An Evening with
Frank Oddou
Female Form Sculpture &
Fuming with Gold and Silver
Friday, May 28, 2021
Frank Oddou has been working in the glass world for 25 years. He worked for Bullseye and Kokomo, and he has also maintained a lamp working studio consistently for 25 years. His only formal training was a two week class with Maestro Emilio Santini at the Corning Museum of Glass in 1988.
He has his own business now, and considers himself a hobbyist at this point. Frank says he is now primarily a pipe maker.
He has a skill set ranging from hollow functional to solid sculpture, and has always loved the effect gold and silver fuming has on glass and the different colors and effects he can achieve with layering.
Frank says “As glass workers, we are part of a chain of artists and craftsmen that reaches back thousands of years, it is our responsibility to forge strong links in the chain by sharing experiences and information for the glass workers who haven’t been bitten yet.”
After the Demo Update!
(If you missed it, remember that members can watch the recorded demo on the Facebook Members’ Page, check it out! And if you aren’t a member but would like to be, visit the Membership page)
Frank Oddou was very generous with his time speaking and demonstrating with borosilicate glass. In this presentation, he did three very different pieces for us.
First he made a fumed implosion pendant using gold and silver fuming techniques. He used small nips of pure gold and silver coins attached to a cobalt boro rod for fuming. Transparent cobalt blue is his preferred glass to hold the metal bits, because it holds the metal better and the cobalt has less thermal shock than other colors.
Frank explained that to fume with gold, an oxidising flame is used, while to fume with silver you need a neutral flame. He went into great detail explaining the differences in color resulting from the layering of gold and silver fuming, which can create different shades of gold, green, pink, blue or amber depending on the way it is layered.
Frank also discussed both the importance of gravity and of having the right size and chemistry of the flame used during the process of making his implosion pendant. He noted that while silver fuming adheres to glass, gold fuming will fade or rub off if not layered directly over silver or thinly encased where you want to keep it. Last, Frank put a beautiful bail on the pendant before putting it in the kiln to anneal.
After melting glass for over two hours, there was a request for “just one more piece please … a pipe”. So he took another 45 minutes to show us how he constructed the specific hole placement. His twisted design in the layered gold and silver nicely decorated the fumed body of a small pipe – which, he quickly added, without the extra holes needed for a pipe, could easily be used as a perfume bottle. Frank’s generous nature and relaxed style was a pleasure to observe.
Frank’s second piece was a female torso sculpture in a beautiful borosilicate adventurine green. He used heat and gravity along with his Herbert Arnold sculpting tool for shaping and slicing (he upgraded from his previous tool, home-made from a butter knife). While his torso was amazing, it did happen to present an opportunity for a sudden adjustment in design – when almost completed, it popped off the punty and fell to the floor breaking off the lower arm sections – which also prompted a few choice words from Frank! He laughingly told us “Sometimes the glass only respects you when you swear at it!” But like the pro he is, he picked it up and carried on to finish the beautiful piece
Thank you Frank, for sharing your time and expertise with us!
Frank asked nothing for his time and knowledge and only said “donate to your favorite glass artist, or go buy new colors of glass”.
Dragon members have access to this recorded presentation, found on our Facebook Members Group.