Swanky Maison

My glass dishes are now available to buy on the Shopping Site Swanky Maison.

About Swanky Maison - this new shopping site prides itself in sourcing new designers who create original items for the home. Items include ceramics, glass, textiles, prints and furnishings and... now me!

All glass that I make for Swanky Maison is designed exclusively for the website and you can buy my cupcake glass dishes only from them. I have also started work on a series of dishes based on Seaside Designs, including lighthouse, boats and beach huts (I sold the beach huts yesterday).

I have also listed three glass Sushi Girls on the website, one of my favourite designs. These Sushi Girls have been slumped into deep curved moulds that make them ideal as soap dishes, for sushi, canapes or keeping your earrings in on the bedside table.

I am now working on a series of Matryoshka Doll Dishes, coming to Swanky Maison soon.

Join Swanky Maison on Facebook or visit the website for more home wares.

Sources of Inspiration

As an art teacher in secondary and further education I often help students who are struggling for inspiration and ideas. As a glass artist I sometimes struggle for ideas myself. This “block” on ideas isn’t easy to cope with as it can leave you feeling fed up and panicked but, just like writer’s block, it soon passes.

How does an idea start? Twenty years ago I worked as a freelance designer and my clients expected me to produce at least 3 to 5 good quality ideas for each brief. Working on new designs with short deadlines made me ideas-rich but, working at that pace, also left me exhausted creatively. Fortunately design is more to do with nurture than nature and, once you are in your stride as a designer, more ideas flow. Imagine your first idea is like an acorn that grows into a strong tree that branches off with similar ideas that then scatters more acorns (ideas) that start the whole process again. That’s how contagious ideas can be!


Where to begin? Anything or anyone can trigger an idea - a landscape, a building, a song, a conversation, a colour ….. it sounds pretentious but it’s true. Are you completely stuck? Don’t have an idea of your own? Stop looking around and look inside yourself instead. What do you like to do? What are your interests? List three things about yourself. Here are some possible examples:
I drink a lot of tea!
I love gardening.
My favourite colour is red.
Three design ideas already. Let’s take a look at Drinking Tea and list words that are linked to this idea:
Tea leaves, tea bags, tea pot, tea cups, tea strainer, tea spoons, sugar bowl, milk jug, saucers, tea plates, biscuits, dainty cakes, napkins, tablecloth….
Now I gave gathered the ideas they need to be developed into a design. What am I going to do with this design? Will it be a collage? Mosaic? Patchwork quilt? Glass dish?

An appliqué quilt based on the idea of Drinking Tea.
Look through magazines and catalogues, selecting and cutting out images of tea pots, cups, cakes, etc.
Make rough drawings of the shapes of the images.
Decide on the shapes you like and photocopy your drawings. Play around with the cut out shapes on a large piece of plain paper. Can you construct a design that you are reasonably happy with?
Look at patterns and colours of china tea sets that you might like to use on your appliqué shapes. Willow pattern? Royal Copenhagen? Stripes and spots? Roses? Plain colours? Check tablecloths?
Spend some time looking at fabrics that will suit the design for a Tea Drinking Applique Quilt. Think about three main things when you select material: colour, pattern and texture.

Where can you keep all these ideas? Becoming ideas-rich and collating images is addictive but it is difficult to develop these ideas if all your reference is loose. You may find ideas for future projects whilst researching for a current project or you may want to go back and look at a previous idea.
There are several ways you can store and group your reference and images. Choose one or more that you are comfortable with and suits you.
Sketchbooks hard backed, A4 or A5 size, plain or patterned cover, artists’ sketch block, children’s drawing pad.
Notebooks plain or lined pages, jotters, exercise books, spiral bound books, hand made books, stapled pages. (You can buy plain books on Dawanda).
Scrap books sugar paper, scrap computer paper, foolscap paper.

Where can you find sources for design? Magazines, children’s books, catalogues, photographs, travel brochures, newspapers, postcards, paint charts, fabric swatches, architecture, nature, patterns, ethnic art, historical and contemporary art, postage stamps, found objects, pebbles, shells…..


Design boards. I like to make design boards, I have been making them since art school (a long time) and still look at the very old ones when I am looking for a fresh idea. This design board is for an idea I have for making glass sushi dishes. I sought out images of origami paper dolls and toys and have included washi paper with some drawings I have made. I am looking at three things: shape, colour and texture. The pleasure of making a design board is arranging the images and then sticking them down.
Working Drawings. Unlike finished drawings, working drawings are dispensable – they can be scribbled over, redrawn and notes made in the margin. Working drawings don’t need to be to scale – that’s the job of the finished drawing. When I have thrashed out several drawings on paper I then draw the exact measurements for a sushi dish and finalise my design.
The finished outcome. So from a design board I have finished a selection of sushi dishes called “The Sushi Girls”. My design board and drawings helped me to resolve problems and adapt my designs for glass.


A quick note about copyright – copyright law is tricky to enforce unless you are a powerful corporation who makes soft drinks or Japanese cartoon cats, or you have a lot of money to enable you to sue. This means that the little people (like you and me who can’t afford to hire lawyers) are vulnerable to having our precious work copied. Here are some does and don’ts:
Do take care when downloading images from Google that you are not infringing others’ copyright. Pasting their images on your design board is fine as long as you are not directly copying their work.
Instead, take a look at Dover Books which are 25% copyright free http://doverbooks.co.uk/ . These books are a fantastic resource.
Make sure that your designs at lest three steps away from the sources of reference you have collected.
Please don’t scan websites like Dawanda and Etsy to directly copy others’ hand made items and then sell them through another selling website. You WILL get found out.
If your idea and design is your own and unique then ask the viewer to respect your copyright.

And finally, please note that this article is solely the property of Glassprimitif. Please do not copy parts of it out for re-publication without the author’s permission.

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.

Inclusions in glass

What is an inclusion? Well it's anything that can be fused between two pieces of glass (but not glass itself).

What objects can be fused as an inclusion? Washers, razor blades, certain types of metal foils, copper wire, coins, leaves, clock parts......

What can't be fused as an inclusion? Paper, plastic, hair, fabric, string, wood, foodstuff.

Why can you fuse plant matter but not paper or fabric? Because they will all turn to ash in the intense heat of the kiln but certain plant matter will leave behind a skeleton in the shape of the inclusion - such as ivy leaves, ferns and heather.

Why has the glass cracked around the inclusion? This happens when the inclusion is too thick for the glass such as heavy coins and bulky washers.

I have fused metal foil in between my glass but it has turned black. It could be that the foil is too thin or that it isn't a fusible foil. for fusible gold, silver and copper foil coe 90 go to:

http://www.warm-glass.co.uk/Shop/CategoryProducts.aspx?CategoryId=68

Copper sheet sometimes sheds small rusty or black residue between the glass. Clean the copper well with a silver cleaner and wash in hot soapy water before use.

Can all types of glass be fused with inclusions? Gosh, I don't know the answer to that one - I fuse inclusions (with the exception of the coe90 foils) between float glass coe 80 -82.

Fused glass sushi dishes with inclusions can be bought from http://glassprimitif.etsy.com/ and fused glass pendants from http://en.dawanda.com/shop/glassprimitif

These glass items have been designed and made by me (Glassprimitif). Please respect the copyright of this design.

The Best of Asianicandy

I have been exploring the boutique store http://asianicandystore.com/ as their oriental inspired items are just gorgeous (slipped in one of my sushi dishes here).
http://www.asianicandystore.com/icandystore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=324
If anyone wants to buy me the blue kimono jacket please don't hesitate - I promise I won't be embarrassed. Awww, thank you so much.

Yum Orange Sushi dish

Whoo-hoo! Asianicandy has one of my sushi dishes in her store

http://www.asianicandystore.com/icandystore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=61_92&products_id=321

I'm very proud of this dish as it is vanilla glass with deep orange strips fused into a plaid design with green and yellow frit in each square. Check out http://asianicandystore.com for more sushi inspired items.

My latest glass

Glass dishes, sushi dishes and coasters now available at http://glassprimitif.etsy.com and www.shawgalleries.co.uk

Sheesh! That's bright.

I recently bought some Bullseye thin opals from http://warm-glass.co.uk/ and I really love these bright colours. I am working on a series of dishes using retro squares but I need add a few more colours to my stash. That pink is a bit pale but the yellows fuse into lovely marigold shades.

What is pixie dust?

I understand that pixie dust is powdered mica in the USA but this looks like coarse powdered glass to me. It's a beautiful cobalt blue and fuses with float glass (coe 82). What do you think?

Green is the new Red!

For someone who is passionate about Red I have an awful lot of green in my Etsy shop. So I have posted these images to remind myself why I like red so much. The reds range from bright orange-red (leaf dish) to a deep blood red (white stripes dish) and a range of reds in-between. The latest sushi dish (third one down) is a new red called Pimento. It goes really well with grey and white. All this glass is available at http://glassprimitif.etsy.com.

A little bit of dichro

Two dishes with dichroic glass detail, fused on Bullseye glass.

But these aren't red!

No they're not but if I worked with red glass all the time I would get stuck in a rut. Instead, I really like these Bullesye opals I bought in turquoise, soft blue, lime green and vanilla. I have mixed them with transparent blues, turquoise and greens to create these dishes. There are two sushi dishes, both starring on http://www.glassprimitif.etsy.com and a larger glass dish that I don't want to part with yet as I like it so much. I'm going to order some more opals from Warm-glass in funky colours.

Fishes on Dishes

These dishes are made from Bullseye glass and are on sale at the Arts Factory, Cavendish Street, Keighley, West Yorkshire BD21 3DF. They measure 5" square and come in bright, funky colours. They can be used for sushi, canapes, candy or just as something cheerful for the coffee table. They cost £15 sterling or $28 with postage of £3 for UK buyers, $6.50 for overseas. Contact the Arts Factory on 01535 618554 or email: joanna.whitehead@keighley.ac.uk.

When I started fusing glass I experimented with a variety of glass until I decided that Bullseye was the glass for me. The colours are brilliant - my favourites are vanilla opal, red irridescent and turquoise. Unfortunately, it's an expensive glass but you get the quality that you pay for. I buy my Bullseye colours from Decorative Glass Supplies in Bradford. This is a huge warehouse stacked full of glass and glass making supplies. Makes include Bullseye, Spectrum and all the glass you need for stained glass.