Drilling success!

Hooray! The drill testing is done and dusted and I can thankfully say it went pretty well. It is always very scary drilling anything, but drilling glass is terrifying! I've drilled my glasswork on a small scale with a dremel before but the 8mm holes I needed to do for the clock faces required a bigger set up. This is how things looked before I began. Took a while to set up the drill stand as there were no instructions with it! Not helpful :P I used an electric drill on a slow speed with a carbide drill bit. The glass has to be drilled under water - or you need to rig up some other way of keeping the glass and drill bit lubed and cool. I've done it with a little well of olive oil before but that wouldn't work on this scale. If I do make the 30 x 30cm glass clock faces then I will need to find a bigger tray!


The first attempt, as usual, I tried to rush. This didn't agree with the glass! The result is below. Hmm, it's all about learning. Slower speed required I think :)


This is the second and successful attempt. I am really pleased. It didn't take too long either. I might need to file a little but the edges seem very smooth and if the clock workings are going to fill the hole it should be fine as is.


And just to prove it was 8mm... ;)


The world is now my drilling oyster! :D

Grr!

The 8mm drill bit I need to use on the clock testing won't fit my dremel. Annoying. Got to wait 'til Friday now to borrow an electric drill. Was all set to try out the new carbide drill bits. Hey ho. Patience is a virtue!

New purchase - drill tips for drilling glass

I needed to buy some drill bits to do some tests for the clocks. I only needed an 8mm but I decided to get a pack of 5 which contains a 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10mm set of bits. Hopefully they will work well on glass and will prove to be useful additions to the Handmade Heaven studio :) I will get to try out my drill stand too. Hopefully, accident-free!

More wholesale enquiries

I've been contacted again for wholesale. This time it was an enquiry for making clock faces. Different! Would be very cool though :)

Update

No new photos today but I thought I'd let you know what's going on with HH. I am waiting to hear back from the NYC boutique on which of my cufflink designs they'd like to stock. I have offered my current range of designs, as well as some new cufflink styles. As I design and make all the cufflinks myself the choice is quite vast!

I am also working on other wholesale opportunities and, if you have done this yourself, you'll know there is a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing to finalise the deal. It would be nice to get one of these to go ahead as they're after my latticeware bowls which I really love making.


I am a little distracted from work as I just succumbed to buying a wii! It's such fun to play and unwind after a busy day at work. Now I have to juggle the day job, the glass work, an allotment, a social life and a wii! One has to have some time off eh! ;)

steph, steph, where have you been??

i've been the other side of the world! been off on my sabbatical in New Zealand via Hong Kong. very spectacular in NZ and hong kong is very unique. i'm so glad i went, but won't be emmigrating!! it certainly was no relaxing tour. we were mega busy each day and saw so much. usually on the bus by 730 to head off to the next place. got a float plane flight in and a jet boat safari. went up a 62nd floor revolving restaurant in hong kong and did a nighttime boat trip round the harbour. went on a cruise around milford sound, saw loads of waterfalls, a glacier, went on a steam-driven paddleboat, explored the jungle, the beaches, went in a glowworm cave, visited LOTR locations, milked a cow and so much more! busy holiday :D


came back to glassy work - orders to complete. the latest being a 4x 'beached' coaster set, a birthday present for the recipient's friend. hope they go down well. also another wholesale enquiry, this time from a boutique in NYC. exciting!

Finally!!!! Got some unframed glass art listed on my website

It's taken FOREVER(!) but I have finally listed my current in-stock unique unframed artwork on my website. I was prompted by an enquiry for a wedding present commission which reminded me I'd had 'coming soon' on these for a long time. Another 'to do' job I'd had to do!

I currently offer unframed art in two shapes - square and long. There are also two styles - full-fuse which creates a flat piece of art (such as 'Peppermint Fondant'), as well as tack-fuse which forms a wonderfully tactile piece (such as 'A Splash of Colour'). The unframed artwork creates gorgeous coloured shadows you just can't get with the framed artwork and each piece changes with the light throughout the day.

'Rich Red Patchwork' - available to buy now on my website, here.

'A Splash of Colour' - available to buy now on my website, here.

'Peppermint Fondant' - available to buy now on my website, here.

'With friends' - sold artwork, but available on commission

'Earth Blocks' - sold artwork, not available on commission - this one was a one-off!

Fun, funky fused glass commissions

A photo-tastic post for you! Finished lots of commissions and got started on another - this one's a latticeware bowl for my aunt in reds and blues. It's looking promising! The other photos are of the commissions I made this weekend which went to new homes today.

'Harlequin multi-square' coaster set of 6

' HH rainbow' coaster set of 4 coasters

' Ginger marmalade patchwork' set of 2 coasters

'Cath lattice' fused glass latticeware bowl WIP

Still no individual photos of the chunky, funky fused glass 'Blackjax' rings yet. It's looking likely I'll get onto that next week now. Damn not having enough time in the day! Managed to wear one today though :)

WIP - 3x commissions

Here's a photo of this morning's work. 3 commissions ready to go in the kiln. Top left is 2x ginger marmalade patchwork coasters, the middle ones are 6x harlequin multi-square coasters and the ones in the bottom right are 4x HH rainbows. 2 of the commissions are repeat customers. The ginger marmalade coasters are going to a lady who already has two and wants two more, the HH rainbows are off to the lady who bought the rainbow lattice bowl which is currently my homepage image :)

ginger marmalade patchwork coaster duo

harlequin multi-square coaster

HH rainbows

next job for today is to go down the allotment and get some prep and clearing done. should keep me busy most of the day then this evening i hope to photograph and list the chunky, funky fused blackjax rings from the previous post whilst watching my 'kate and leopold' dvd which just arrived. ah, hugh jackman *sigh* ;)

Funky chunky 'Blackjax' rings nearly ready

Here they are! All done and dusted :) My new fun, funky fused glass 'Blackjax' chunky rings are made and ready to be listed on my website very soon. Just need to photograph each one as there are 30 unique designs here! I've already sold one so I am hoping they will do well. I'll let you know when they are listed on my website.