Snips & Snails

With a windfall of inspiration from my recent trip to Portland, Oregon (which was awesome for a number of reasons, including climbing a mountain, exploring tidepools, and a visit to a very cool fabric store, which I will probably expound upon in a future post), I've been whipping up a number of snail-themed objects.

As pictured in my last brief update, it began with three-inch long clear-bodied snails that sit upright, which were cute, but I was ultimately unhappy with the quality of the bodies. The shells all turned out to be very visually engaging and striking, only they were perched on bodies that disappeared into whatever surface they were sitting on. I find that it is easy for clear glass to sort of melt visually into indistinct forms if I'm not 100% careful and deliberate.

So I did away with the little snaily bodies, and pared my designs down to the shell. I made them a bit smaller and attached a clear loop on top, et voila - it's a pendant! (Is it just me, or am I sensing a trend here?)

Now these guys I'm pretty happy with. Right now these are made with a color stripe pattern overlaid on a rod of clear glass, which has had the result of the color thinning out during the twisting process (which makes the stripes go all twirly around the shell) and being somewhat translucent by the time the piece is finished. I'll be working this week on making them as opaque as possible, because that's when the colors are really going to pop against each other.

Also: Chess Set Progress Update #2 - I now have three whole pieces done: a bishop and two knights. I know I know, I'm going pretttty fast here on this project... Realistically, it is probably going to continue to be a very slow process, but I think that's okay if I want to end up with a finished product I'm pleased with.

I'm pretty happy with my black bishop. He turned out nice and evenly-shaped. The knights are probably the hardest to make balanced and symmetrical, so I'm hoping for smoother sailing once I get to the less organically-shaped pieces.

Chessmen!

I've officially begun my chess set mission! This will be an ongoing project in the coming months, and I imagine I'll be over the moon when I have finally managed to create an entire useable set.

 

The knight was the piece that was intimidating me the most construction-wise, so that's the piece I started out making. That ended up being a very good call, because I discovered that it really wasn't as difficult as I'd anticipated, it just took some time and patience. As it turns out, I think I might have a harder time with pieces that are more geometric, like rooks. Horses are organic and fairly forgiving compared to the hard lines of castles and architectural forms. Hot glass never ever wants to make sharp angles and edges.

So this is version 1.0. Prototype A. Not as clean as I'd like. Lots of room for improvement. The base should be less awkward, and I have to get my symmetry down better, not to mention the large amount of room left for more intricate detail (though I kind of like the smooth, simple look - if I really clean up my proportions and symmetrical accuracy, I think I could make some very cool minimalist chess pieces). Next up, The Queen!