Lampwork Blown Baubles

 

 If you've been following along, you might notice that I have a bit of an obsession with hollow glass forms.  If not, you do now.

I spent a lot of time this year making hollow beads.  And while I got to the end result I wanted, I'm always interested if there is a better way to do something.

 

When I saw Laura Quinn was offering a 'blow your own bauble' class just before Christmas, I signed up straight away. 

So on the Saturday before Christmas, my best mate and I, spent 2 hrs in Laura's studio learning how to blow baubles out of borosilicate glass tube, which is very different from the glass I normally work with.

Laura was so lovely and patient with us, and when I told her I had my own studio she was kind enough to get into much more technical details than I expect most people would get (or want).  And she let me make my own points!

We both had a really great morning and came away (well they were posted to us once annealed) with pretty decent baubles. 

 

What a great way to start the holidays!  Can't wait to see if I can do something similar in my own studio, although her torch was a monster, so I'll be working smaller I think. 

Cyanotype Christmas Cards

 After playing with cyanotype printing this summer, it gave me an idea for this years Christmas cards.

So while walking the dog early one August morning I made sure to take my secateurs and cut myself some bracken tips.

 

As you can see they make lovely little trees!  And each one is different.

Then I had to decide about decorations.  I had wanted to go the whole hog, but there were two issues.  If I did that it would make them hard to recyle, and two, simple just looked better.

So I glue gunned some stars on and left it at that.

 

I really like them, I hope those who received them did too. 

Happy Christmas.

Glass Holly Wreath

 

You may remember that last Christmas I went to West Dean and learnt how to copper foil by making some lovely glass stars.

I had lots of ideas for what I could do with this skills and did try some stuff out but life got in the way, like it does, and I sort of forgot what to do and gave up a bit.

 

However, when looking at the glass stars course last year there was another one I was very tempted by, and when I saw it was running again this year, I quickly signed up before it sold out - a glass holly wreath.

So today I was back at West Dean, for the last time this year, to learn how to make a glass wreath.

 

The wreath consists of 28 holly leaves, so while it could be a tedious process making all the leaves, it was actually the perfect project to remind myself how to cut the glass, apply the foil and then the solder. 

In the process I hope I built a bit of muscle memory too to help me get back to some of my other projects.

 

While not quite as laid back as the star project, as there were many more pieces and the curved cuts were a little harder to master, it was still a nice project to spend the day on.

I'm dead chuffed with how it came out and I know exactly where I'll be hanging it.  But while the stars have managed to stay out all year, I think this one will be going away with the Christmas decs in Jan. 

Dropouts and Glass Slumping

 

This week I spent a day at Warm Glass, near Bristol.

As their name implies if you need anything for fusing glass, these are the people to speak to.

 

I've bought lots of materials from them and attended a couple of their online courses, but they've just started to run in-person sessions again and when I saw they were doing one on dropouts I had to sign up.

When fusing glass you can get different effects depending on the temperature you set your kiln to.  You can do a full fuse which will make everything melt down into a flat sheet.  You can do a tack fuse so that things stick to each other but don't loose their shape.  And you can slump your glass, by putting a sheet into a mould and heating it just enough that it slumps into the mould and takes its shape. 

 

With dropouts your mould has a hole in which the glass can melt through, giving all sorts of effects and creating vases and bowls.

On the day we actually did the process backwards.  We started with a dropout which had already been made, so we could practice cutting it and then coldworking the cut edge.  You can do this by hand or with a machine, so it was great to have a go at a few different techniques.

 

 The glass is also quite fragile.  So while I started with a tall vase, while cold working it, cracks appeared and so it got shorter.  I'm still very happy with it though.

Next we designed our slabs for dropping.  They need to be a certain size to fit the mould and at least 12mm of glass in the middle.  These were later fired for us and posted to use ready to try dropping in our own kilns.

 

While all this was happening the big kiln had been heating up in the other room.  This already had 4 slabs set up and as the afternoon progressed we got to watch as the glass melted and dropped.  This gave us a really good understanding of what we should be looking out for when dropping our own slabs. 

 

We also had one of these posted out to use, so we could practice cutting and cold working at home.

I really enjoyed this course.  It's one of those things that isn't quite as difficult as you fear it might be.  And it was lovely to spend time with other like-minded people.  I learnt lots from them too.

 

And I love the fact that you can used off cuts to make your slab.  Another way to save waste in the studio.  I'm looking forward to playing with this technique. 

 

Hollow Glass Bead Necklace - Teal

 

 I attended my little sisters wedding this year, and made and wore a beautiful hollow glass bead necklace from rose glass.

But before I made the rose necklace, I'd started with the aim to make a similar necklace in teal glass.  It was only when I changed my mind about my outfit earlier this year, that the glass also changed, from teal to rose.

 

Back in the UK after the wedding, I realised there was no reason why I couldn't still make the teal necklace, and so I went about putting it together.

I had plenty of hollow beads to choose from.

I'd also been playing with some silver clay to make spacer beads.  I'm sure I did a workshop on silver clay years ago, and I don't remember it being this tricky!  The clay was sticky and kept sticking to the tools I was using.  And it was really hard to make it smooth.  But I put them all in my baby kiln anyway and they didn't come out too bad, although I did have to do some work to polish them up to a shine.

 

Lastly I made a clasp out of silver wire, then put the whole thing together with a pale green ribbon.

Not bad.  The spacers do make it a little heavier than the rose necklace, but it's still pretty comfortable to wear.  

So there you go, two necklaces for the price of one!  Think I might take a break from hollow beads for a bit though.

 

The Poppy Pin

 I have to come out and say this straight away.  This has been one of the hardest projects I've completed in a while.  But now it's done I am pretty happy with how it came out.

So I found the pattern for The Poppy Pin from Lemon Pepper Studio right at the beginning of the year.  It looked like a lovely project and I'm aways looking for something better than the paper poppies you get at this time of year.  (10% of each pattern sold goes to Help for Heros.)

So I bought the pattern - all 42 pages! And checked the material list - some of which I had at home and some of which I had to purchase.  It's a very detailed pattern with lots of photos.

 

Then I made my first attempt.  From this I learnt you need really good light for a project this detailed, which made it a day time only project.  This restricted when I could work on it quite a lot and it got put to one side.

At some point I had a second attempt and realised I'm getting old and my eyes just can't deal with this fine detail.  A trip to Boots and some reading glasses (+1.50) sorted that issue.  Wow what a difference they made!  This isn't the only project they will be useful on.

So now I could see what I was doing I needed to work on my techniques.  This and getting my colour combination right took several more attempts (I've never been the best at sewing) and if I was going to have the pin ready to wear for Rememberance 2025, I would need to get a move on. 

 

So I got on with it and while I think I could still improve my technique, I think it's actually come out pretty well, although it really was only as I finished sewing it together that I decided this.  Right up to the last stitch it was 50/50 whether I'd be wearing it or not. 

If I could bring myself to try this again, I think the pattern could be modified to make some cheerful winter pansy pins.  Thinking yellow and purple.  But with many other things on my list, I'm not in any rush to try this out just yet. 

Slippers - Fixed

 I bought my first pair of these slippers years ago.  While we were in the flat I think.  From Next - I liked them, light weight, flexible but good for keeping my feet warm.

After a while I noticed that I’d worn a hole through on both slippers under my big toe.  I had a look on the Next website and they still sold them so I got a new pair.

However, I didn’t throw out the old ones.  Except for that small hole there was nothing wrong with them.  I think I imagined swapping between the new pair and old pair to make them last longer.  But that didn’t happen.  The old pair got put at the back of a cupboard and the new pair got worn a lot.

This summer I finally admitted that they probably needed replacing again.  But Next aren’t selling them anymore!!  No!

What to do?  The slippers themselves are fine, it’s just the sole that’s seen better days.  Not being one to just throw stuff away when it’s not totally broken I had a look online and came across Joe’s Toes.  

These guys are all about the slipper; they have kits so you could make your own from scratch, or they had a nice selection of soles for fixing old slippers, and much more.

Choosing new soles was a hard choice if I’m honest.  Felt might be a bit thicker but hard wearing, rubber would mean I wouldn’t need to worry about dog drips or a quick dash into the garden, but in the end the suede soles did it for me.

Following their size guide I ordered a size smaller than I thought I would need and waited for them to arrive.

I was very happy when they came.  The suede was soft and flexible, not too thick, but thick enough.  And they came ready perforated, making them even easier to use.

 

I washed the oldest pair of slippers and patched the small holes with cardboard, then sewed the soles on.  Absolutely perfect.  The right size, they looked great and felt great when I started wearing them again.

The second pair of slippers needed more work.  First I washed them, which showed up just how worn they were.  I used interfacing on the soles to give me something to work with and sewed up the worst of the edges, then added the new soles.  What a difference!

 

Two pairs of brand new slippers with just a little effort.  Nothing thrown away and I’m happy cos I didn’t like the look of any of the slippers on the websites I’d looked at.  I look forward to seeing how long these soles last, especially if I stick to the original plan of alternating between them. 

And once they do wear out, I think it will be really easy to cut off the odd soles and add new ones, as long as I don't leave it too late!

Wedding Plates

 

Have I mentioned that my little sister got married this autumn?

It look place on the Greek island of Santorini and was a beautiful event.

 

I wanted to gift her something beautiful and meaningful to celebrate her big day, but at the same time this is a lady who had pretty much everything she could wish for and a very particular style.

 

 

Inspired by the fact I was doing pottery classes at the time, I decided to make her a/some plates as these could actually be useful but also a nice reminder of that special day.

 

I did some research into what I could do and the island itself and after a lot of thinking decided on an island theme.

 

I spent one class making four different plates, with the idea that at least one should come out well.  Once the plates were dry, but before they were fired for the first time I wrote the date and destination on the bottom.

 

 

Once fired I waxed the bottom of each plate so it wouldn’t stick to the shelf in the kiln once glazed then dipped them.

 

Several were dipped to represent the beach and sea, while the last was dipped to represent one of the famous white buildings against the blue sky.

 

 The blue wasn’t as strong as I hoped and having been there now, the blue really doesn’t do the real thing justice.  But I think it still gives a good representation of the island.

 

 

I was really pleased with how they all came out.  But two were my favourites and these were the ones I finally gave to my sister a couple of weeks after the big event once we were back in the UK.  There was no way I was taking them in my suitcase!!

 

She seemed pleased, but the real test is if I spot them out when I visit next, maybe holding a cake or some sandwiches...