Layered Landscapes

The Yorkshire Dales 

It was such a lovely day at Skipwith Common, near York, to teach Layered Landscapes. The workshop at Silver and Stone is such a pretty place, looking out onto fields with sheep and listening to the birdsong.   Three keen glass artists designed and created fused glass panels based on ideas and drawings of The Yorkshire Dales including trees, hills, water and big skies.  I love the use of dichroic shards on blue glass to emulate water, red glass pieces for poppies and opal grey glass to make Yorkshire stone walls. 

Yorkshire Barn

If you would like to improve your glass fusing skills or learn a new craft from scratch please visit my WORKSHOPS page and my STUDIO DAYS page for more details. 

Jo X

Glass Dishes Workshop

On Saturday 7th November I will be teaching Glass Dishes at The Garth at Skipwith Common, just outside York.  Here is a bit more information about it.

Enjoy a day designing and making a trio of fused glass dishes including trinket dish, curved dish and square dish (13cm square).  Experiment with opal and transparent colour glass, add inclusions such as mica and copper to create sparkle. Stunning results and lots of fun.  No previous experience of glass cutting necessary.  Fees: £80

If you would like to book a place on this one day workshop please click on the link HERE which will take you to Silver and Stone where you can book your place. Any questions about the workshop (or future workshops) please email me HERE

Tealights or trinket dish

I love Mondays

I was chatting to one of our resident artists at work the other day and she said that she really looked forward to Mondays as she spent Sunday in anticipation of getting back to her studio.  Well I like Mondays too.

Today I'm off to Harlow Carr to drop off glass for a forthcoming exhibition. It's a lovely drive over to Harrogate via Beamsley Beacon (a very big hill) and I have a car boot full of new glass.  Harlow Carr is a fantastic place to visit, made up of extensive gardens and owned by The Royal Horticutural Society.  The exhibition, which opens on 17th March, will be in the Old Bath House and I am really looking forward to it.

The Old Bath House, Harlow Carr

I think the reason that I like Mondays so much is that no two days are the same. Last Monday I was teaching glass fusing and next Monday I will be enjoying a long weekend in The Lake District. Before I was self employed I worked for a building society and every monday (in fact, every day) was the same. 

Once I get back from Harlow Carr I will spend the rest of the day back in the studio creating more glass for an exhibition application with a deadline of the end of March (!) I'd better get busy then....

Glass Fusing Workshops 2015

Enjoy a day of designing and creating your own glass at our friendly workshops at Lowe Maintenance Training in the heart of Settle, North Yorkshire

Saturday 18th April 2015 10am - 4pm (maximum no: 8)

Creating Glass Coasters

This workshop is aimed at absolute beginners and intermediate glass artists as an introduction to glass fusing.  The workshop will include: cutting skills, technical know-how, working with coloured glass,  designing and glass assembly.   Expert tuition given and  Bullseye glass used.

Saturday 16th May 2015 10am - 4pm (maximum no: 8)

Designing for Glass Jewellery

Aimed at jewellers and anyone with an interest in jewellery, this workshop will enable you to create a pendant, brooch and earring set using both Bullseye and dichroic coated glass. The ability to cut glass will be an advantage.

Costs: £70 (all materials and equipment provided)

Where: Lowe Maintenance Training 18 Duke Street Settle North Yorkshire BD24 9DN

To book: contact Jo Whitehead of Glassprimitif by email to

Jfwhitehead@blueyonder.co.uk or call  07837471040 or find us on Facebook

We accept payment by Paypal, BACS or cheque.  Full payment please, no deposits taken               

                         

A Magical Weekend

This weekend I will be taking part in Settle Storytelling Festival (11th and 12th October) at The Makers' Market  in Settle Social Club.

I'm really looking forward to this event - it was really good last year with story tellers at every venue around the town.  So, the kiln is on, the glass is hot and I'll have plenty of new stock.

Hope to see you there. Jo X

Strid Wood Tea Rooms

Strid Wood Tea Rooms

I will be showcasing my glass at the Strid Wood Tea Rooms at Bolton Abbey on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th August. 

The Bolton Abbey Estate is a great place to visit with lovely walks through the woods from The Abbey to The Strid (a part of the river Wharfe where the water races between the rocks) and further on to Barden Bridge.

Bolton Abbey

Beautiful places like Bolton abbey are what Yorkshire is all about.  Here's hoping the weather is fine and the visitors are plentiful. 

FODDER!

Fodder, Harrogate

Glassprimitif fused glass birdies, hearts and lightcatchers are now for sale at Fodder in Harrogate! 

Fodder is a shop selling and supporting local farmers and rural businesses within Yorkshire and has a lovely cafe serving local foods too.  It's just on the corner of The Great Yorkshire Showground and is well worth a visit. I hope you will go and see for yourself (and perhaps buy some groovy glass). 

Settle Story Telling Festival

Settle Stories

I will be at the Makers' Market as part of the Settle Storytelling Festival. Details below

Browse and buy unique and original work by artists and craftspeople from across the North of England at the Makers Market – with the makers on hand to share their passion for their creations.
Admire your new purchases over a slice of homemade cake and a cup of tea in the Market Café run by the Cave Rescue Organisation – perfect!

Date: Saturday, 12 October 2013 - 11:00amDuration: 6 hours
 Venue: St John's Church Hall, Settle

Art in the Pen 2013

Honeycomb Glass

It's the final countdown.....
until Art in the Pen this coming weekend. The preview is on Friday night from 7pm to 9pm and then two whole days of delicious art and hand crafted loveliness will be at Skipton Auction Mart.

Labyrinth Glass

I have an entirely new range of both Honeycomb glass and Labyrinth glass dishes made for this event, with new coasters and more Scandinavian Birdies available.  So I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone at one of the best events in my exhibiting calendar. 

Scandi Birds

News!

www.southpennines.co.uk

I shall be taking part in the South Pennines Making and Doing Festival in October. Not sure where I will be yet but I will be doing a free glass Make and Take activity there :)

www.settlestories.org.uk

I will be at the Makers' Market as part of the Settle Story Telling Festival on 12th October. More details to follow soon. 

www.creativemasham.com 

My last piece of news is that I have been accepted at Crafted By Hand in the Dales village of Masham on 27th October. So excited! 

Grassington Festival - here I come!

For the first time I will be taking part in the Grassington Festival  Saturday 22nd June. 

Grassington, North Yorkshire

Grassington is a small, but very popular, village in the Yorkshire Dales - not too far from Skipton.  I shall be outside under a covered market stall (must search the attic for the bunting) from 10.00am with a display of new glass items alongside some favourites. There will be a lot of activity going on during the day with street theatre and music, craft stalls and shops.  I am actually mentioned on the website HERE but you will need to scroll down the page to find me! 

There is plenty to see and do in Grassington with lots of walking country, great views and lovely pubs to go for lunch.  We go there often as we like to walk between  Hebden and Grassington or Burnsall and Grassington , walking back via Thorpe.  There's lots of parking too with the Yorkshire Dales National Park car park 500 yards down from the village square.

So, if you are in the area, please come by and say hello!

Glass Fairs 2013

I have been sorting out this year's shows and fairs and trying to plan ahead. Here is a list of dates and venues where I shall be during 2013, although it is still a work in progress. 

Otley Courthouse Designer Craft Fair Sunday 28 April 
This coincides with the Otley Famers' Market and is inside the Courthouse from 9.30 am to 1pm

Saltaire Makers' Fair at Victoria Hall, Saltaire 25 - 27 May 

As part of the prestigious Saltaire Arts Trail, I will be at Victoria Hall as part of the Makers' Fair from 10am to 4pm

Art in the Pen at Skipton Auction Mart 17 - 18 August

My second year at Art in the Pen. This year will be bigger than last with 30% more stalls selling handmade and original art

Headingley Heart Centre 14 September and 14 December

A busy venue with a lovely cafe and a great atmosphere

Please come and see me at Glassprimitif at one (or all) of these events) or check in to my News page 

Count Down to Art in the Pen

Skipton Auction Mart

Only five days to go before Art in the Pen and I am in a panic. Will I have enough glass? Will my table display look OK? What will I forget to bring? (I always forget something).

So I have an empty animal pen to fill at Skipton Auction Mart and that is all it is - an animal pen. See above. It measures 2.7 X 3.3 metres and has a concrete base. I will also get a power point because the lighting there isn't so great. I am bringing a large trestle table that I have painted antique white because I am not going to bring a table cloth. I think my glass may look better on a hard surface rather than a soft one. This means all the "stuff" that I don't need will have to go back in the car because I can't hide it under a cloth. But I also need a small table to wrap glass so I am currently spray painting my daughter's dressing table antique white to match the big table. But what if I need more display? So I found this old table in a junk shop.....

Ugly old table

...and painted it antique white with a blue/grey stripe. 

Refurbished Table

Then there's my signage. I don't want/have a vinyl sign so I have framed two chalk boards and bought a white liquid chalk pen. Just summoning up the courage to write on them now. 

Framed chalk boards

And what about my labels? I hated my display when I was at Saltaire Arts Trail and was irritated by all the bits of card cluttering up my table as price tags. So I have painted some wooden hearts with chalk board paint and will place them next to the glass. 

Chalk board price labels

Now I need to sort out something to sit on, finish painting my display boxes, find the missing magnets (where did I put them)? and a million other things.....

To find out more about Art in the Pen please visit their website HERE

Dichroic Glass Workshop

Student work - dichroic coated Bullseye glass

I recently travelled over to York to teach a one day workshop on dichroic coated glass fusing. I loaded up my car and set off to spend a happy Sunday cutting glass in Helen Drye's kitchen. 
Helen is a silver clay jeweller who was looking to expand her designs by including fused dichroic cabochons placed into silver clay settings. Along with her friend Lynne, who is interested in making dichroic glass jewellery, we went through the processes of designing, cutting, grinding and fusing dichroic coated glass. 

Glass heart

Dichroic coated glass is fabulous to work with because, once fused, the most amazing colours come to life and the glass has a colour shift as it catches the light. This means that it gives a touch of luxury to the wearer, enhancing clothing with flashes of colour. As it is a coating of metal oxides onto a glass surface it is also quite expensive to buy. I buy all mine from Warm Glass as they stock CBS (Coatings by Sandberg) dichroic which has the best colours and patterns.

At the workshop both students made three pieces of glass jewellery each, the first using small pieces fused between black and clear Bullseye glass, the second using dichroic coated glass stringers and the third, a design of their own.  I hope the tuition they received has helped them to think about their own designs and come up with their own style. The possibilities are endless. 


I had a lovely day as Helen plied us with tea and lunch in her lovely garden and I hope they enjoyed it too. If you live in North or West Yorkshire and would like to join a glass fusing workshop please email me HERE for details. Follow Glassprimitif on Facebook to see more Students' Work. 

Malham Dale

Friday was a public holiday (Yay)! so we took a walk around Malham, starting off at the village to Janet's Foss and then along to Gordale Scar. 

It's not a strenuous walk as there isn't much up hill walking until you get to the Scar. There people can climb up the rocks past the waterfall and walk on to Malham Tarn.  But, as we had two dogs with us we didn't attempt the climb.

Instead we walked over the fields toward Malham Cove and the weather got warmer and brighter. 

All the walls around Malham are made from limestone and they glow a bright white in the sunshine. 

The top of the cove has the famous Limestone Pavements,  created after the last Ice Age by the slightly acidic water that ate into the soft limestone to create fissures. 

It's easy to walk across the pavement and it's fascinating to see the rocks looking like ancient prehistoric bones.

The descent from Malham Cove is quite easy as there are man made steps running down the side that lead to the path back to Malham Village. 

Of course a walk wouldn't be a walk if Jackson couldn't carry the largest stick he could find with him. This one was a bit charred and had obviously been used in a camp fire at some time. It was very heavy and gave me a crack across the back of the legs on several occasions. 

So our walk terminated at the pub for sandwiches and chips. Thanks for the day off, Will and Kate!

Pen-y-ghent (or Are We There Yet)?

So, last bank holiday Monday we decided to take a walk up Pen-y-ghent, one of the three peaks. It overlooks the small village of Horton in Ribblesdale in the Yorkshire Dales.

The weather wasn't too bad for the last day of August in the UK (it was dull but warm) and, once we had started the walk the cloud over the crag lifted. It's a shallow uphill climb for the first couple of miles.

We stopped at a bank of scree for a chocolate break - I insisted - and looked down on Hull Pot (the one filled with water).

View across the valley with Horton in Ribblesdale in the distance.

The climb got steeper toward the top and the guide books said it was a "short sprint to the top". Ha ha! I wasn't sprinting, I can tell you.

Jackson sit! Sit I say! Stay still for the camera! Oh never mind....

The views from the top are spectacular although it is very windy up there. Fortunately, there is a sheltered bench to sit on. Other people were there eating their sandwiches - much to Jackson's delight. A dribbling dog is not attractive!

The descent is much quicker and steeper. Jackson hopped from rock to rock but my Sister-in-law's little dog panicked and had to be helped down by a kindly stranger. Everyone else leapt around like mountain goats leaving me to plod my way down. Not impressed!

At the bottom it began to rain that diagonal sleety Yorkshire rain. I had brought a hat and waterproof clothing (unlike some people) and had a change of clothes waiting in the car. Typical me, though, I fell over in the mud in front of a group of people.

Well, that was five and a half miles and is the least strenuous of the three peaks. I'm looking forward to climbing up Great Whernside and Ingleborough next, although I could never do all three in one day. We adjourned to the pub for some cheer and I fell asleep over my drink.

For more pictures of Pen-y-Ghent visit my Flickr.