Glass Fusing Workshop by Glassprimitif

Saturday 7th July 2012

Enjoy a day of designing and creating fabulous fused glass fish, a workshop in glass fusing for beginners and intermediate glass fusers

  Costs: £40 (all materials and equipment provided)

  Times: 10:00 to 15:00

  Where: South Square Centre, Thornton Road,

  Thornton Bradford BD13 3DL

 

Introduction to glass fusing including: cutting skills, technical know-how, working with coloured glass, designing and glass assembly.   Expert tuition given and  Bullseye glass used.

To book: contact Jo Whitehead of Glassprimitif by email Jfwhitehead@blueyonder.co.uk or call  07837471040

We accept payment by Paypal, BACS or cheque. Details of payments, refunds, workshop outline and venue available by email.

Jubilee at The Stalls

I will be taking part at  The Stalls pop up shop in Leeds on Saturday 2nd June as part of the Arts and Crafts Market. 

Natasha Harris of OOBBAA will be opening a pop up gallery in the old Benetton Shop at The Light, The Headrow, Leeds LS1 8TL. 

Connecting the community with new emerging and established artists and makers, The Stalls Market showcases the work of talented local designers.  

There will also be a Jubilee Tea Party on Monday 4th June 2012  in support of Breast Cancer Care.

I hope to see you on Saturday 2nd June - please say hello. Doors open at 10am. 

See you at the Fair...

Close up of Retro Metro dish

This weekend will be very busy as I will be at Saltaire Makers Fair from Saturday 5th to Monday 7th May as part of the Saltaire Arts Trail. 
This is my first big event of the year and I have been planning and making glass specifically for this. It will be a good opportunity for me to test out my new designs and my pricing structure.  It has been at least two years since I exhibited at the Makers Fair so it will be interesting to see how it compares to my previous experiences there (I've always done well in the past). 
I have also been given the good news that I've been selected for Art in the Pen  in August. This is really exciting because I have never applied before, although I am an annual visitor.  The event is over two days at the Auction Mart in Skipton and the standard for selection is really high (gulp)!  This event is slightly different from Saltaire Makers Fair because I have to design, bring and install my entire stand which is in an animal pen. Watch this space to see how I get on with that! 

So if you are coming to Saltaire Makers Fair please come along and say hello to me. I will be in the Evans Room at Victoria Hall and I'll be very pleased to see you. 

Fit for a Queen

Etsy.com 

This year sees the celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and The London Olympics here in the UK.  More importantly for me, it is about The British being able to claim back the Union Jack as a symbol of unity and pride rather than a representation of The National Front, EDL and the BNP (spit....)

So I have been making fused glass brooches using this symbol and I have been working it in different colourways including pink, pale blue and vanilla and a fruit coloured brooch in citrus colours.  After all, why does the flag have to be red, white and blue? 

Folksy.com 

These brooches are made from Bullseye opal glass with glass stringers on vanilla glass with silver plate brooch backs. They are available in both my Folksy and Etsy shops and I will be taking a selection to Saltaire Makers Fair in May 2012 too. So, if you feel like celebrating, wear your brooch with pride.

Glass Paint Experiments

Glass paints before fusing

I love doodling and drawing and, for a while now, I have wanted to combine this with glass fusing. I tried a black glass pen for float glass but the results were too messy and very disappointing so I finally invested in red, blue, yellow, black and gold Glassline pens from Warmglass.co.uk

The colours are chalky when they are applied but the results were surprisingly good. I had to practice quite a bit until I could squeeze the colours through the nib with a steady hand but, fortunately, any mistakes can be wiped off. Also, any large blobs or wobbly lines can be tidied up with a cocktail stick when the colour is dried, before fusing. 

Drawing

The fish was drawn using Glassline pens and a nib on float glass. The periwinkle blue is a bit too pearly and is thicker than the other colours.  I'm going to dilute it slightly and try to get a better flow.

Drawing

Gold, black and red Glassline pens. The gold fires to a lovely shine - I wish there was silver too. 

Fired glass

The glass on the top left hand corner has been painted with Glassline with a brush. I'm not keen - it's too pale.  The glass on the bottom right hand corner has been sponged across masking tape before the tape is removed and then fired. It's a nice effect.

Fused Glass fish

If you are visiting the Saltaire Makers Fair on 5th, 6th, 7th May you will get a free funky fused fish if you spend £30 or over on Glassprimitif products. Hope to see you there.