New Year, New Glass

Kaleidoscope Dish

I have been  spending the days between Christmas and New Year restocking my glass by making lots of decorations, dishes and Christmas decorations (yes, that's right!) Although my first public show isn't until April I need to make enough stock whilst I still have the time. Once I start my new job next week I won't have this luxury for a while.

I have been enjoying making glass dishes based on a kaleidoscope pattern and have these for sale in my Etsy shop. The patterns are great fun to design, starting with concentric circles on graph paper and "colouring in" the shapes.  

Kaleidoscope dish

The colour combinations are endless and I have just made a large fruit dish in greens and ambers. I will be posting the image as soon as I have photographed it.  Meanwhile, I am now playing with new ideas for Christmas tree decorations based on snowflake patterns which will hit my Folksy and Etsy shops from October 2014.  

Kaleidoscope dish

Anyway, Happy New Year to you. I hope 2014 comes up to your expectations!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Christmas Trees

The holidays are nearly here and I have hung up my market trader hat until 2014.  However, my Folksy shop will be open all over Christmas and I am still listing new glass, including decorations and lightcatchers.
It's not too late to buy a glassy gift for that "hard to buy for" person in your life or treat yourself to something special. Last posting dates by Royal Mail are:
2nd class Wednesday 18th December
1st class Friday 20th December
Special delivery 24th December

Kaleidoscope Dish

I will be cooking dinner for 12 on Christmas Day but then back to the studio on Boxing Day as I have some commissions and new designs to create in glass.  I hope you have a fabulous Christmas.
Jo X

Coasters

Poppy Commissioned Dish

Poppy Dish

I was recently commissioned to make a large glass dish to match the wallpaper design in a dining room.   Here is an example of the wallpaper and below that is my preliminary sketch. 

It was a bit tricky getting all the component parts to fit snugly but I used a combination of transparent and opal red glass to get more contrast in the petals.  The black poppy seeds are Glassline fusing paint and the dish was slumped into a 30cm square dish mould. 

Finished Glass Dish

If you would like to commission me to make you a unique glass dish please contact me through my Folksy Shop HERE.  Until you approve the design you are not committed to buy. 

Spun Sugar Fruit Dish

Large Spun Sugar Fruit Bowl

I love commissions, particularly when the customer asks for colour combinations that I would never have thought to work with.  This 30cm fruit dish has been made from clear, leaf green, chartreuse green, fuchsia, cranberry, coral and light orange Bullseye glass.  Who would of thought?

Before Fusing

If you would like to commission me to make you a totally unique piece of glass please contact me via my Folksy shop

Bad Birdy

Scandi Birds

I love making these Scandinavian-inspired birds in rainbow colours and they sell out at fairs and events. They are made from transparent Bullseye glass with fused gold paint and have a copper wire hook to hang them in the window. 

Glass birds are so pretty and here are a couple I would love to own. 

Shane Fero

Oiva Toikka

But occasionally, glass in the kiln doesn't behave as it should and can slip, fracture or just not perform as it should. Something that ceramicists can identify with too! Here is Bad Birdy - you can see where the clear and coloured glass has parted company which means this birdy was consigned to the bin. 

Bad Birdy! 

My Birdies are available for sale at my Folksy Shop and you can also follow my birdy inspiration on Pinterest. 

Retro Glass Commission

Retro Glass Dish

I love glass commissions and I receive most of my commissions via my Folksy shop where I have a large range of my different styles in glass. This dish was commissioned by The Cotton Potter because she liked the colours of the dish below but wanted something bigger for the coffee table. 

I wanted to show Emma (The Cotton Potter) the shape of the dish so I fused and slumped a float glass test dish, just to check that she was happy with the shape. 

Float glass test piece

I used some graph paper to chart the design and planned out the colours on a grid.  Once I had cut the glass to size I would need the graph to help me place the coloured squares accurately onto the vanilla and clear glass surface. 

Coloured glass tiles on graph paper

The next stage was to place all the component parts together and put into the kiln on a full fuse programme. The glass I am using is Bullseye 2mm opal. I never compromise on quality so it has to be Bullseye. 

Glass dish on kiln shelf prior to fusing

Once fused, the glass is washed and dried then placed back into the kiln for a second firing.

Fused glass ready for slumping

Finally, the fused piece is placed into the slump mould and fused at a lower temperature to create the finished dish. 

TaDa!

If you would like me to make you a dish to your specification please email me HERE 

I Love Commissions Part 1

Four coasters

These coasters have been made as a wedding present. The customer wanted coloured transparent glass flowers but was unsure of which colours to choose, so I chose for her. Bright yellow, leaf green, emerald green and aqua blue on white and clear Bullseye glass. 

Here they are, all packaged up ready to go. I hope the bride likes them! 

If you would like to commission me to make a glass gift for you please email me HERE

Fresh from the Kiln Today

Honeycomb Dish

I got a real buzz when I opened the kiln this morning and saw that this Honeycomb dish had slumped into its mould perfectly. 

Made from clear and transparent coloured Bullseye glass, this dish is made up of a gradation of squares and rectangles, moving from greens into blues. It's great fun to make - first I flat fuse a grid of clear glass then, once cooled, layer greens and blues before refiring.  The "holes" created from the grid then form into rounded honeycomb shapes. 

This dish will be available for sale in my Folksy shop soon. 

Scandinavian Birdies

Scandinavian Birdies

I am addicted to making these little birdies from transparent Bullseye glass because the colour combinations are just endless. 

Blue Bird

Each finished bird has been decorated with Glassline gold paint which is then fused again in the kiln to make the gold durable (the "paint" is really gold glass powder mixed to a paste).

Fused Birds waiting for gold decoration

These birds look great hanging in the window from transparent fishing line or hanging from a shelf. Each birdie has a copper loop that has been fused into the glass and they make the ideal Mother's Day gift. 

Garnet red Birdie

These Scandi Birdies are now available in my Folksy Shop and will be listed on Etsy within the next few days. 

Little Birds

Blue Bird

I'm really pleased with the way my Little Birds design has turned out, despite the poor photography!

These little birds are made from transparent Bullseye glass with gold decoration painted with glass fusing paint (means it won't come off the glass). 

Red Bird

This one is my favourite, made from deep orange and garnet red glass with gold decoration. I'm keeping this one but will be listing the rest this week in my Folksy Shop, along with new fish designs. 

Blue Bird #2

I'll be making some more soon, after I have completed a glass commission. They are great fun to make. 

Amber Bird

Fit for a Queen

Etsy.com 

This year sees the celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and The London Olympics here in the UK.  More importantly for me, it is about The British being able to claim back the Union Jack as a symbol of unity and pride rather than a representation of The National Front, EDL and the BNP (spit....)

So I have been making fused glass brooches using this symbol and I have been working it in different colourways including pink, pale blue and vanilla and a fruit coloured brooch in citrus colours.  After all, why does the flag have to be red, white and blue? 

Folksy.com 

These brooches are made from Bullseye opal glass with glass stringers on vanilla glass with silver plate brooch backs. They are available in both my Folksy and Etsy shops and I will be taking a selection to Saltaire Makers Fair in May 2012 too. So, if you feel like celebrating, wear your brooch with pride.

Coasters Commission

Glass production has been quite slow recently because I have been concentrating on some new designs for Swanky Maison and, as I have such a small kiln, one dish takes three days to fire.

However, I was lucky enough to receive a commission from Michelle of The Crafty Canuk to create a set of coaster for her new kitchen.  Michelle has designed her kitchen with a retro style and she wanted the coasters to reflect that.  I played around with several designs but wasn't happy with them at first.  Then I remembered a dish that I had designed using squares of bright opal glass - I still use the image as my avatar on Folksy so I played around with coloured squares in lime, orange and white on black. 

Lime green opal glass looks horrible before it's fired - the sort of pastel green that you used to see in hospital corridors - but, once "cured" in the kiln it is so sharp and limey it zings against the  orange.  I don't like totally symmetrical designs (I Iearned all about balancing colours and patterns from my quilt making days) so I added a random orange square to throw the design off-balance a little bit. 

Of course it wasn't all plain sailing - when is it ever? Six coasters, two firings and a fire polish for each, kiln breakdown half way through production, one coaster slipped whilst firing and then I misplaced one just before I posted them out..... but I got there in the end. Michelle was EXTREMELY patient and I hope they look good in her kitchen.

  

Here's the one that went wrong - I said a few bad words when I opened the kiln and saw it had slipped. Hey ho! Time to get the hammer out and make some frit!

Here are the coasters in Michelle's new kitchen

If you would like to commission a set of coasters or glass dishes or fishes plase contact me on Folksy.

Glass for Ceramic Artists & Potters

Aside from fusing glass I also make stained glass decorations for fun. As fusing glass is so very expensive I save every scrap and every disaster to make frit or re-fuse to make glass blobs. But cathedral glass, which is used as stained glass, isn't really suitale for fusing. This is because I don't know the co-efficiency of this glass and it costs too much to keep firing up the kiln just to experiment. This leaves me with a bag full of scraps that are too small to copper foil!

So what's the answer? Well this glass makes ideal frit for pottery when smashed with a hammer. By placing a layer of small pieces in the base of a pot the glass fuses to the base to create great effects. I use it with porcelain, stoneware and earthenware and finds it behaves in different ways in the kiln. It can crackle or, with finer frit, make a smoother, denser colour. I have used it on unglazed pots and also on slip and even coated it with a clear glaze. (See my example test pots below).

I have some of this scrap for sale here and am selling 200gms for £5, which is a lot of glass and will last for a few pots. I have mixed colours or colour themes and all glass will be safely posted wrapped in bubble wrap in a cardboard carton.

To see more scrap glass visit my Folksy Shop.

Recycle - Reuse

Recently, at work, we had the bright idea of recycling old Ladybird books to make note books. We had a lot of fun making them but we were left with a lot of lovely illustrated pages.




Then I remembered that Lynsey of Swirlyarts makes recycled envelopes and gift tags so it made sense to send them to her to make use of. I got a lovely surprise when I received one of her large hand made envelopes packed full of small recycled envelopes and gift tags. The illustrations are from The Lives of The Composers.




So thank you Lynsey for the wonderful gift. If you would like to find our more about Swirlyarts visit her on Folksy and Etsy.