Weaving for the soul part 2

My first finished sample

I have finished my first weaving sample.
I thought I would have a try at weaving circles - they came out bigger than I thought they would. The cream coloured one turned out the best. After the first one (on the left) I realised that I needed to make the sides of the circle longer so that it would keep its shape and not look squashed.  After that I wove a row of soumak before moving onto straight lines.
Below the circles I attempted to weave a blend of beige, cream and brown lines but I made a bit of a pig's ear of it (weaving three colours under electric light wasn't such a good idea) so I tried it again after the circles by using only two colours (rust and cream). Definitely an improvement. My final band has been to practice shapes with a wavy background of a slightly thicker yarn.  

I can't begin to tell you how therapeutic this has been so far - it really takes all my concentration. This has to be good for the soul! 

I've cut the sample from the frame and woven all the ends into the back.  My next sample will be straight lines because I need to practice getting the selvedge even - it's quite lumpy and bumpy. 

Jo X

Glass coaster workshop

Fused Glass Coasters

On Sunday 11th October I will be teaching a one day workshop on creating your own fused glass coasters.  This will be my first workshop at The Garth, a workshop complex on Skipwith Common, near York, i am booked to teach more of them from October.

There are eight places at this workshop - I like to work with small groups of people to ensure that everyone gets enough tuition and encouragement.  Each student will design and make a set of 4 coasters which are then fired off-site in my kiln and returned, along with rubber bumpons on the base of each coaster. This is aimed at beginners and improvers alike - if you have never cut glass before then this is the ideal project on which to learn.  You don't even need to bring along a design - I can supply you with ideas and inspiration.

To book a place please visit Silver and Stone HERE, you can book on-line or email Helen for more details.  The workshop is from 10am to 3pm and refreshments are provided.  However, it is advisable to bring a packed lunch. There is plenty of free parking. 

All materials are provided but you must wear old clothes or bring an apron. Also, make sure your arms and legs are covered (jeans or trousers) and no open toe sandals please.

Hoorah for Small for All!

Box of smalls

Last month I decided to collect undies for the charity Small for All. Between us my daughter and I managed to gather four bras but then I put out an appeal on Facebook and the response has been overwhelming.Here is the box packed full of new and barely used undies, all collected by lovely creative Yorkshire people including brand new packs of knickers. Most people brought their contributions to my stand at Art in the Pen, the rest dropped them off at the shop where I work in Saltaire. 

Smalls donation box

The satisfaction of collecting for Smalls for All is that I don't have to ask anyone for money or sponsorship and the donations go directly to the recipients. Here's what the charity has to say about it.

"Because many women and children in Africa can't afford underwear, they fall victim to disease and attack. And girls who are lucky enough to have a place in school often miss 3 or 4 days a month due their lack of underwear. Smalls for All donates underwear in many ways - through links with established charities; through hospitals that treat women with conditions like fistula; through IDP camps and children's homes and orphanages"

If you missed the collection and you would like to donate to Small for All please visit their website. If you don't have any smalls to spare they accept financial donations too.

Lots of preparation!

Art in the Pen is nearly here and I still have a list of tasks to complete before Friday 14th August! 

Today I ordered the flowers for my table display. We have an excellent florist in Saltaire, Brambles and Blooms, and I have picked a selection of green sculptural flowers to go with long white lilium grandiflorum. I'm hoping they will make a show.All my electrics have now been pat tested - one floor lamp didn't pass so I am buying a new one this week. I have bought dust sheets from B and Q to cover the bars of the pen and I have sewn acres of retro bunting too.  All my furniture is now painted and I am very proud of my bargain circular table I got for a whopping £20 from the auctioneers at Killinghall. My lovely new display boxes arrived on Monday, hand made by a local joiner, and tomorrow I will be painting those too. So, it looks like I am nearly ready - what am I missing?

GLASS! Oh yes, nearly forgot about the glass.....

New glass - Rretro Square

This year I introduced a new design (well it is an old design but I have revisited it and improved upon it) - Retro Square. I love the combination of lime green, acid yellow and bright tangerine shining out on white opal glass with touches of turquoise, aqua and emerald. Retro Square is all about colour and reasons to be cheerful and I have made fruit plates, oval fruit bowls, coasters, tealight holders and sushi-style dishes.

There will also be my usual glass tableware - Bar Code Stripe, Fleur, Honeycomb and Spun Sugar - as well as Scandi birds and Funky Fish.  To find out more about Art in the Pen at Skipton Auction Mart please visit the website, ArtiinthePen.

Finally, I am pen 69, surrounded by lovely artists - please come and say hello. 
Jo X

Design Inspire Live

Design Inspire Live at Headingley Heart

This Saturday (13th June) I shall be taking my glass to Design@Heart, a unique event at The Heart Centre, Headingley for designer homewares and gifts. I'm quite excited about this event because it is the first one of it's kind at The Heart Centre, replacing the craft fairs with something a bit more tailored to customers interested in original items for the home.The ethos behind Design Inspire Live is to promote designer makers with themed events, where we can showcase and sell our work. These events have been designed and created by Becky Moore, herself a creative designer and you can find out more by visiting the website DesignInspireLive.

The Heart Centre Headingley

On a sad note, the organisers of Settle Artisans have decided to call it a day with the fairs at Victoria Hall, Settle so I won't be attending any future dates planned for this year. If you received a mail shot from me with the dates of all my activities for 2015, please note that it is only the Settle fairs I won't be at - I will still be at Masham, Art in the Pen at Skipton, Kelbrook Craft Fair and Strid Tea Rooms this summer.   If there are any future fairs planned at Settle I will definitely be signing up as Settle has always been a great place to sell my glass. 

It's Show Time

January and February are the months that I spend applying for fairs, events and exhibitions. March to May are the months that I find out if my glass has been accepted - or not.

It's always a case of  "you win some, you lose some" and I'm pleased to say that I have only had one rejection so far this year (so we won't talk about that)!  Form filling and application processing are time consuming: editing and selecting images of new work, making payments, writing artist's statements that fit the word count, updating CVs - all take up time. Some galleries want to see images of the actual work that is to be submitted, others just want to see a selection that represents the artist's work.  This means that for exhibitions such as Platform Gallery's Craft Open I had to make the work in advance in the hope that it would get selected (it was :) )So now I am changing the pencilled-in dates in my diary to inked-in ones, paying more fees (bleurgh) and planning how to present and display my work.  Here is my event schedule for 2015 - I am hoping to add more dates in the next couple of weeks.

14 April - 10 May Glass and Ceramics exhibition at Just Makers The Old Bath House RHS Harlow Carr North Yorkshire

23 - 25 May The Makers' Fair Saltaire Arts Trail Victoria Hall Saltaire West Yorkshire

25 April - 4 July Craft Open Platform Gallery Clitheroe Lancashire

11 - 12 July Crafted by Hand Masham North Yorkshire

15 - 16 August Art in the Pen Skipton Auction Mart North Yorkshire

Making Plans

At the end of each year, when I have finished my last event, I always tell myself that I will have plenty of time to make new glass during January and February and even take some time to develop new ideas and test out new materials. It has never happened and this year is no exception.

I have applied for three open call exhibitions and have been busy making new glass for each (I am only allowed to submit the glass shown on the application images) and I also have a show at Harlow Carr at the end of March.  In May I will be at Saltaire Arts Trail for three days and I will need plenty of glass for that too.  So the kiln has been on nearly every day and I have been cutting, grinding and cleaning as much glass as I can.

As a small business I always find January/February difficult months for cashflow - not much flows in but plenty flows out to pay for stall fees and submission fees.  I try to spread the cost of glass by making my significant purchases when Warm Glass has sales and offers. I took advantage of their 12 Days of Christmas offer in December to buy all my teaching glass and my staple glass - large sheets of clear, white and vanilla.  I only started planning to buy glass a couple of years ago when I created a Cashflow Forecast and monitored my spend from 2012.  Money spent on glass was chaotic and impulsive (and frequent)! so I have reined in my outgoings by setting a budget for each expense. This means I have cut down on buying magazines and books and keeping a record of my mileage. 

If, like me, you are a small business and struggle with balancing the books, I recommend setting up a Cashflow Forecast in Excel. Financial forecasting, budgeting and bank reconciliation is really boring so I set aside two hours a week to update my spreadsheets and accounts.  It might not stop you from spending money but it certainly answers the question "where does it all go"?

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               

                         

Pick and Mix

Exhibition at Bradford College

Early in December I was invited to take part in the forthcoming Pick and Mix exhibition at Bradford College Dye House Gallery (13th January until 18th February 2015)
Bradford College holds a huge archive of textile samples dating back to the glory days when West Yorkshire was the centre of excellence in the textiles industry. Many of these samples date back as far at the 18th century and it is a great wealth of resource for anyone studying, or has an interest in textiles.

Sketchbook pages 

The exhibition will showcase the work of Yorkshire based artists, makers and designers in response to the archive.  I chose two textile samples from The Americas collection because, as I am from a textile background, I am very interested in mid century design.  Now they are finished and have been shipped off to Bradford College, I will get to see them in situ at the preview on Tuesday 13th January and I am really keen to see what everyone else's work will be like.

"1952" large platter 

"1956" curved fruit dish

If you are in the Bradford area pop into The Dye House Gallery, it really is a wonderful exhibition space. The Dye House Gallery is open from Monday to Friday, 11am until 4pm; with a special Saturday opening on 7th February 2015, from 10am until 4 pm

Blog Hop

I have been invited to take part in a Blog Hop by the lovely and creative Becky Moore who makes the most beautiful embroidered velvet bags (see her work HERE) 

Becky Moore Hand Bags

The Hop requires me to answer four questions about my work and then nominate another designer maker to carry the Hop on. 

What am I working on?

This time of the year I am busy making replacements of stock sold, mostly Christmas decorations and Scandi birds, but I have also been invited to make a piece of glass for an exhibition at Bradford College. The exhibition, Pick and Mix, will showcase work by designer-makers in response to the textile archive at the College. This is a great opportunity for me to move away from my current style of work as I am constrained by the fabric samples I have chosen.  

1952, ready to be fired

I have chosen two pieces from the Americas Collection, 1952 and 1956, which are both prints on cotton in limited colours and I have been working through two ideas. ! have been playing with repeat patterns and geometric structures for one piece and trying to create more organic shapes with negative space for the second.  Both finished pieces will be slumped into dish forms  - because I like my glass to have a practical application.  
Working with colour is a vital part of my work and the structured piece will be in opal glass, the colours are reminiscent of the 1950s and will imitate the flat, dense orange and black of the fabric sample.  The second piece will be made from amber, clear and charcoal glass - all transparent - to give that piece the organic feel that I am after. 
No pressure but these pieces have to be finished before the end of the month! 

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I originally studied textile design and worked as an illustrator, therefore my designs for glass are influenced by surface pattern and colour.  There is more to designing for glass than just cutting a square of opal glass and slumping it in the kiln. I cut each piece meticulously and grind all the edges before the glass goes into the kiln and I pay great attention to detail. Over the years I have experimented and practised the craft of kiln fired glass until I now know exactly what to expect when I open the kiln up at the end of firing (apart from the odd slippage - very annoying).

Spun Sugar Fruit Dish 

Many designs simply won't work in glass - they become too "clunky" or "amateurish" -  so what looks good on paper doesn't necessarily translate to the finished product.  I used to make jewellery using dichroic glass but I gave this up because my designs looked too much like everyone else's.  However, I have recently had a rethink about dichroic glass (metal oxides coated onto glass that reflect and refract light to give a jewel-like quality) and, in 2015, I will be designing and experimenting to produce a limited edition range of earrings, brooches and pendants. 

Why do I do what I do?

My Dad was a potter and he  encouraged my sisters and I to be creative.  I always said that textiles was my life but, when I was bought a fused glass decoration, I thought "I wonder if I can do that"? Glass is just another surface for me to decorate with pattern and colour yet, as a medium, it is also quite limiting. Glass is also a slow process which is surprising that I love it because I am not a patient person.  However, like textiles, glass is very tactile and attractive to touch.  This is the appeal for me. 


I have a mass of influences that translate into glass - I love retro design, Scandinavian folk design, patchwork quilts and Indian embroidery. All have appeared in some form in my work over the past 15 years and I'm certain I will discover new influences in the future.  

How does my process work? 

It's very simple - I take sheets of glass and fuse them to make - glass :) 
Kiln formed glass is stacked onto the kiln shelf, starting from the bottom and adding more pieces, and then fused at high temperatures (up to 840c) until it turns from a super-cooled liquid into nearer its natural state (liquid).  I add more glass during a second firing if necessary and can fuse some pieces up to three times before I slump them into moulds.   
My spun sugar bowls give the appearance of glass that has been dribbled in liquid form across a bowl shape but, in reality, they are made from strips of glass that are laid in a grid across the kiln shelf.  Each firing gives the negative space a more rounded edge until they look like holes in the structure.  

Honeycomb Fruit dish

Glass loves heat but only when heated and cooled slowly as it expands at a rate of 0.00090 mm per second. Any faster and it will crack with thermal shock. It needs time to rest at a holding temperature both whilst being heated and cooled therefore accurate kiln temperature timings are vital to the process. Badly annealed glass will fracture - either immediately once exposed to room temperature or anything up to six months after.  Thank goodness for the digital timer!

So here is my nominee for the Blog Hop, talented textile designer Anne Crowther from Daisy Florence Design.  Please visit her blog because her work is super.  

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

Walk This Way

I am lucky enough to have been selected to take part in the HOST Art Walk in Huddersfield next Thursday 11th September.  I will be at Neaversons on Byram Street with two artists, Audrey Erbany and Carol Curtis displaying my glass alongside their art.

I don't know many people in Huddersfield so, If you are in the area next Thursday, please pop in and say hello. You can get a great cuppa (or something stronger) at Neaversons and, bizarrely, they sell popcorn tea! 

Chapel Allerton - one year on

Silly me! I forgot to post that I will be at Chapel Allerton Festival in Leeds this Saturday selling hand made glass.  I can't believe it's been a year since I was there but I hope it is as brilliant as it was last year.

Scandinavian Birds

I will be bringing a selection of my Scandi Birds which have now been redesigned to make them more bird-like (I gave them a longer tail).  They did terrifically well at Strid Woods last weekend and I have been busy making replacements.  

If you at Chapel Allerton this weekend please pop by and say hello. I will be outside on Hawthorn Road (yes, I know, I don't like being outdoors with glass) but the weather is supposed to be cracking. :) 

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. 

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.

Digging for Victory

It's been a bloomin' good year for the allotment so far.  We have had a glut of courgettes and runner beans, done well with strawberries and sweetcorn and we are looking forward to potatoes and butternut squash.

It's not all been plain sailing though and we have made some mistakes such as: we didn't make good use of the space, didn't plant enough broad beans and don't even ask what happened to the peas! 

Rob the Robin 

One of the joys of working on the allotment is the wildlife, particularly visits from Rob the Robin, who likes to shout encouragement from a safe distance whilst I dig. Here he is, after his moult and sporting his new, sleek feathers. 

Next year we won't make the same mistakes that we did this year - just different ones :)