The Demise of the Bullfinch
The demise of the Bullfinch.
During our endless summer that started in the first lockdown and made our changed and unreal world into something more unreal, I really noticed the birds. The colours of the goldfinch always strike me with a feeling of delight
and I started looking at other birds; the coal tit with the stripe down their
yellow breast, the iridescence of the magpie and when you look closer, the
complexity of the patterning of the feathers on most birds.
So I considered making a range of bowls that used the colour and proportions
of colour of birds, but were not bird like.
Sounds good?
Very exciting.
Started with the bullfinch. Here it is in the raw glass (1) and here it is fused and
cracked (probably because of some impurity or incompatible bit of glass) (2).
I fused it back together and dripped it through holes in the kiln shelf to try to
get some movement into it (3). But there was not enough movement.
One of my students gave me a mould mesh to use. This is a mesh that you melt
the glass through and it pools below into a flat disk into a very different
pattern. However, as you can see, it wasn’t fit for purpose and here is the
bullfinch at the bottom of the kiln, melted into the mesh. (4)
Pretty useless apart from an accidentally interesting piece. (5) This is sometimes how it is in the glass world.
I made another bullfinch but the colour was disappointing, and it looks more like chaffinch colours.
So here is the Chaffinch Bowl.
