I have been on a tiger kick lately. No particular reason why.. I just like 'em and they aren't too difficult to sgraffito! :) Still doing my mica powders and fusing...just used up the last of my black scrap COE 96 tonight. The ones below are my first attempts, from left to right.
This one didn't actually make it to the fusing stage...he was a little too crazy eyed! First attempt at drawing a snarling tiger. :D There are some amazing artists on Youtube sharing their techniques and I was attempting to copy an artist named Alphonso Dunn (see the tutorial here). The nice thing about doing the sgraffito before its fused is that you can wipe it off and start over...:)
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He also inspired me to try an eagle. But this post is about tigers! :)
These two are much better. Practice makes perfect! I was happy that I didn't need to grind or firepolish the one on the right.
This guy did make it to getting fused, below.
He hasn't been ground and firepolished yet but I'm happy with him!
Next, I decided to do a 3/4 view. I'll probably repost his photo after I get him ground and firepolished.
Then a friend gave me some old bottles and I decided I needed a bigger canvas. :)
He sort of came out like a negative, so I took the photo into my graphics program and made it into a negative to see if it showed up better.
I was worried about doing a rounded shape but I didn't slip. I wasn't using my rotary tool...I was using a much less powerful battery operated engraving tool.
On the back, I tried to make one of those one stroke flowers with my engraving tool. Not too successful but it was my first try. :) With sgraffito, you are basically scratching the outlines of your picture into your glass. That's why I like using black glass...the scratched lines are black and outline your drawing nicely....like drawing with a dark pencil on white paper. But on the dark bottle, my tiger above looks like a negative. The parts I etched became lighter. I watched this wonderful glass engraver named Lesley Pyke (see her amazing work here) and she talks about engraving the light. After trying to etch the flower, I understand that statement now.
Then I tried a bottle that was sort of etched already. It wasn't shiny, in other words... The engraving didn't show up very well. I ended up using paint to rub into the etching to show it up more. It left a gold mica tint in the etching.
Then I bought a small red bottle with three flat sides. I really like the way this one came out! I think I see an improvement over my first few attempts, anyway! What do you think?
Side two of the red bottle. Couldn't/didn't do the third side, mostly because there is a large seam running down the center of it. I may still do something with it, not sure yet.
Thanks for looking and come back soon!
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