It's Spring....

in my little garden!

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.

Glass for Ceramic Artists & Potters

Aside from fusing glass I also make stained glass decorations for fun. As fusing glass is so very expensive I save every scrap and every disaster to make frit or re-fuse to make glass blobs. But cathedral glass, which is used as stained glass, isn't really suitale for fusing. This is because I don't know the co-efficiency of this glass and it costs too much to keep firing up the kiln just to experiment. This leaves me with a bag full of scraps that are too small to copper foil!

So what's the answer? Well this glass makes ideal frit for pottery when smashed with a hammer. By placing a layer of small pieces in the base of a pot the glass fuses to the base to create great effects. I use it with porcelain, stoneware and earthenware and finds it behaves in different ways in the kiln. It can crackle or, with finer frit, make a smoother, denser colour. I have used it on unglazed pots and also on slip and even coated it with a clear glaze. (See my example test pots below).

I have some of this scrap for sale here and am selling 200gms for £5, which is a lot of glass and will last for a few pots. I have mixed colours or colour themes and all glass will be safely posted wrapped in bubble wrap in a cardboard carton.

To see more scrap glass visit my Folksy Shop.

All I want for Christmas...

The Creative Glass Guild now has its own exclusive gift guide, showing presents and ornaments for all glass lovers.
Sign up for the newsletter (it's free) and browse the wondergful glass items from "Jewelry for Her" to "Home Decor". There's something to suit every pocket including stocking stuffers to elaborate stained glass ware. Oh, and my glass is in it too!
But that's not all - you can see which guild members are offering fantastic savings, free glass and vouchers, available only to newsletter subscribers. AND all subscribers are entered into the monthly prize draw - your chance to win free glass. The Creative Glass Guild also has its own blog featuring the latest in fused, hot torched and cold worked glass.
So Ho Ho Ho from the CGGE.

Why did you do it???

WHY did you think it was a good idea to roll on a sheep corpse last week? You have been subjected to three baths in expensive shampoo (don't tell Rachel we used her Australian stuff) which you hate and yet the smell doesn't seem to be dissipating.
It is particularly fetid behind your ears (your best feature) and you seem to wear it like a perfume (eau de stink). Have you wondered why nobody has cuddled you all week? Possibly not - do you even think at all?