Sunday, March 27, 2011

Kiln Fired Glass

Back in January I did some research on how to transfer black and white imagery onto glass, something that I've been intrigued by and wanting to experiment with for sometime. Turns out there's a pretty simple method using a film that is run through an old style lazer printer (not ink jet). It is a decal that then can be soaked off the paper backing and attached to (very) clean glass. After that it is kiln-fired. The iron in the lazer printer toner cartridges is the "active ingredient" fusing itself into the glass and coming out as a sepia photo image. Pretty amazing stuff.

Since then I've made some pieces that have the kiln-fired glass attached.




"One Day Clarity Appeared With the Greatest of Ease"

"She Is the Yin to His Yang"

It's a little hard to see in the photo of this one, but there is a dancer in front of the kiln-fired glass section.

"Holding It Inside as If It Belonged"

This piece has wall mounts on the back (which you can barely see in this photo) that push it out from the wall about 1.25 inches. And unless one clicks on the image to enlarge it, it's a bit of a challenge to see the shark image within the skirt area.

I don't own a kiln, so I want to give a big "thank you" to Brian Brenno here on this island who generously offered to fire these experiments for me. I dare say all the Photoshop work (I'm such a beginner still) that I did just to get these images out seems to be calling me in a new direction.