The THicket glass artwork by Roger V Thomas

Roger’s working on a new piece!

And you know what that means… That’s right. No love for the Ingrid.

But even I have to admit it looks good.

We were out for a walk the other day. I prefer the parks, so I can chase balls and squirrels, but walking along the Columbia Slough is nice, too. And sometimes we head over to Portland Meadows and I get to bark at the horses. They tend to ignore me, so I bark more.

Anyway, Portland Meadows is where he took this picture of a thicket:

The actual photograph of the thicket from PIR
The photograph of the thicket

He thought about it for a while, then decided he really, really liked this picture. So much so, that he planned on taking one of his favorite pieces, Op.505, Marble Kodama, and make a bigger version of it using this photo as inspiration.

Matching the palette using Marble Kodama
Matching the palette using Marble Kodama

This isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Roger forgets things sometimes.

Sometimes he forgets to pet me, or he forgets to get up early enough to take me for a walk when it isn’t hot out (and it’s been really hot out!). But this time, he forgot the palette that he used for Marble Kodama.

So tests were made. Lots of tests. I think he may have cried at one point, but that could have been me because he hadn’t taken me on a walk yet.

Background, fitted
Background, fitted, but not fired yet

But he eventually figured it out, pulled every table possible into the studio and starting throwing glass around, breaking things, and generally making a big mess.

Raw firings for background
Raw firings for background

He made the background first, since he had just spent all of that time figuring out the colors, and made a bunch of raw firings in the palette. Those were all fitted together into the proper size, and to make the background follow the light patterns of the photograph.

Foreground, trees and branches
Foreground, trees and branches

 

Then came the foreground, which turned into a whole big puzzle piece of tree branches, tree trunks, tree twigs…

Front piece, fritted and pre-fired
Front piece, fritted and pre-fired

 

Once he had that all sized properly and ready to go, he threw a bunch of frit on it, tossed it in the kiln, and went over to a Jenny‘s house for fish tacos. (He didn’t take me along, but that’s because Jenny’s dog is a b*tch and doesn’t like me. B*tch.)

 

This morning, this is what came out:

Foreground, fired
Foreground, fired

Doesn’t look like much, does it?

Well, it’s all right.

But wait until you see what happens when he puts in on the background!

Pieces put together, pre-fired
Ta da! Foreground and background together, pre-fired

Impressive, isn’t it?

Today he’s going to trim it all up, fit it on the base plate, pretty up some of the uglies with a little frit and scrim, and then back in the kiln it goes.

It’s almost magical.

Someone less practical than a dog might believe it’s magical, anyway.

And since he hasn’t made a new piece for a while, I suppose I can just relax here on the cement floor of the studio.

It has been awfully hot out and I’m so sleepy…