Hampshire Life Magazine August 2014 Edition

I am pleased to have been featured in this month's edition of Hampshire Life Magazine http://www.hampshire-life.co.uk/

More Fused Glass Fun

Woo my glass noodles arrived today so I am looking forward to trying to master melting these into beads over the Easter break.

The kiln has been on twice this week and the picture below was last nights batch. Cross fingers as always that things melt in the fashion I would like them to. As you can see I've been playing with my birthday pressie - the fab easy cut circle cutter. I can see an addiction growing...

Another event to look forward to in June I am doing the Unique Maker's Market and The Spring in Havant. I'm quite excited about this as it's a new location for me.

Hope you have a fab Easter! My plans are to do a bit of lampworking, see Dirty Dancing at the theatre, head to the pub for a drink with the birthday bird and enjoy the company of my cousin who is visiting. E :)

Fasinating Fascinator and Super Sparkle Swirl Tiara!

So I took myself out of my comfort zone this week and set myself 2 challenges. To finish my elaborate sparkly tiara that measures 4 inches at it's highest point and figure out the wonder of the birdcage veil.
I'm pretty happy with the results. Below we have my Ivory top hat fascinator in which I have incorporated birdcage veiling.

Crystal Swirl Tiara as you can imagine took a while to make but it is quite a stunner!

This weekend I have the Portsmouth Guildhall Wedding Fayre to look forward to and hopefully some time to get on the torch and make some beads as picked up some new glass yesterday at Faborto Glass http://faborto.com. Have a lovely weekend! x

My mini top hat got finished and I had a torch session!

It was really fun this week craft wise. Although I've been feeling a bit tired I've had a lot of crafty energy! Tuesday I got the torch set up and had a play. I didn't realise how out of practice I could get in just having 2 months off. My beads were a bit disappointing and the 1's that looked totally cool cracked in half as I tried to encase a 96 coe base packed with 96 coe frit in schott clear 90, doh!
Wednesday I went round to see a crafty bud after work and the mini top hat got created! This is for me to wear at my cousin's wedding later in September. I am quite please with how it has come out and luckily the black ribbon does well in hiding the wire wrapping involved in keeping the feathers and crystals upright.
So it is Bank Holiday weekend for me so an extra day of fun, who knows what it might bring! x

P.s if your a friend of mine on facebook it's 10% off all orders for the weekend! :)

Waken and New glass goodies!

So I'm back... Germany was great! Not only did I get to see 1 of my favourite bands Iron Maiden but saw lots of new bands that mixed up classical and even bagpipes with rock, I loved it. We'll definitely be hitting another festival next year. I also remembered my love for cherry beer - scrumptious!
From the moment I got back it was all go, Poppyfields Design and I had a jewellery party on Friday night then I was back in the studio Saturday for a day of fused glass jewellery. In between eating, working and trying to get through the festival washing pile I finally stuck some bails and wire wrapped the ground pendants - the results are below.

And these little beauties are still waiting to be created into jewellery......

So August is already half way through and all my ideas are coming together slowly. I finally signed the contract on our Pop up shop for December and have lots of jewellery projects to work on. Alongside this my cousin is getting married in September so I feel a show stopping fascinator top hat creation brewing....watch this space!

My lampworking seems to have been put on a bit of a back burner since discovering fused glass so I think September calls for a re-awakening of these magical delights.

Huuuuummmmmm........... have a lovely week, E x

Earrings....

This week my creative juices have been flowing...
I've really been enjoying making new designs.

This week I've included my new selection of earrings. I gave up making earrings for a while as have been quite unsuccessful in selling them but actually I think that has been more down to my presentation... we've had them hanging on a jewellery tree so not so easy to access. We have just ordered some lovely personalised cards so not only will these look more professional but they are a really cute design.


A few other really lovely things have happened - we got our jewellery party flyer's designed by http://www.maddieillustration.co.uk/ and printed they look ace I'll see if I can get a copy uploaded. Also we have been confirmed for a ladies night in July.

These cobalt blue earrings I gave to my friend as a little pressie. I made the beads myself and they are probably the only 2 so far that even vaguely look like a pair!!

Have a great weekend! E x

Beads and well wine.....

This week has been about making glass beads and well drinking wine.

We had an education/disaster day at the May day fair. It wasn't really for us partly down to our presentation/displaying wasn't a high enough standard but people were out for 50p bargins and well I don't have anything that's 50p.

Met a lovely lady called Rachel though who specialises in fused glass. Her work is just beautiful and very inspiring. http://www.magpieglass.co.uk/

I'm off on a course in fused glass jewellery this weekend so very excited!

My friend who showed me the wonders of silver clay is moving back to Bristol later this month so in her words we had to have "a few sherberts" or in my world wine! So Wednesday evening was filled with chatting, yummy Italian risotto and well more than a few sherberts!

Above is my favourite bead of the week - I melted together dark red, orange and dark yellow opaque and then swirled on some psyche.

Have a great weekend! E x x

Spring time....

So I've been making some new bits and bobs - they all seem to be really nice bright yellows, blues and oranges so obviously the creative part of me is embracing Spring.

I had a lovely weekend in Towcester at Flame off and the bead fair. It was great to meet such friendly inspiring people who were soo giving with their time and techniques. Big thank you!

This bead below I made at Towcester and was trying copper foil - it went black but I still think it looks really cool.

Easter Break Activities and Woo to bulk fuel!!

I had a lovely Easter weekend. I got my seeds planted, went to visit my friend at the animal sanctuary, went for a meal for Clint's birthday and a few drinks with the girls.

This year I decided to plant my seeds in a bit more of an organised fashion. Last year I threw all remaining seeds in pots and well they all grew - I couldn't believe it. I had to shed plants like mad as sooo many I couldn't cope with them.
So I've invested in 3 propagators with individual little sections for each seed - I have 3 types of tomatoes, 2 types of pepper, courgettes and salad leaves. Controlled growing this year.

The Arc has goats, pigs, a horse, ferrets you name it - I liked the goats and pigs a lot they were such characters. Very silly and inquisitive!

I'm really excited - yesterday finally (I feel like I waited forever even though it was only 3 months) the problem with the gas pressure on my glass bead making set up was resolved. We took everything including the 13kg propane tank to the guys at Migtigarc who fiddled and adjusted. Turned out that the regulator I had wasn't quite right.

So this weekend along with some sushi and a friends housewarming I'm planning on getting down to some bead making.

Have a great one, E x