Stamp Pendants; Low Temperatures/High Times

I have another set of new designs to show off - I really feel like silk screening is just my perfect thing. Which is odd, because I know you could use it with textiles or wood or anything else, so it's almost like it doesn't matter that I'm working with glass right now (regarding these things anyway). I think this is a good thing, actually, oddly enough. I think if I can pair my ideas down so much that they could be relevant and workable in any medium, then it means I've done my job. After all, my newly focused intent this semester is to create things that the average person, that anyone can relate to and understand. So if I create anything that's mind-boggling to the average person (because it's glass and glass is very enigmatic), then they're going to get distracted.

I know I suck at taking pictures, but this image isn't awful just because of me. The "Mocha Brown" powder was so pale that I could barely see it - I was really terrified it would turn out looking like this!

Anyway, back on track, this new design theme is stamps. I was pondering Charon's Obol and wondering, when we die, what we would pay the ferryman to cross the river styx. My best modern conclusion was stamps. The ferryman is like a postal man because he's delivering our soul somewhere for us, and what do we put on all of our postal packages to make sure everyone knows they're paid for? Stamps.

Vaguely in the bottom left you can see the US flag, followed by Earth and a maple leaf.

To start with I put together some very basic imagery of Canada, the US and Earth, going off of the fact that your stamp always says something like, "Canada Post" on it, to tell you where it's from. I thought of this as making sure the ferryman knows where you're from, or where you want to go, based on your identifying stamp.
 

 

There we have it, they turned out o-kay! Yes,  yes, bad camera photos and all so they look a bit burnt, but the true colors look awesome together! I'm really, really pleased with the way these turned out, and so happy that Fantasy in Glass happened to be giving away one cream sheet for every three sheets of glass you bought :) Freebies are the best! The official name of this brown, even though it looks awful in that photo, is Mocha Brown (RW 224).

Then we move on to more farm and hobo pendants, yaaaaay ~ 

I can't tell you how excited I am about the fact that I'm getting better at lining these guys up on center! It's still hard because there's a few different factors, but I'm getting it. My genius idea (if I may say so), to place a printed copy of the silkscreen down, with outlines of where each pendant should perfectly go - that really makes my life easier! I suggest it to anyone who ever wants to silkscreen something small, because it can be a trying experience.

The unusual thing about this kiln program is that instead of firing at 740°-760° I only fired at 700° - but because the glass sat at that temperature for an hour, the edges rounded out a lot more than they do at say, 10 minutes at 740°. I can't say whether there's a benefit to holding at a low temperature for a long time, or a high temperature for a short time - they both take up more power in their own way.

 

Fri Mar 22, 2013
Large Paragon
1) 9 hours ↑ 600° for 2 hours
2) 1 hour ↑ 700° for 1 hour
3) AFAP ↓ 515° for 2 hours
4) 4 hours ↓ 390°
5) 8 hours ↓ 50°

Unfortunately I messed up and thought that the first step of the Paragon is say, "How many hours to this temperature?" When in reality it's, "How many degrees an hour to this temperature?" meaning that the program ran up a lot faster than it was supposed to (sorry Roxy), but everything did work out.