Ode to the Ancients: No. XXVII        Copyright 2008 Donna Branch, All Rights Reserved

Glass, cast, carved with battuto, sandblasted, acid-etched, steel frame, 16.6″H x 8.5″W x 6.5″D, edition limited to twenty-five

Often artists (not just visual artists, I mean writers too) are asked about inspiration.  

Where does it come from? 

What incites inspiration? 

 What exactly is inspiration? 

Just to get the creative juices flowing, Webster’s has a few definitions.  Here they are, then you can tell me what you think.

• (a) a divine influence or action on a person held to qualify him to receive and communicate sacred revelation 
• (b) the action or power of moving the intellect (c) the act of influencing or suggesting opinions;
• but I like the definition for inspire because it more closely shows what this post is about: Webster says of inspire “to exert an animating , enlivening or exalting influence on.”

Those who have followed my work know that I love the natural shape of trees and leaves as exhibited in The Serenbe Project that you can find here.   Or, bark patterns on the trunk of a tree shown in the photo above.

What inspires you as an artist, writer, musician, lover of nature and life?   

If you have any questions or comments about this piece or others in my portfolio at donnabranch.com   , you can leave those on the blog also.  

Your inspirations?  Comment on the blog. 

Photograph: Copyright Robert Rausch GAS Design Center 2008, All Rights Reserved

Copyright Robert Rausch Gas Design Center 2008, All Rights Reserved

I announced on Tuesday that I would have an interview aired tonight, at 6:30pm CST on the local NPR Station, WBHM 90.3FM.

The interview did mention that there were 33 or 35 leaves. There are 175 leaves!!

Before I’m off to sign more leaves….a total of 175!…..I wanted to post the link for the podcast. Enjoy. https://www.wbhm.org/Tapestry/

An interview on “Tapestry” on the local NPR station WBHM 90.3 will be aired on October 23, 2008, at 6:30 pm. The interview about The Serenbe Project was taped at the studio, so there is a good bit of “raw” sound and I think it will be entertaining.

There should be a picture on the WBHM website that shows a real limb that I found on which I installed some of the Serenbe leaves.

Hope you enjoy.

35 Days Until Serenbe Installation: This weekend I started to clean the cast leaves by smoothing them on the lathe and diamond wheel. When I get them the way I like them, I will sign and date each leaf.

Hopefully I will be able to get some shots of the lathe work as well as the application of the signature and the finished leaves.

The majority of the leaves (about 120 of them) are between 7-8 inches and the remaining 30 leaves are various sizes from 3 -10 inches. There will only be a couple of 10 inch leaves.
The portion of the project that entails producing the leaves nears completion. As I discussed earlier, the installation will take place on October 30-31. We will begin early the morning of October 30 and work until the installation is complete.

This is the latest post on the studio processes regarding The Serenbe Project. I talked with Robert Rausch this morning and we have decided that we will be installing on October 30-31. I can’t wait to see the leaves in the natural light. It will be beautiful!

Go here for my lastest post about the studio

http://donnabranchglassstudio.blogspot.com/2008/08/cast-glass-serenbe-project-installation.html

I loaded ovens this evening. It took a while to get the glass loaded into the moulds. So, here is the process. I will post more pictures of the process in a future post, probably tomorrow.

1. Make an original model or pattern
2. Invest (pour) plaster into the mould (creates negative space in which to put glass)
3. Remove the pattern material
4. Dry the mould
5. Apply kiln wash to the mould & cure
6. Wash and dry the glass that will be used
7. Determine how much glass it will take to fill the mould (on a future post)
8. Weigh the glass
9. Fill the mould
10. Fire the kiln

After the Bullseye glass cullet is washed and dryed, I store it like this next to the kiln and the scale so that when I get ready to weigh the glass, I can load the scales, weigh the glass and load the mould from the same place. Also, I don’t have to move the moulds as they are very heavy.

This is Bullseye casting cullet on the left and Bullseye casting billets on the right. Bullseye is some of the best glass made. The billets have been cut on the wet saw, then washed, then stored

Ok, if the cullet is too large, it has to be made smaller and I do this with a sledge hammer and a garbage compactor bag (because they are thick bags). Safety glasses are a must.

I’m crushing the glass a bit here to make it smaller. The very small frit I use to help secure the wire.

These moulds pictured are still for The Serenbe Project. Take a minute and visit the Serenbe Community, it is a delightful place. After the clay model is removed from the glass mould, the moulds have to be checked to make sure there are no undercuts (places where the glass can become lodged). This pictures on the blog tonight show how I finish the moulds.

This is how I finish the edges and remove the remaining clay.

I then brush out the mould to make sure that it is clean before taking a warm damp rag to go over it one more time.

After the mould is cleaned like this, it is ready to be placed in the kiln to be force-dried.

I found these cool little paintbrushes at Harbor Freight Tools. They are good for a lot of things in the studio and they are so inexpensive, I just throw them away!

At this point, the mould is still very wet. The plaster material with which I invest the mould has a very short working time (under 10 minutes on a cooler day). This means that most days in the South, you better have your plan together when you begin to mix, because on a 95 degree day with high humidity, the working time is more like 5-6 minutes. I still like this material very much.

These glass leaves will be installed at Serenbe in late October.

This mould is the round one to fit the kiln. It has been force-dried and is ready to be cured at 1475 degrees for this kiln.