Suicide Glass!

Fused glass and razor blades are made for each other! With the latest craze of Steam punk* these glass items seem to fit right in.



I fused my first Blade Dish about four years ago and I have been making them occasionally since. They are a combination of float glass (picture glass) which gives the glass a greenish tinge and red enamel powder sandwiched between the glass. Oh, and don't forget the razor blade. Because steel blades are so thin they don't cause fractures when fused.



My first dishes were always shallow, because I worried that a deep slump would cause the blade to fracture the glass. But as you can see from the deeper dish (above) the metal is flexible enough to bend and slump with the glass.

The ultimate steam punk accessory must be the Rock n Roll Suicide pendants. I wear one to work sometimes and I always get comments (and sometimes funny looks). As David Bowie said "Your too old to lose it, too young to choose it..."

Pendants and dishes are now available for sale on Folksy and Etsy.

* "Steam Punk is a sub-genre of fantasy and fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era —but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy." Wikipedia.

Glass Hearts at Glassprimitif

I was recently asked to make some glass hearts for a customer who wanted to give them as gifts at the Race for Life Event.



The hearts are quite simple in design and are made from a combination of pink, white and clear glass so that each one is different. The customer bought four of the glass hearts and is pleased with the hearts and I have listed the rest on Etsy for sale.



So now I am coming to the end of my obsession with hearts (I think...) and am casting around for a new idea for designing glass. Watch this space!

Folksyfinds.com

I have just joined the team at Folksyfinds.com, a blog about Folksy artists and artisans for Folksy fans.

So what's it all about? Well Folksy is a new UK social selling site for artists and designers who make "hand made" to sell their gorgeous crafts. Although it's no longer in it's infancy (more of a teenager now) Folksy is still growing and finding it's niche in the social selling world. Folksy has recently introduced international shipping, allowing it's sellers to ship their goodies abroad and increase sales too.

Where there's Folksy there are also folk and what does every hand made selling site need? A promotional blog, that's what. So Folkyfinds has been devised and launched by photographer Dan Jackson and he kindly invited me onto the editorial team. It's been a bit of a challenge for me (I had to learn to navigate my way through Wordpress and I'm a Blogger kind of gal) but I have posted my first entry this week - Hearts are Trumps.

Please take a look and why not subscribe to the site? You have nothing to lose and you will gain some great information and promos about Folksy.

Funky Folksy Fish

The latest catch of fabulous fused glass fish have just landed fresh from the kiln.

I love making these fish because I get to play with so many different colours of glass to make different combinations of fish. I start with the basic template drawing and cut lots of fish "bodies" from off-cuts of opal vanilla and clear glass. I have even used Uroboros irridescent glass in bubbles and stripes. Irri glass looks flat and colourless until it is held up to the light, then the oily colours of irridised glass sparkle and catch the light.

So, every fish starts as a basic shape that I can add shapes cut from bright glass and play around with. I make some fish in opal glass and some in transparent glass to make each one different. I have my favourites, of course, such as turquoise with cranberry transparent glass and orange with lime green opal glass. If I think there might be a subtlety to the colour combinations I change it fast! Tasteful? Moi? I like positioning their eyes (made from glass blobs) too, so that each fish has a different expression.

Next comes the laborious task of grinding all the shapes so that I don't get any strange knobbly, misshapen bits after firing. Then the wash, rinse and dry before gluing the component parts together. Attaching the metal hangers is always a bit tricky and, if the glass doesn't fuse over the top, the hangers will pop out. (Which results in much gnashing of teeth). Once dry, it's everyone into the kiln for a fry-up so that they come out smooth, glossy and sleek.

These fantastic fish are being listed on Folksy all this week. They will make the perfect Easter gift or look great on the bathroom wall.

Why Twitter?

Yesterday I attended a seminar on social networking at Bradford Crafts Centre by Chi-Chi Ekweozor of RealFreshTV.
One of the social networks discussed was Twitter, which Chi-Chi favours above Facebook. Now I am a big fan of Facebook as a promotional tool for both Glassprimitif and for Keighley Arts Factory because, through my business page and group, I can target my audience locally. By local I mean increasing the foot fall to the gallery and also increase UK sales to my folksy shop. I am not as keen on Twitter because I wonder how it's possible to make those all important relationships on such a frenetic site?
Question: everyone is madly posting links (Buy my latest ..... See my blog..... Visit my shop.... ) but are we actually bothering to look at the links? I would have to spend ALL my time on Twitter to look at, and comment on, every link I am sent. Also, Twitter seems so "trivial" to me, does it really have a long shelf life as a promotional tool?
I think I need convincing - Chi-Chi was so enthusiastic about Twitter that she has made me think that Twitter may well be a valid marketing tool but the jury's still out in Primitif World!
If you have an opinion on Twitter please let me know.