Busy, busy, busy - cufflinks & rings

Some of these new cufflink sets have been waiting to be finished for ages, some are brand spanking new! I am really proud of them & some even have matching tie slides too. Great for the man who has everything this Christmas! Get hold of them here.

The pretties below the cufflinks are rings, ready to be finished off. Every one is unique!

Handmade Heaven funky fused glass on Blueberry Park

Just thought I'd check out a wholesale order I did for Blueberry Park to see if my cufflinks were on their website yet. Yes, they are! It's quite cool to see them outside my website. The very nice lady I dealt with said "Oh Wow! They're FAB!" so I think she liked them!! I hope they do well for her as I really enjoyed working to a bit of a bigger scale than my usual one-offs. Cufflinks are one of my biggest sellers and I am currently making lots more new designs for my own site/stalls.

'Hey, good looking, whatcha got cooking'... and where the blooming heck have you been?!

Yes, I know, it's been a week of non-blogging for a usually regular blogger. To be honest, I felt I didn't have all that much to blog about the past week, nor time to do it, as I've just been doing boring-but-essential behind-the-scenes stuff getting ready for the uBou Christmas event on the 30th November.

I also went away for a bit of 'me' time with my friends to Brighton on a bit of a jolly this weekend just gone! It was a real good giggle and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Just what the doctor ordered to calm my stress levels!

Look! I really went - I have proof! That's me on the left in jeans.

My glassy orders have also been stacking up so last night I filled up the kiln (and cut myself *sob*) with commissions and some new cufflink designs.

Some HH Rainbow coasters, a chocolate & cola drizzle coaster duo, a latticeware bowl in earthy colours and the new cufflink designs. :)

Christkindlmarkt

Found out today that the traditional Christmas Market (Christkindlmarkt) is on in Munich when we are there. What great timing - the first day of it is on our last day. I am sure I'll be tempted by all the goodies for sale!

Photo by Brian Gilmore on Flickr

New gallery / I've been faffing...

So, as I've made so many handmade fused glass latticeware bowls for commissions now, I thought it was about time I uploaded lots of photos of them as examples into a gallery. This should help anyone who would like to order a bowl see how they look in different colourways. They can then choose either their own colour scheme or ask for a design similar to one I've made before.

I intend to make gallery pages for all my work as there is so much now it won't fit in just the one!

Success at the Handm@de show in Oxford!

I love it when all the pre-show stress and worry pays off! Yesterday's craft fair 'Handmade' was a great success for me and I am really pleased. I was sad to see some things go, like my 'Blackjax' artwork but I know the guy I sold it to will treasure it. It reminded him of something from his childhood (luckily nothing traumatic!) so he HAD to have it! He didn't buy it straight away but came back an hour or so later with the money, probably after lots of 'should i? shouldn't i?' :) I also sold one of my wall panels - 'Earth Blocks'. This was the first show where I'd put them out and they got quite a bit of attention. The tack-fused panel 'A Splash of Colour' had lots of folk running their fingers along it - more proof of how pleasingly tactile my work is.

'Blackjax' handmade fused glass framed artwork (detail)

'Earth Blocks' handmade fused glass wall panel (with mounts)

I wish I'd had a helper though so I could've browsed all the other handmade goodies! *sigh*

uBou Christmas event poster designed

Ta da! Our poster, ready to go...

http://ubou.co.uk

Big treat

Finally got round to buying myself a laptop. I was very excited going to pick it up. Let's hope it's all I wanted and more...!

(already frustrated that my current internet doesn't work with it tho! grrrr)

Website/email trouble

Looks like my website hosting and email is having problems at the mo. Sorry if you are trying to view my site/email me. *sigh* Not much I can do but wait until it's fixed. Hopefully soon! (This applies to Handmade Heaven & uBou).

Spotted!

Just typed in "handmade fused glass latticeware bowl" and found my work again, featured somewhere else! Here I am on The Art Zoo...

"Hello" to 'Lavender Meadow' handmade fused glass latticeware bowl

Mmmmm! Loving this one! I needed a show piece for Handmade as I'd sold my last lattice bowl a little while ago. It's all very well showing people a photo of my bowls but it's so much better to have the real thing to hand. 'Lavender Meadow' is the first of, I hope, a selection of ready-made, off-the-peg latticeware bowls.

What do you think?

I'm always told my photography is pretty good and that people love the photos of my glassy goodies. I thought it might be nice to mount some of my photos onto cards to sell. Here is a WIP photo of how it's shaping up. I am thinking of mounting the photos on the coloured square cards on perhaps a black foam to give a bit of 3d to them. All feedback welcome!

Freebies!

I send a lot of glassy parcels through the post and have finally designed some 'Fragile! Glass' logo sheets to go on my parcels. Pay for something like this?! Pah! I am a graphic designer, I can make my own :) So far I've not had any parcels suffer at the hands of an over-zealous postman (*touch wood*) but it's always better to be safe than sorry, eh! I've decided to let anyone and everyone download my 'Fragile! Glass' sheets to use as they will - I'm so generous, me!

Enjoy!! :)

Click the image to go to the download page...

Craft gossip blog

I'm really getting about! Here's a discussion I found about my 'Vulcania' fused glass latticeware bowl. Nice to be featured :) Thanks! It's always interesting to check my stats to see where people come from to view my blog or my website. I'm glad folk read all my nonsense! ;)

Here I am again on Handm@de's blog!

Yep, I'm on there again! A lattice bowl this time... :)

Can you help me?!

I need Handmade Heaven reviewers, so if you'd like to help, please could you write a review here. Thanks very, very much! :)

Lavender Mint Trifle

I've made this design before but I don't think I photographed the finished article. This set is ready to go to the Handm@de event next Sunday. Love these colours :)

Goody bags

Well, I've started making the goody bags for the uBou Christmas event on the 30th November, now I have all my glassy sample cards made & stuff from other uBou artists. I am, however, a bit miffed that the 50 bags I bought turned out to only have 48 in the pack! Grr!! Hopefully they will post me out another 2 so I can have the 50 I've paid for. Ho hum. At least I've made a good start on these :) Hoping to get some branding on too & sponsorship again from the fab holiday cottage in Rutland, 2 Chapel Lane.

'Huge Heart' commissioned handmade fused glass coasters

I've just photographed some of my 'Huge Heart' coasters I've made for commissions. I love these. The copper is such a gorgeously rich deep pink & the bubbles look fab! I hope the commissionees are pleased when they arrive :)

New 'reverz' range is coming...

Just putting together more freebie sample cards for the uBou event on 30th November and that lightbulb over my head just clicked on! I have a plan for these... watch this space! Meantime, check out this photo - they look really cool all together like this, don't you agree!?

Change of plan

So, I'd planned to go to Krakow for the big 3-0 but there's been a change of plan. The friend I was going with is a bit brassic at the mo so it's going on hold, probably until sometime in the spring. I will now be going to Munich in Germany. Really excited! Going with my aunt who used to live there so it will be great to have a guide who knows the best places & speaks the lingo! My german is non-existent I'm afraid!!

Latticeware bowl grid

Just thought I'd try another gadget for flickr photos. Here are a few latticeware bowls from the past. I will be making some bowls to add to buy on my website in the next month or so. Usually I just make them to commission but I'd like some click-to-buy ones too :)

1. 'Tropicana' handmade fused glass latticeware bowl, 2. Viridian handmade fused glass latticeware bowl (side view), 3. 'Berry Zest Lattice' handmade fused glass latticeware bowl, 4. 'A Touch of Luxury' handmade fused glass latticeware bowl in situ, 5. Forever Autumn handmade fused glass latticeware bowl (detail), 6. 'Patience' latticeware bowl (side), 7. Sugar & Spice handmade fused glass latticeware bowl, 8. sunset-landscape, 9. 'Vulcania' handmade fused glass latticeware bowl (top view)

Featured again on the Hadm@de blog

Eek! not long now until the 'Handm@de' event in Oxford Town Hall on 9th Nov. Today's task is to get everything together for it & hopefully make a bit more glass. I just checked their blog again and saw my work was been featured - a square bowl this time.