Baskets

Coral inspired baskets are created by placing pieces of glass rods or strips of glass into an arrangement that simulates coral trees. Figure 1 shows an arrangement of glass rod pieces that will ultimately create a glass coral sculpture. Figure 2 shows the resultant piece after fusing.

The resultant snow flake looking piece then needs to be slumped into the desired shape.  This was done using a hand built mold a out of special kiln paper that withstands the kiln temperatures. The resultant slump shaped piece was epoxied to a pedestal to result in the piece shown in Figure 3.

Carousel baskets are a bit more involved. For these, we take pattern bars, shape them per the design plan, then arrange the  shaped pattern bar pieces on the kiln shelf. Segments of thin strips of glass or rods are the placed to interconnect the shaped pattern bar pieces to form the desired Carousel Basket design. These are fused using the same firing program as for Mosaics, and then slumped into a mold to create the basket shape. Figure 4 shows a finished Carousel Basket.

​The technique involves placement of colored glass in a terra cotta flower pot in which the drainage hole at the bottom has been modified.  We have experimented with a number of configurations ranging from 4 holes to 9 holes, circular holes, oblong holes, even cruciform holes. Figure 1 shows two of the pot hole configurations we’ve used. The color choice of glass as well as mix percentages are critical to the outcome.  The pot is suspended above a kiln shelf as shown in Figure 2. Care must be exercised to level the shelf as well as the suspended pot. In addition, the amount of glass in the pot must be measured and limited to make sure the resultant piece doesn’t exceed the available area on the collection shelf.