Make Jewellery

I was Shop of the Month in the August edition of Make Jewellery! It's a really good magazine with lots of jewellery making projects, prize draws and features. September's issue should be in the shops today!

Bling Bling!

I've got the jewellery making bug at the moment and am driving my family mad by spreading all my stuff over the table and constantly dropping beads on the floor.




I visited a car boot sale last weekend and picked up this "swag" for a bargain. There are assorted earrings, necklaces and thin chains, mostly broken pieces and I couldn't resist two silver plated tiny spoons (don't know what to do with them yet). I have been "deconstructing" these all week and, with the addition of Swarovski crystals, silver findings, crimp beads and tiget tail I have made a collection of vintage jewellery. (I am particularly) proud of an earrings, bracelet and necklace set that I made out of a fake diamante necklace.
I'll get the camera out and take some photos of the results. I'm hoping to sell these at the Crafts Market in Royal Arcade, Keighley on Saturday July 18.

And the Winner is......

Congratulations to Chantal of Here Pretty Kitty who's name was drawn out of a hat to win bag of glass goodies. Incidentally, her suggested name was Tomomi. What did she win?

• A fused glass magnet
• A set of glass coasters
• A pair of dichroc etched glass drop earrings
• A glass fish pendant
• A pair of opal glass cufflinks
• A glass bead bag charm
• A 25% off voucher from Glassprimitif

Thank you to all who entered - I was thrilled to have so many participants. I'll be in touch with you all.

Glass Quilts

Two of my favorite patchwork books are Freddy's House by Freddy Moran and Kaleidoscopic Quilts by Kaffe Fassett. Both books are a feast of color and bold patterns. So patchwork quilt blocks are the source of my glass designs for fall/winter.



Here are some examples of my glass designs in dishes and jewelery. I have used traditional quilt patterns such as Flying Geese, Nine Patch and Pinwheel and combined these with Bullseye glass to create bright fused glass. I have mostly use transparent color glass on white or vanilla opal glass as the transparent colors retain their jewel-like quality when fused. The pendants and earrings are based on the solid quilt block colors of Amish quilts and I have used opaque glass stacked together to create mini-blocks.

Below is a large glass wall decoration depicting a patchwork star. I am making a series of suncatchers that can also be used as wall pieces or hung in the bathroom too.

All this glass can be purchased from Etsy, Shaw Galleries and Keighley Arts Factory.

You win some, You lose some...

In a previous post, Float Glass Products, I raved about the exciting new stuff I had bought that is COE82, making it compatible with float. Whilst the colors of float glass are disappointing (compared to the vibrancy of Bullseye glass) I had high hopes that these products would help me to make new, innovative glass designs at a fraction of the cost of COE90 glass. Here's what has happened so far...



Clear bubble powder: I was hoping for large, blistering bubbles such as the ones I get in my sushi dishes but the bubbles came out more like a rash. Unperturbed, I made another tile with lots more bubble powder (see below). If you look carefully you wlil see that the larger bubbles have stress fractures in them.



Below: clear bubble powder experiments with other bubble powders.
Curious! The one of the left is clear and turquoise bubble powder. The clear powder appears to have stripped the turquoise of any color, leaving it a dirty gray. The one on the right is clear bubble powder mixed with red bubble powder. It has also stripped the red color from the bubbles. I'm blaming the clear powder but, as I am still experimenting with this, I could be wrong.



Below: bubble powder stud earrings with clear and pink bubble powder. You can see a faint sheen of pink around the bubbles. They do look unusual in the fact that the bubbles look as if the glass is under water but, as I am an "in-yer-face" with color kind of gal, I will be working on this to make it more colorful.



Transparent frit: because colored float is slightly disappointing I was expecting the frit to be a bit wishy washy. Instead, I am quite pleased with the results.
From left to right: First one is frit mixed with clear bubble powder. again, it's turned a horrible grayish color, like burnt ash.
Second one is amber, orange and red frit between two pieces of float glass. It looks quite good close up because it has tiny air bubbles trapped inside.
Third and fourth ones are both frit placed between and on top of the glass. The image doesn't show it clearly but these pieces have a lot more depth and color to them.



Below: amber, orange and red frit earrings. The transparency makes them look almost liquid. I'm quite pleased with these and they are available for sale in my Dawanda shop.



Silver and gold glass sheet: this glass has a coating of gold or silver and it has lots of pre-made scratches that make a pattern on the glass. (It would be good to be able to buy it as a solid metallic color too). Here's what I did with it.



Below: various glass nuggets fused with gold and silver coated glass. The ones on the left have been fused with a cap of clear glass. The gold and silver coating has burned out and the glass cap has devitrified. Not good! The ones on the right have been fused with the gold ands silver coated glass on top of the clear glass. Although it looks much better I didn't get the shrinkage in the kiln that I was expecting so I have since cut the glass shapes to a smaller size.



Hearts of Glass. These glass hearts have been hand cut and fused by me, Glassprimitif. They are made from float glass (coe82) with a coating of gold or silver glass. Each one measures 1.5" (3cm) and are available for sale at Glassprimitif on Etsy.

More about Sources of Inspiration

Anything can become a source of inspiration for design. It can be a color, texture, shape, abstract, realisitc, organic or man-made. I am fortunate that my daughter works in an old fashioned sweet shop and looking at the many jars of sweets, stacked in rows, is a great source of inspiration (not to mention the delight in eating them).
The colours of these licorice torpedoes make them so appealing to the eye. The combination of their glassy look and synthetic colours were the inspiration behind this glass candy dish. Fortunately, Bullseye makes opaque glass that reflect the artificial brightness of this candy and placing the different coloured glass squares together was great fun.

I'm not a big fan of candy - I prefer chocolate myself but I am rather fond of licorice. Again the bright colors of Licorice Allsorts proved to be a source of inspiration, particularly as each bright color is bisected with black.

I have attempted to make these Allsorts cufflinks slightly more sophisticated by using deeper or more subtle colors than those in the candy, including turquoise blue, red, vanilla and soft blue. I hope that the "fun" element in the design hasn't been lost in translation. I really like these cufflinks and they look great on a white dress shirt. The studs are silver plated.

Finally, this dish is again inspired by candy but the colours are slightly different. Instead of opaque glass I have fused transparent glass onto white. By separating each coloured glass piece with a tile of white I prevent muddy colour combinations occuring. As transparent glass is see-through (obviously) it is going to reflect the colour underneath. Without the white tiles the amber glass fused to green would make a nasty brown, the turquoise on the amber glass would make a dirty green.

All this glass is available for sale at my Etsy Shop. 

I Love Red

I have opened a new shop on Etsy called I Love Red where I am now selling lino prints, dyed and painted silk, origami, batik papers, textiles and silver jewelry. It's taking me a while to fill it but I will be listing new items every week. http://ilovered.etsy.com

Cut Out and Keep

Cut Out and Keep is a great site for the crafting community. The site includes a Project Page where you can learn how to make fantastic craft items, from fimo to fake blood! My favorite project is the sweet wrapper bracelet
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/wrapper_bracelet
You can also add projects of your own and the step-by-step guide makes listing a project very easy.

Here are some images from my Project on creating a Razor Blade Pendant using the Tiffany glass techique. http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/razor_blade_pendant
To buy the actual pendant visit: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7925799

Good Luck and Prosperity

Fish play a big part in my designs. There are three reasons for this - they are easily recognisable shapes to cut in glass, they can be decorated in any color or pattern that the imagination will allow and they are symbols of good luck and prosperity in eastern culture.
So I have spent a happy time in my studio creating fused glass Lucky fish pendants and have just listed them in my Etsy store at http://glassprimitif.etsy.com

100 cranes!

I've just finished folding over 100 origami cranes for the next exhibition at Keighley Arts Factory. My next task is to suspend the cranes on fishing line from the gallery ceiling. The cranes are in celebration of our next exhibition "The Winter Contemporary" which previews on Thursday 8 November and officially starts on Friday 9 November to Wednesday 12 December 2007.

I also spent a happy morning unpacking beautiful ceramics and I can't wait to put them out on display. We have white plinths and white walls so the display will be bright splashes of colour.

The exhibition also features painting, glass, textiles, jewelry, books and decorations.

For details of the exhibition visit: http://kafgallery.blogspot.com

Spiritunique Gallery and Gift Shop

The Spirit Gallery and Gift shop in Eshottheugh, Northumberland is now stocking Glassprimitif sushi dishes and coasters. Visit their website at http://spiritunique.co.uk where they sell jewellery, hand bags and other unique gifts.

Welcome to DaWanda

I've just joined a European and UK selling site http://en.dawanda.com/shop/Glassprimitif for hand made and hand crafted items. At DaWanda you can buy in euros and meet other European sellers. Please visit my new shop where I am listing glass jewellery and tokens.
Also see DaWanda at http://dawandashopdirectory.blogspot.com and http://indiepublic.ning.com/group/dawanda