Kilncasting

Anna Boothe | General

Session: 3/2005 12 - 25 June

Component Sculpture; Hot and Cold Assemblage of Kiln-Cast Elements
This workshop will "run the radius" between the conceptual and the technical and thus, will focus on the development of ideas through their realization in glass via a variety of technical processes. Students will be given an open-ended assignment that will serve to introduce the challenge of assembling glass parts to each other, to other materials and to a presentation surface. A variety of kiln techniques will be presented with stress given to the addition of non-glass inclusions with the goal of creating parts or sections to incorporate into larger objects. As well, basic through advanced frit-casting processes will be covered as other methods through which components may be fabricated for assembly. Students will be encouraged to carefully preplan the assemblage of their elements either through mechanical or other means. In order to do so, numerous options will be discussed including "hot" connections, mechanical systems and the use of appropriate adhesives. Finishing techniques along with presentation trouble-shooting will also be addressed. The class will culminate with an informal critique. Course information will be presented through slide lectures, demonstrations, and lots of hand-outs. Note: In kilnformed work, the size of the kiln or the thickness of the piece to be fired and cooled can too often dictate and limit the finished scale of a glass object. Even though the objects produced in this class will be small in size, the information provided in this course attempts to free kiln-workers from the constraints of scale by offering a new perspective on how glass and other materials can be combined.

(Anna Boothe)

Anna Boothe

Anna Boothe trained as a sculptor at the Rhode Island School of Design and has worked with glass since 1980. She holds a MFA from the Tyler School of Art, where she was a member of the Glass Program faculty for 13 years. Currently, as the Instructional Chair of the Glass Art Degree Program at Salem Community College in southern New Jersey, she is expanding and helping to create a vision for the new program's curriculum that focuses studies on kiln-forming, kiln-casting and lampworking. She lectures and teaches workshops on frit and pate de verre casting regularly and has taught at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY and in many university art settings, as well as in Belgium, Switzerland, and Japan. In 2004, apart from the Glass Furnace, she is scheduled to teach at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the Pittsburgh Glass Center's new casting facility (which she helped to design), and at the Studio. Anna's kiln-cast figurative work is in the collections of the Corning Museum of Glass, the Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, and in numerous private collections. Recently, she was included in the Tittot Glass Art Museum's exhibition of American Educators in Taipei, Taiwan. Currently, Anna serves as the Vice President of the Glass Art Society's Board of Directors, for which she chairs the nominating committee and is the Education Editor for the organization's bi-monthly newsletter.