Giving a Raccoon a Facelift
Several years ago raccoons joined our list of plant peepers. There were never many in our inventory because they were very labor intensive and required black, gray and white glass. Black and white are staples of our inventory, but there are not many things that we imagine or make that need opaque gray glass.
When I saw we had a lot of gray scraps, the raccoon was born. Creating the black mask was the hardest part because it needed some curves and would be easiest to create in glass if it was cut in two parts so that the curves could be cut and ground without any fracturing. Even with a pattern, the mask often required extra grinding and care to cover the face, curve and meet exactly in the middle.
This year I decided to try painting the facial mask. This accomplished several goals: there would be no seam in the middle, curves were easy to create, the mask would always stretch across the face regardless of glass shrinkage and it would decrease the weight of the entire raccoon face.
It’s more efficient to put multiples in the kiln when firing and the top picture shows what I found when I opened the kiln from my first try with the new painted mask. The painting was fine, but the whole white muzzle piece had slipped and fused inappropriately on the lower raccoon. Of course I was disappointed, but immediately began figuring out how I could save this poor misshapened raccoon.
First, I cut off the excess below the gray face, as shown in the middle photo, and then ground off as much of the white as I could in order to make the gray face as flat as possible. I cut and created a new muzzle and - this time - glued it in place before I fused the raccoon.
The next time I opened the kiln, I had a perfectly fine raccoon ready for a new home, peeping through a plant, as shown with the bottom raccoon in the bottom photo.
If there is a particular item, color or design for an object that springs to mind for you and you want to know if we can create it, get in touch and we will see what we can do. Contact us by emailing here or contact us on Facebook.
