Creative Saturday

Kaleidoscope Fruit Dish 30cm

Today I am working on a large Kaleidoscope fruit dish which will hopefully be finished in time for the Chapel Allerton Festival at the end of August. A friend recently asked me how I have the patience to cut, grind, clean and position every piece of glass before placing the glass in the kiln - well I don't.  Instead I work on a section of the design each day before moving onto something else which makes the task a lot less arduous.First I take my template, which I created by drawing concentric circles and adding radiating lines before photocopying it, then I draw out the radiating shapes onto the photocopy.  After that I decide which colours of transparent glass I am going to use and start cutting the shapes.  THis dish has 230 component parts, measuring no more than 30mm, so you can see why I break it down into sections!
The worst part is washing, rinsing and drying each piece, making sure there is no residue powdered glass or pen marks and the fun part is positioning the jigsaw of tiny parts onto the base clear glass before fusing.  Oh, I forgot to say that I don't have to remember where each piece goes because I take a photo of it on my phone before I start the washing process.
Even so, these dishes are quite labour intensive but hugely enjoyable to make. Here are a few more....

Deep Kaleidoscope dish measuring 20cm across

Deep Kaleidoscope dish measuring 20cm across

If you want to see more of #whatiamworkingontoday please view my Instagram or visit my Folksy shop for the finished glass products.

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