Glass for Taite - Trade Me Auction of Cast Glass - raising funds for a very sick boy
Taite Lentfer is a 9 year old boy.
He should be in my daughters class at school. He should be in the soccer team I am coaching.
I can see his house from my studio. He should be there, but he is not.About 3 months ago he was admitted to Starship Hospital and they found out he has ADEM - an auto immune disease. He got sick real fast with his immune system attacking the cells in his brain and reducing muscle function to nothing. Taite and family (Dad Kori, Mum Lanie and sister Holly) are living away from home at Takapuna's Wilson Centre where Taite is receiving lots of therapy. He has come a long way, he now has some muscle movement and can even smile, but he has such a long way to go, with lots of ongoing care required from family and specialists.
I wanted to do something for the Lentfer family...a situation like this could affect any of us. Money won't make Taite better but it sure can help to relieve some burdens on the Lentfer family.
There are 2 ways you can help Taite....
Bid on this auction - winner will get this unique cast glass artwork of the BLUE FAMILY....and allow the Lentfer family to have their own special glass piece, the GREEN FAMILY.
or....Share this story - as someone you know may like to bid. Simply forward the email.
Trade Me auction #904520680. Closes Saturday 27 June, 9.52pm.
You can see more images on Dicastglass facebook page.
Smaller donations can also be made to Taites 'Give A Little' fund.
Thank you for reading
Di Tocker
Successful duo - Glass and Paint
Many who were there commented on synergy between the cast glass works of Di Tocker and fine art paintings by Jennie De Groot. Complimenting each other but not competing with one another, the exhibition of works was an absolute pleasure to the eye. The colour pallet or the paintings and glass was very similar allowing for a natural fit yet the works are extremely different. Small 3-dimensional objects and people sat beside and under large 2 dimensional landscapes.
Di Tocker and Jennie De Groot are both very professional about their practice, it reflected in the installation of the works. The pair employed Emily Rumney of The Framing House to curate and install show. Emily knows both Di's glass and Jennie's paintings well and also know the gallery space.
The successful show has been easily measured by the 20 out of 36 sales in just 3 days.
Local Government win Glass Awards
The Society of Local Government Managers (SOLGM) unveiled hand crafted and specifically designed awards at its annual awards evening in April 2015.
Di Tocker of Dicastglass was commissioned to created cast glass awards that were substantial to receive, spoke of unity and had a great 'mana'.
Jeanette Bullen of SOLGM says "For 25 years SOLGM has run the SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards® and in 2015, for the first time, we decided to hold a special Gala Dinner to recognise achievement in local government management and, in particular, celebrate the winners of these Awards. We therefore wanted the physical award to be in keeping with the importance of the occasion. We commissioned Di and she was a pleasure to work with. In a very short time frame she designed and created a unique award that was perfectly aligned with our brief. Importantly for us, it was also very positively received by the Award winners".
Glass Prizes at Easter Show
The largest amount of glass entries was received at this years Aucklnad Easter Show Art Awards with over 100 entries. The standard of glass making was at the highest level and covered the many disciplines of working in the medium. The prizes were allocated as below.
Decorative and Sculptural Glass
1st Prize - "Waiting" Francia Smeets
2nd Prize - "No title" - David Traub
3rd Prize - "Communicate!" - Di Tocker
Wearable Glass
1st Prize - "Falling" - Frances Hanson
2nd Prize - "Blue Birds Over" - Carol Croucher
3rd Prize - "A Day at the Beach" - Frances Hanson
Merits:
"Time for Reflection" - Heather Olesen
"Water World" - Keith Grinter
"Carnival of Glass" - John Hanson
"Sea Pod" - Lou Prendergrast-Mathieson
"Untitled" - Kathryn Bartlett
"The Dawn Chorus" - Frances Hanson
Peoples Choice - "Time for Reflection" - Heather Olesen
Congratulations to all the winners!
Kiln 1, kiln 2, kiln 3
Friday the 13th of February was a lucky day at Dicastglass Studio as we took delivery of our 3rd kiln.
This is an exciting step to producing more and larger glass objects. Di Tocker says "It became apparent that I would need more kiln capacity last year. The large works I want to make from my Rooms series take one month to fire in the kiln and I couldn't fit anymore than 3 in last year. I would like to make at least 6 per year but I also need to keep up with commissions, gallery supply and students work".
Di gave a lot of thought as to whether to trade up a smaller kiln for 2 larger kilns but in the end decided more flexibility would be created from have 3 medium size kilns.
Casting Crystal - full supply to New Zealand
All colours of Blackwood Casting Crystal are in stock and available from Dicastglass near Hamilton, NZ. You can order Blackwood Casting Crystal in 1kg amounts from the Dicastglass online store and it will be delivered direct to you.
Manufactured in Victoria, Australia, Blackwood is the casting glass of choice for full time caster Di Tocker. Di loves the organic colour mixes, that have full compatibility with each other, and release fantastically from the plaster/silica moulds she uses in her practice. Blackwood Casting Crystal is also very responsive to cold-working.
Bronze (see images) was introduced to the glass casters pallet in 2014, soon to follow was citrus (a pale yellow) and soon to arrive (after some final compatibility tests) will be pink.
Glass Cloak Embraces All
I chose a whale bone Patu, which once belonging to a local Maori woman Rahapa Te Hauata. She married Irishman Thomas Power in the 1800's. I was quite taken with the Patu when I found out that family members still visit it at the Museum archives. It wasn't so much about the form, although I did respond its simplistic shape - it was more about the item being surrounded by family. I consider that the family draws strength from the Patu.
The models in my studio developed over time into a cloak form (gathering) and after 2 initial attempts that failed to translate fully into glass, I got this result. And after asking the lovely and helpful audience on Facebook I settled on a name - Embrace.
I will continue to explore this series, hoping to place 3 of these (different colours) in the exhibition to be held at the Te Awamutu Museum at the end of this year.
Embrace our people, embrace our loved ones, embrace our land...
Sculpture Wheels make Moulding easy.
I am always on the look out for tools that can make any job easier and more efficient. Turntables/lazy susans are useful items in a sculpture studio, but I never found one just the right one for my purpose of use in the casting studio.
So I created one, 2 actually so I could have 2 sizes. Over the past few months I have trialled these in my glass casting studio and am totally happy with the results.
The sculpture wheel is available in 300mm and 460mm diameter;
- it makes moulding easier,
- helps to maintain even wall thickness of layer moulds,
- helps to view all angles of work when modelling / hand-building wax, clay, plasticine or other modelling materials,
- is easy to spin allowing for even decorating and mark-making,
- could be used for cake decorating, painting models, 360 degree photography -the uses are endless.