried completely. Separator should be reapplied between firings as needed. Check the vent holes to be sure that they are not plugged with the separator.

6) 600 DPH (degrees per hr), to 1100 DF, soak (hold temp) for 10 minutes. 

Heat 300 DPH to 1300 hold for 30 minutes this will help eliminate the air bubble that would get trapped at a faster slumping schedule.

Heat AFAP (as fast as possible), to 1425 DF, (depending on the size and thickness of your bottle) soak for 5-15 minutes or until the bottle is slumped to perfection.
(watch it closely during this time it can move rather fast!)
 Cool AFAP by flash venting the kiln; continue to open and close the lid for a few seconds to allow the heat to escape\until the temperature falls to 1000 DF.

Soak for 10 minutes at 1000 DF.

Annealing Stage; slow cool 180 DPH to 800 DF.

Next turn off the kiln and let it cool naturally to room temperature; don't peek!

After you remove your project from the kiln; be sure to vacuum any spall from the copper wire to avoid contaminating your next project.

You may want to adjust the temperature and/or soak time according to the size and thickness of your bottle.

Don’t become discouraged trial and error is the best teacher and sometimes the result of what will be some of your favorite pieces.

Here are some more examples of work.

2D flip art

In this piece of work, the task was to make a page in a 2D flip book. This is how I did it, with pictures of some of the steps.

1. We got given an old, unused book by our teacher, Miss Gardiner. 

2. We then looked through it, and drew a mindmap, with some of our ideas for designs. 

3. From this, we picked out one or two ideas, and drew out a design featuring them. I chose the tree and log idea because I thought it would look the best and be the easiest (!) Unfortunately, I got this wrong and it turned out to be quite difficult. 

4. We then glued 4 or 5 pages together in the centre of our book- we did this twice so that we had some nice, thick paper card to work on.

5. Then came the main part!! We had to transfer our design onto our pages, and then cut around them. We then scored the ends so that they would stand up. However... Mine didn't work amazingly- I managed to cut through a few of the papers of the tree so that it was very weak, and I made my foreground logs a lot taller than the background trees, so you couldn't see them very well! Anyway, here are some photos of my final piece.

To be honest, I was a little upset with my work; all of the composition didn't work (the logs were taller than the trees(!)). I wasn't so keen on the book colour- I would have preferred a plain book. 

One artist that does very similar pieces of art work to this is Su Blackwell. She also cuts out shapes related to the book and flips them up. However, her work is definitely a lot more complex than mine!! Here is some of her work. Her work is also a lot more concise- the trees are more effective, and they stand so much more neatly! The overall ideas are definitely a lot more interesting than mine- I found the Alice: a mad tea party quite interesting. 

Alice: a mad tea party



Book beauty







Artist research 2: Tom Phillips

My second artist to research was Tom Philips. Tom Philips is another artist who uses old books to create new sentences with his most famous piece of work; the Humument. Here is a rough timeline of his life.
1937: Born in London.
1957: He attends St Catherines College in Oxford where he learnt to read English.
1957: He also studies drawing at the Ruskin School.
1961: He attends Camberwell school of art.
1965- 1972: He teaches art at Bath academy of art, Ipswich and Wolverhampton Art college.
1965: Philips first solo art show at the Artists International Association Gallery in London.
1973: The first showing of 'a humument'.
1987: Appointed as a member of the royal Society of Painters and Etchers.
1989: He holds a solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
1989: Elected to the royal academy of art.
1995- 2007: Chairman of the royal education commitie at the college.
1998- 2006: Serves as a trustee of the national portrait gallery.
1999: Appointed as an honoury member of the royal society of portrait painters.
1999- 2006: Serves as a trustee of the British Museum.
2002: Made a 'Commander of the bristish empire for services to the arts' in the 2002 British Honours

         list.

A Humument

Another copy of the humument

Tom Phillips himself!

Artist research

The first part of this topic will be based around old books- destined for the bin, and sculpturing them into much more interesting objects! One artist who has influenced this idea is Ros Rixon. She uses many different books to make into new objects, mainly with much cut out. The following have been made by her.
I think that the Fine hand blown glass ball is very clever; it is a very simple and original idea, but works incredibly well as a stunning piece of work; especially on the black background.
I also think that 'Artists at work' piece is very clever- I really like the way that she has cut and pulled out lots of thin paper shreds from the book- I think that this is VERY imaginative. She must have spent lots of painstaking hours over it!

Ros Rixon herself!

Fine hand blown glass balls filled with

Vintage book shreds

Book sculpture 'Artists at work'

Thursday 9th September 2010

Hello and welcome to Recycled objects blog! I have set this up for using instead of using a sketch book, for the first year of GCSE art. I will upload all of my work here, especially until our big recycling exhibition at Maiden Erlegh school starting on December 9th 2010.
The three words that I will be basing my project around are:

• Rework
• Rearrange to
• Reinvent

I will post my first piece of work soon.