skygrazer.com

The weekend of July 8th I went to the Stowe, Vermont Kaleidoscope Festival. The delay in posting about it was because I was at a fun but exhausting polymer clay retreat this weekend and only had a few days between the two events to recover and prepare for the next one.

Stowe is an absolutely gorgeous place and well worth a nice relaxing vacation anyway. The weather was beautiful and we really enjoyed being there – they even drive politely! I met Stephen and all the great folks from Stowe Craft. The gallery has some really nice stuff besides the kaleidoscopes. There were some gorgeous glass pieces which made me wish I had a teleidoscope with me to look at them.

The event was on Saturday and Sunday. There had to be a couple hundred scopes set out in the Stowe Design Center, both inside and in a tent outside. I looked through most if not all of them and I do think image is almost everything. There were some scopes with really nice exteriors but rather boring images and I didn’t spend any time on looking through those. I found I really liked the sidelit oil cells with black backgrounds so I’m going to try a couple of those. I saw a few people using polymer clay in their oil cells, and I bought one of the Durettes scopes with a really stunning image made up of pieces of colored coiled wire. I saw some wearable scopes by the Healeys – I’d seen pictures before but never realized how small they actually are. The ring scope with the turning end was adorable

I got to meet Scott Cole and Sheryl Koch who were both really, really nice. I got some suggestions from them which would probably have made the whole trip worthwhile alone. I don’t think Scott would mind if I shared one of them which is basically to just practice. He pointed out that people usually only cut and assemble mirrors when they’re actually building a scope and you don’t really develop a good technique until you’ve done it time after time after time. I’ve tried a number of different ways of doing things but my volume isn’t too high so I often get inconsistent results. I think I’m going to use some scraps and just try assembling over and over again until I figure out exactly the best way to make it work for me.

Sheryl was working on making some really nice stained glass wheels throughout Saturday and Scott was teaching people to make pvc scopes. Dave and I both took his class on Sunday where we built a really nice brass scope with a ball-bearing turning end. The workshop was only about 4 hours but it was well worth it. If you ever have a chance to take one of Scott’s classes, I’d highly recommend it. And the ball bearing turning end is soooo smooth.

I brought about 6 of my own scopes to the festival, plus some kit based pocket scopes I had. I didn’t sell anything that weekend but Stowe Crafts did keep one of my oil-globe scopes on consignment. Technically I have a few things to improve on – my mirrors could use some work but they weren’t the worst. I also think I’d have to spend less time on the exteriors of simple tumble scopes so the price could be comparable with other people’s production scopes, and save the time and innovation for really distinctive, ‘Wow’ one of a kind scopes with great images. I’d probably also have to include a light with polarized scopes because they really don’t show to advantage in a dim environment.

I’ve read about the liquid filled ampules some kaleidoscope artists make. You can see examples here.

I got some glass tubes – 5mm flint glass scraps from www.sciplus.com (along with lots of other good stuff). I think I’ve concluded that I can’t do a liquid filled ampule with my current equipment and knowledge but I did come up with something I liked.

I’m using a tiny little $9 butane torch from the hardware store. It works great on melting 1mm stringer and can bend 2mm but it takes longer. I heated the end of one tube and then twisted it shut. The twists look a bit messy but I think they’d probably still look good in an image. Then I filled a short section of the tube with tiny holeless beads. I then heated and twisted (or compressed and pulled) a bit above the beads to close off the tube and pull the section free.

It worked pretty well but I think it took longer than a liquid could handle and I don’t think I always got a perfect end seal. The neat thing is now I
can suspend tiny objects within the cell so they don’t all clump at the bottom of the object chamber. It does take some time and patience though – at least without an actual glass torch.

So guess what I did? I ordered a beginners glass torch! We’ll see how much I end up using it

If you’re in the Rhode Island area, you can see my kaleidoscopes on exhibit at the Clark Memorial Library in Richmond. If they’re not too busy, ask one of the librarians if they can unlock the case so you can pick up the kaleidoscopes and see the different views.

I’ll also be teaching a kaleidoscope workshop on April 6th at 7pm. We’ll be making a basic kaleidoscope from a kit and covering it with fabric. Normally, I’d use polymer clay but we wouldn’t have the time in a 2 hour class. The class is only $8, which covers the materials. You can signup by contacting the library at(401) 364-6100. Hope to see you there