Thursday 23 April 2009

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!

Wednesday 22 April 2009

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 :)

Saturday 18 April 2009

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* ;)

Thursday 16 April 2009

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.

Monday 13 April 2009

I've got an allotment!

I actually got the allotment last week though I've not got around to posting about it here yet, I have had time to set up ANOTHER blog - The Green Grower: Allotment Antics. People wonder how I find the time to do all the things I do already (so do I!) and now I have one more string to add to my already very busy bow!

I applied for an allotment sometime last year and was told I had to wait at least 3 years, so the phonecall from 'Ken' at the parish council last week was quite unexpected! 'Do you still want an allotment?' You bet your bottom dollar I do!! Ha! I live in a flat with no real outside space - a balcony doesn't count in my book. I have missed having my own little plot of outdoors to go to when the weather is nice and to be able to grow things is very exciting. I was really lucky and have bagged a dream allotment. Keep up to date with my progress - mainly success, I hope, on...

my fab shed! - it even has a proper front door and a letterbox! ha!

Wholesale order ready to go

Although I am officially on holiday, I managed to finish off my wholesale cufflinks order for Blueberry Park which I have blogged about previously. I love seeing cufflinks piled up like this together. I hope they sell as well, if not better, than the last batch made for BP.

Monday 6 April 2009

Wow! Colour Alert!! ...'Rainbow' handmade fused glass latticeware bowl

Here it is all finished - 'Rainbow' handmade fused glass latticeware bowl. Boy, is it ever colourful! Loving the rainbow colourway - perfect for Handmade Heaven. Bold, bright and beautiful! Hope my commissionee loves it when it arrives. It will certainly brighten up the surface it ends up on :)

Sunday 5 April 2009

Fresh kiln goodies

The kiln's finished so I had some nice glassy treats to have a look at this morning. I am really pleased all that hard work yesterday's paid off. I took a couple of WIP photos again to show you the next stage in the glassy goodies process.

Here's a couple of photos of the 'Last Night at the Proms' wholesale cufflinks order for Blueberry Park. The 'dust' needs to be cleaned off. It is the remnants of the protective kiln paper needed to stop the glass sticking to the kiln. That would be bad! I love these 'jumble' shots.

And these are nuggets of glass for my 'Blackjax' range. These are destined to be fun, funky, chunky rings. I made some a while ago (see other photo) and haven't listed them on my website yet. I only have 3 left from the original batch and want to list them when I have a whole bunch. Well, now I do!

These rings have a gorgeous hammered silver base. They really are quite special and most certainly different. I know a couple of the people who own one of these rings always get asked where they got it from when they wear it. Well, now I have lots of stock they can get their own ;)

Saturday 4 April 2009

A day of hard work

As planned, I spent the day working on glassy goodies. The kiln is now cooking merrily away and I hope to have lots of nice new pieces tomorrow. Some were commissions, some new for sale.

These are the bits and pieces I needed to get going on my wholesale cufflink order for Blueberry Park. Red, white and blue glass, my cutter, breakers and cutting edge as well as my cutting mat which protects my table and the cutter if it slips off the edge of the glass.

Once I had cut all the pieces I needed, I stacked them to count I had enough of each colour and took this photo. I love this photo! It looks like a crazy work of art!

Next on the agenda was a latticeware bowl in rainbow colours. This is a work in progress photo of that. Again, very beautiful I think.

Here are all my hard efforts in the kiln ready to fire. Cufflinks, rings and a latticeware bowl. Looking forward to the results :)

Finally, the aftermath of a glassy day's work! Will clean it up tomorrow... ;)

Today's 'to do'

Hello! Just thought I'd let you know what I am up to. Today is a glass-making day (about time too!). Got some orders to get on with. One being a wholesale order for Blueberry Park who I made lots of cufflinks for a while ago. They have been selling very well and they want more so I am on the case. I am going to making lots of 'Last Night of the Proms' cufflinks like this...

I need to order lots more cufflinks boxes from my supplier however I am always tempted to buy other things to make up the minimum order value! I am terrible when it comes to temptation so I have been browsing other options for packaging and presentation I could use for Handmade Heaven. We will see if I succumb to temptation!!

I did give in to temptation yesterday and ordered myself a new mp3 which I didn't really need. I have one already you see, however it is pretty old now, big and heavy. The new one has the same capacity but is teeny tiny. Apparently it is a good model so I am looking forward to that arriving. I will use it for my trip to New Zealand (not long now - eeeeeek!) then after that, I shall use it at work as it will be easier to walk around the office with that than my old brick ;) Us designers need tunes, dahhhling.

My new toy - a SanDisk Sansa Clip

I have woken up to a sale from my website so I need to post that out on Monday. I am surprised this design didn't sell before it did. I love these colours together. My 'Patchwork' range always goes down well. I really should make some more actually. There is something else for the 'to do' list! Especially now I have booked up an appearance at the 'Handm@de' fair. This is the design I just sold - Ginger Marmalade Patchwork. :)

I also need to make a latticeware bowl today for a commission. This time it is rainbow colours so effectively I have free reign on the design. Anything could happen! Watch this blog for photos.

Well, I had best go do all this work I am talking about! Have a lovely weekend :)