Sunday, March 14, 2010

MARTY THE ARTIST

I have posted many pictures of Marty working with hot glass. The fire and smoke and the men working to create something wonderful is exciting. But today Marty is doing cold work.

Marty is assembling and mounting single and multi piece sculptures. Basically he is eye balling several leaves and other pieces he has made and gluing them together. Many leaves are called but few are chosen. They must match his mind's eye design, they must be ground to the right angle to fit, ( no pictures of the grinding process, it is a mess )they must match the colors of the other glass. When he starts gluing he is working against the clock. If all goes well the glue sets up quickly and becomes stronger than the glass. If not, things fall down and go boom. Luckily, he makes very heavy glass and if it falls while he is working, it usually survives.

The glue is activated by heat and/or sun rays. During the winter he has a hard time assembling pieces because they take so long to set up. And you must hold or tape the pieces together as the glue dries.

Remember, click on the picture to make it biggger.

Here Marty has glued a flame to a clear piece of glass.
A multi piece and a single piece mounted and ready to clean.

Marty is applying the glue before he mounts another flame.
Holding the flame hoping the glue holds.
After the pieces have set up the extra glue must be cleaned off. He uses acetone and razor blades to clean the glass.
More clean up of the sculpture.
The finished product, yet unnamed.

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