Nudibranch Art Glass's Gallery
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Nudibranch Art Glass is a glass studio run by Laurie and Chris in Melbourne, Australia.
Laurie was born in California and Chris in Germany. Both share a passion for all things glass and aquatic, they have 15 tropical fish tanks in their studio, a perfect combination of glass and things aquatic, and are mad scuba divers ... but most of all, they share a passion for each other.
Laurie is expert at making pate de verre sculptures and she has a background in stained glass, fusing and slumping.
Chris was trained as a scientific glassblower before striking out into the arts.
Both Laurie and Chris have fine arts degrees, extensive experience in the hotshop and in kiln casting lead crystal. They're constantly looking for new ways of embracing each other with their work.
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"That's an Acklay, padawan!"...
this is based on one of the monsters from the Geonosis arena scene of SW EpII. It's 18" diagonally across and just scraped into my little day kiln.
(9 images, 10 comments)
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These two are part of a series I'm now working on which is inspired by the leopard murrine which I used on the leopard eggs from last week. Its also a continuation of all this tribal stuff I've gotten into lately. The tall one is 18".
Thanks for looking
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I couldn't help myself, I needed a couple of minutes of fun away from the intesity of making stuff for 2 upcoming exhibitions .... been working like mad ... this one took next to no time to make and yet, brightened my day no end .
Anyway, here's my take on a micro honeycomb, coming in at 4mm, it's lensed, has black backing and a fumed honeycomb inside. People should try this, how small can you go on a honeycomb?
Thank you, Anakin! I guess you must hear it all the time, but your marbles are awesome!
(1 image, 2 comments)
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Here's something I tried out recently when I was searching for different textures. It's such an obvious thing (and therefore often missed, I guess ... I sure did until now :P ), I'm sure people have used it in Egypt 5000 years ago, but because it's so simple that just about anyone with a little experience can do it, I thought I'd share it anyway.
The textures in the marble (rather quickly made, sorry I didn't even bother melting out the lines made by the marble mold coz they're just experiments) are from a Meat Tenderising Mallet I found at a cheap shop fo $2 (like the one in the first pic). both sides of the hammer are textures, one with a fine texture, the other side with a wider spaced texture ... heat the glass, press, fume, cap the back, hey presto, double sided textured grid marble (I like to call it "gridl"), cheap cheap texturising tenderiser. The jelly is made the same way and then imploded ... I guess you can get a similar effect from a flower frog (and an even better effect from the awesome V
(9 images)
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Cathedral is the working title for this, we haven't actually concreted a final title, yet ... thinking of "Strange Love".
Laurie cast the cathedral backdrop from lead crystal from various colours.
(7 images)
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here's a couple of knives in glass. the dragon knife measures 51cm or just over 1' 8". The blade is wavy like a kris blade, and the handle is an oriental dragon in flight. The horns of the dragon form the hand guard. The blade is diamond-incised and depicts a flying phoenix and a cloud. The root of the blade is stamped with the clan marker.
the elephant tanto is 40cm long (the blade 24cm). The blade is stamped with a clan marker and engraved with an acacia tree and two tigers. The hamon is ground into a wavy line on both sides of the blade to form the edge and just like on a steel sword, a micro edge. This short sword will be used as part of a sculpture.
both blades balance perfectly.
I made the dragon all clear and the elephant mostly clear with some colour highs to try and showcase the natural beauty of the glass and how it relates to the purity of a finely made sword blade. blah blah blah
(6 images, 3 comments)
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you've seen the work in progress, here's the finished piece complete with base. The base is made using a combination of casting and pâté de verre, the figures are carved out of an exotic rubber tyre compound ... well ... maybe not ... they're really made from Schott clear flashed with NS colours.
(10 images, 4 comments)
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Dragon holding a pearl chalice.
The dragon has a fine blast over it and the claws, eyes and teeth were left clear.
(3 images, 6 comments)
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What better case than this to sell dragon-eye marbles in? My girl got this for me a while back from a flea-market and it's made from real snakeskin (I think python, possibly from SE Asia) ... there's a bit of a story around it but I won't bore you with the details. The short of it is that this is what I go to galleries with to sell my marbles (before I lose them). I kitted it out with nobby foam covered in black velvet. I absolutely love it ... it goes with my snakeskin belt and boots :P
(3 images, 1 comment)
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Here's two figures which a commission from last year asked for to round off two original figures made over 2 years ago.
This is the blurb for the original two figures:
"Through the millennia art has dealt with many ways of representing allegorical ideas, relating concepts and ideals in stories to the human form and its relationships to various elemental entities. Glass comes from fire as a liquid, and the relationship between fire and liquid is like a dance in the glassmaker’s hands. In OPUS #1 fire and liquid engage in a stately cotillion."
I tried to write more on my trials and tribulations on the thoughts behind the add-on figures, but for some reason the promised word-count didn't come through for me :P ... this always hap
(8 images, 3 comments)
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This is a pair of sculptures of a nymph and a faun dancing.
the bases are cast by Laurie from flameworking soda frit. figures by Chris
(3 images, 1 comment)
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here's just some figures Chris did over the last few years
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I got commissioned to make a flute for a local town icon a couple of weeks ago. He's a flute player and has lived in that area for 35 odd years and is moving to the city. He has produced and recorded over 30 albums of his music over a wide range of genres.
The flutes' body is hollow and will be filled with sand from the beach for him to take wherever he goes. The model is 1:1 and I tried to get it as accurate as possible. Originally I was going to make a horizontal stand for it, but after playing around I decided that a diagonal stand would suit it much better. It almost looks like a Japanese sword that way.
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you guessed it! It's a round, solid honeycomb/vortex ...
(4 images, 1 comment)
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Here's another blasted dragon goblet, this one's a little taller than the other one at a foot and a half. He's sitting on a contemplation rock and has a chinese style cloud hanging over him. Unfortunately I didn't clean the bowl very well before taking pictures, but it makes it all the more visible ;)
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this is a work in progress, it's been in and out of the kiln all week. there's other parts to it which I don't have photos yet ... so you'll have to wait till I've finished all up.
this part of the piece is a stand of coral with different species of nudibranchs on it. the patterns and colours are true to, or as close to, the real thing as possible. there are over 300 species of nudibranch present just off the sunshine coast in queensland alone ... so many more worldwide. I only have 17 on that piece so far, and most of those Chromodoris species.
enjoy, I'll post more anon
Chris
(8 images, 1 sub-page, 2 comments)
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Laurie's first ever big venture into boro resulted in this! We both love scuba diving and get a lot of inspiration from the sea, as well as illustrated books on natural history.
Her expertise is in pate de verre, casting and really just about every aspect of kiln working glass,so the bell of the jelly is made using a combination of pate de verre and lost wax casting. The tentacles (I didn't actually count them, but there's a lot) she worked in boro at the flame, a huge amount of work with what relatively little teaching she's had so far. We also neglected to measure it before it went into the gallery, it's approximately 140cm long and the bell is about 40cm diameter.
(3 images, 8 comments)
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here's a few images of the kirra "glass on flame" exhibition and demo weekend (melbourne australia) in sep 2006. the demonstrating glassblowers were matthew farell, mark eliott, raymond mifsud and chris arnold.
also work by chris made for this exhibition.
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It's anything but dirty ... these are some glass shirts by Laurie from a couple of years ago. The patterns are all done with glass frits and powders, painstakingly placed into a plaster/silica mold and then fused in the kiln. It takes weeks from start to finished piece.
Imagine a balmy night in Hawaii, the sound of the surf and lovers strolling along in the moonlight.
Aloha and enjoy!
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what can I say, my girl likes lobsters and it's christmas ;)
(2 images, 9 comments)
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These are some preliminary shots of a new piece we've been working on called Meeting Place.
A nymph and a faun in a magical wood, the nymph is just in the process of transforming herself from a tree into her female form as the faun watches on.
The colours are heavily fumed gold and silver, the faun is silver and the nymph is gold fumed. I've put a couple of different shots of the nymph in to show the changes in colour with lights in transmission and reflection.
(5 images, 4 comments)
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here's some more collaborative work, these two pieces were both chosen as finalist pieces for the Ranamok (ranamok dot com)travelling exhibition in Australia. They're flamework and pate de verre collabs by Laurie and Chris.
here they are, Dragon Pearl and Galapagoddess ... don't ask for the stories, make them up yourself!
(8 images, 4 comments)
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here's some more of Chris' work in progress. all the figures will fit into Laurie's reefs and other landscapes. For example, the faun will be dancing in a green meadow with naked nymphs. Once they're all done, we'll post some proper pics. Chris is working with a radical new glass which when worked the right way appears out of focus to the human eye ... well ... not really, sorry about the poor quality of the images, they were taken on a camera phone.
(6 images, 3 comments)
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... like a chalice.
This is a piece to warm the heart, surprisingly sincere from the glossy clear base, through the satin-textured stem, right up to the marvellous and stunningly multi-coloured bowl.
The images were done on an ID.-07 vinyl cutter to incredibly perfect detail. They are then cunningly sandblasted into the very fabric of the glass, and right through the layer of colour!!! wow! ....
The images I shamelessly ripped from my grand-mother, who used to do Arts and Crafts markets ... but that's ok because I give her credit for it, thank you grandma!
see? nothing says I love you like a chalice ... I love you!
(7 images, 1 comment)
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Chris and Laurie love scuba diving, and these little critters feature greatly in the story of why and how they met. Chris hasn't stopped making nudibranchs for her, since.
These ones are mainly based on Chromodoris species and are 3 to 4 inches long
and below are a couple of pix of Chris and Laurie diving with the cuttlefish ... scuba is awesome!
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finally the other octogirl has a base for it. Here it is.
The title of the piece is a german word ... "Umarmung" ... which means embrace, or literally putting-arms-around
(3 images, 3 comments)
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the reef was made in pate de verre by Laurie and the octopussy flamed by Chris.
the other sculpture is waiting for another reef to be finished.
(6 images, 1 comment)
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“Ode to the Sun King”
Natural forms are a never-ending source of inspiration for us and none more than the mysterious creatures found in the depths of the oceans. Influenced by the works of Ernst Haeckel as well as the opulence of baroque and rococo traditions, it is a celebration of the beauty and complexity of the natural world.
This is the second piece which got into the Ranamok prize. It stands just over 80cm tall and as the blurb says, it's based on one of Haeckels drawings of a Discomedusae jellyfish. The holder for the nautilus is shaped like the ribs of a sunken ship, but stylized with curlicues to be in harmony with the rococo theme. The base is a mixture of cire perdue and pate de verre and the jelly is all clear duran glass with a 24ct gold fume on the bell and the ship.
(8 images, 1 sub-page, 1 comment)
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"Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha"
the form of the dancing Ganesha has always been a favourite of mine from that particular pantheon of gods. The idea for a ponderous being like that to have such light feet is in many ways a strange and paradoxical notion.
This piece is 2 foot tall and depicts ganesha dancing on a lotus. This flower is representative of eternity, purity and divinity and is widely used as a symbol of life, fertility, ever-renewing youth. Ganesha and the lotus flower are prevalent in both hindu and buddhist religions. Ganesha's broken tusk hovers above like the sickle of the moon.
(4 images, 1 comment)
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STOP! or the rabbit gets it!!
cheap-ass chinese glass rabbit gets held hostage by alien creature! Will he die? will he survive? will he get maimed?
YOU decide! :P
You've never seen anything like it anywhere, not even the nostromo.
he's 25cm tall and 30cm from front to tip of tail,
(10 images, 5 comments)
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After Eurydice was bitten by a serpent and died, Orpheus was so stricken that he dared to enter the underworld to see if he could win her back from death. he sang such sad songs that Hades and Persephone, the gods of the underworld, were so moved that they allowed Orpheus to lead Eurydice back to the light of day under the condition that he wouldn't look at her walking behind him until they were back in the world of the living. Suspecting deception and doubting the god's promise, in his anxiety he turned to see if she was really there ... in that same instant she disappears back into the underworld.
(5 images, 6 comments)
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these are pate de verre sculptures by Laurie. They are all life size and most of them pretty heavy!
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Another goblet, this one's 16" tall and features a Royal Winchester Light Combat Dragon in attack position as the stem. The scales are applied using a diamond drill.
(5 images, 3 comments)
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we just recently got back from Peru and been working hard trying to come to terms (or rather "come to glass")with all our experiences there. The mountains, the jungle, the ruins, the medicine ceremonies, the whole journey was an amazing ride. There's a whole bunch of stuff Laurie is currently casting in the kiln and I've been working on objects along the same theme.
This is one of them,a rattle, based on our meeting with a medicine man up on a mountain. The rattle and the horn are one piece and the mixed media in the rattle includes parrot feathers, coyote, lizard and snake skin, suede, wooden beads and pistachio shells inside to make it rattle. The many different things on this rattle are a tribute to the eclectic nature of this man.
all animals furs and skins I use are reclaimed from old items we find in thrift stores and flea-markets. I never reuse them for throwaway objects but try to restore to the animal some respect by making ritual/ceremonial objects from them.
33cm
(4 images, 4 sub-pages, 4 comments)
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stuff from a couple of years ago.
(6 images, 3 comments)
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sometimes the glass looks back at you ... and you could just blow ... but then you change your mind and do away with all the hollow promises an empty vessel can make and gather up a lump of glass and shape it round and make something solid and full bodied out of it. like this "Odalisque" marble, whose allure seems to come straight out of the 1001 arabian tales. silk on a hot summernights breeze ...
made from bits and bobs and odd ends, try-outs, farkups and friggins lying around on my table as I was cleaning up .... I never did clean up that day, but ended up with a whole bunch of marbles made and recycled from scraps.
(4 images, 2 comments)
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The first movie in the original Star Wars trilogy (now SW4 I think) Obi Wan scares away the sand people by using the force to mimic a call ... C3PO walks across the dune sea in the Tatooine desert, a giant skeleton in the background ... after filming, the crew left the skeleton prop in the Tunisian desert ... it remains there until this day.
Both the call made by Obi Wan and the skeleton came from a Krayt Dragon. A giant lizard living in the hostile waste that is Tatooine ... they never stop growing. Like many lizards, the gigantic Krayt will swallow rocks to help grind up the food they eat ... such as whole banthas!
The smoothest of these stones found inside a Krayt Dragon are called "dragon pearls" and can be used in lieu of "force amplifying crystals" (found in the caves of Ilum) to focus and intensify the beam from a lightsaber. Often the test of a young jedi adept into knighthood is the slaying of just such a giant Krayt Dragon ...
May the force be with you if you ever come across one.
(3 images, 8 comments)
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various perfume bottles made by Chris a few years ago, inspired by the natural world, sci fi and ... well, check it out...
(10 images, 8 sub-pages, 2 comments)
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Deep in the ocean,
there are living some large animals,
.... and their calves.
all clear glass goblet of a whale mother and her calf diving deep.
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This is a quick space/time do-hickey I made today to wear for the opening of an exhibition on saturday. It's got a wind-up key and three buttons (believe me, 3 buttons is all you need to space/time do-hickey you anywhere, anywhen ;) ). Ok, it's late, I didn't get much sleep last night and teh borderline insanity doesn't help, either.
Cheers
Chris
(1 image, 1 sub-page, 1 comment)
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http://www.nudibranchartglass.com
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Comments on This Gallery Page
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Hello !
Thank you very much for your continued comments,
Hey did the rabbit win ? ha ha .thank you
JD.
» Posted by
JDAnderson
on 6/21/2007 9:18:13 AM.
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Nice Work
Nice to see your work is always interesting always elvoling...Raymonds email is firedesignglass(at)hotmail.com..
» Posted by
Malta
on 7/2/2007 2:22:11 AM.
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Thanks for the comment, having a lil trouble uploading a bigger size, pic. U have beautiful work, hope to make it to Australia one day! Talk to u soon.
~md
» Posted by
Mdglassdesigns
on 10/7/2007 11:43:34 PM.
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Thanks for the feature...love your work.
Cheers
Stephan
» Posted by
HagstromArtGlass
on 12/26/2007 6:49:51 PM.
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