Hope you had a lovely Xmas

Here are a couple of festive photos from my flat. I had a lovely time as host with my family. We played games, over-ate and made merry. All great fun :) This is my first day alone and the place seems really quite empty. I hope all of you had a lovely time whatever you got up to.

Sending you Happy New Year wishes :) Here's to an exciting and eventful 2010!

Christmas comes early

Look what the postman brought me. My prize from Jane arrived, plus some extra goodies. It was great timing too. I'm off work today as I feel dire. Feverish, achy and bunged up. Hopefully I will feel better soon. My little parcel really cheered me up. I love the little felt brooch she included too. I've pinned it to my coat to show it off. I've been after a brooch for some time now and it looks so sweet :)

the colours of the leather are so vibrant

and i love the dandelion-esque lining - corduroy is my fave!

the cute felt brooch...

...looks fab on my coat

Woohoo!

I'm very excited. I entered a give-away on a blog I read, written by a very talented fellow crafter. Jane of Appliqué creates stunning designs in fabric and felt, which I think are a cut above (no pun intended, ok, maybe a little bit!) others who create similar things. Well, I never win anything but I thought "what the hell" and entered anyways. Lo and behold I was the lucky winner, and very lucky at that. Look at this beauty, created in leather no less. I can't wait to receive it.

Festive berries

Here's a pile of glassy goodies made this weekend. There's a coaster quad in here, a 'love token' hanger, some pendants and lots of cufflinks.

Below is a 'love token' hanger made for a commission. The colourway is based on our 'festive spirit' coaster.

the 'love token'-style hanger

the 'festive spirit' coaster

I also made my mum's Christmas present - a set of 4 handmade coasters to go with her 'Berryforest' bowl. I think they've turned out really well. They're goregous colours and I think being a mixed set (each one a bit different) works well.

Glassy gifts

Well, as you well know, Christmas is a-coming! Huzzah :) I love Christmas. I also LOVE making gifts for people. Yesterday I spent the day on the sewing machine. Can't really post photos of the goodies I made as my family may see, so the fabric creations remain hush hush. I enjoyed making them and although my sewing is never fault-free I definitely need to sew more, it was fun.

Yesterday was fabric, today was glass. Popped my last commission of the year into the kiln today - a 'love token' style hanger in the 'festive spirit' colourway.

Along with some cufflinks and other goodies, I made this set of 4 coasters in the 'Berryforest' design to go with a bowl I made for my mum. She requested these so it is safe to post a photo or two :) Each one is different but they make a great set. Final photos to follow :)

Fun, funky, chunky rings - 'Jaxx' - now listed in my shop

Look at this! The first two sets of 'Jaxx' rings are now listed for sale on my webshop. They're for sale individually but photographed in sets to make things a little easier. There are quite a few to list. I've taken the photos but just need to edit them to look pretty.

Apologies, again, for the quiet blog. 'Life' has been taking over lately. My good friend Tash of TishTash has just bought a lot of my stock for corporate gifts for her company which makes for a happy Xmas for me(!) and a great incentive to make new glass. So, if you're fed up of not seeing lots of new glassy goodies here, then 2010 is the time for me to change that :) Promise.

Dull but important stuff

Yep, that's what I am doing right now, hence the blog quietness. I am sorting out all my books/tax at the mo. Ugh. Want to get it out of the way asap so I can enjoy Xmas and not dwell on receipts/invoices!

At the mo, Handmade Heaven is travelling with my friend Tash of TishTash. She's showcasing my work at private events, along with her handmade creations. I'm very grateful to have her as a friend. She's the perfect saleswoman for my glassware :)

Suction hooks for window hangers

I've been looking for some suction hooks to go with my window hangers for a while now. I've finally found some and have been testing them out. Seems these ones are just the right size and do their job well so I will be packaging these with each window hanger I sell. Here's one of my smaller hangers on my bathroom window...

Colourful commissions

This weekend just gone saw me in the studio making some commission work. I'm sure you've seen the bright and colourful 'Rainbow Lattice' handmade fused glass latticeware bowl on the website homepage? Well, I had an order in for one of these bowls. To be honest, they're a joy to make, especially in these vibrant colourways. The bowl, as with most of my work, is a teeny bit different to the original - every item is unique! I took more pics than these (see flickr) but here's the full and detailed views.

I also made a pair of coasters for a customer who's bought from me before in the popular 'Teal and Chocolate Blocks' design.

TishTash & Handmade Heaven event

My friend Tash of TishTash came over last night to pick up my Handmade Heaven stock. She's arranged a selling event with cocktails and canapés where she'll be displaying and selling her work and mine. Tash creates funky and modern paintings, jewellery and art cards over at http://www.tishtash.co.uk

I mounted some of my pendants onto presentation cards last night so above is the result. I think they look pretty good. Each one is certainly very unique! If they come back to me after the sale I'll be putting them up to buy on my website.

Cufflinks & congratulations!

Remember the chocolate cufflinks I made for my big bro's wedding? Well, they were in action this weekend just gone as he got hitched. Congratulations to the new Mr & Mrs Jones :) Here's a couple of snaps of me in my posh frock and his wedding ring & the cufflinks :)

Developments and delays

Just to keep you updated...

I'm currently in the process of switching over my webshop from the old site the the new one. I'm really excited about the new webshop and the transfer of stock is nearly complete. Right now I will just be offering my current stock and items you can commission, but soon I will be adding brand new items for you to browse and buy. Watch this space!

New webshop: http://handmadeheaven.bigcartel.com

My website will remain with galleries and info, but the buying will all be done from the new webshop.


*POSTAL STRIKES*
I will not be posting any orders out until next week to avoid items being lost in the post. Sorry about this but I don't want to see stock vanish due to the postal problems in the UK.

New glass colours & latticeware bowls

Hello! Hope you've had a nice weekend. I've been busy again doing my usual allsorts but I did get round to some glassy goodies. I have just spent a small fortune - can't help it! - on buying in glass so I can get back into making again. My stock was seriously depleted as I've not re-ordered glass for a long while. I'm looking forward to getting lots of lovely colourful glass mid week (I don't think my supplier uses Royal Mail - huzzah!). I've even ordered a couple of brand new colours for me. 'Periwinkle' opaque and 'Tangerine' opaque. Looking forward to trying them out.
I also cut 2 latticeware bowls ready to fire. My plan is to make quite a few to have ready to buy, rather than my usual 'commission me' for these. Will be nice to have them in stock in the new shop when I launch that. Here's the colourways in one of the two bowls as a teaser... :)

Spotted!

Just browsing some nice websites, as I do, and I thought these cufflinks looked familiar! They are mine, of course, being sold through Blueberry Park, via 'Not on the highstreet'. Is always funny when I come across my work unexpectedly :)

Chocolate cufflinks

So, cufflink samples made in chocolates. Let's see which big bro prefers...

My faves are the ones with the thin cream ring.

Shock horror, a blog post!

I expect you've been wondering where I've been, what I've been doing and if I & Handmade Heaven were still alive! Well, good news, all is tickety-boo :) I've just been on a break from glass-making. I guess it was another of those creative block times. I wasn't feeling it. I think one of my major stumbling blocks was my studio. I've got limited space - I was asked to teach some ladies for a hen do event not so long ago, but had to turn them down unfortunately. I wish I had the luxury of a massive, purpose-built studio but I don't. I use a room in my flat that often has to double up as a spare room! This means it is hard to keep the room functioning as a studio. I find if it stops being functional, tidying up and rearranging before making any glass kills my creativity.

Well, today I have sorted out my hall - another bugbear of mine - to make that more cosy. That meant taking my fold-up table out of there and needing somewhere to put it. "Ah ha!", I thought. I know where I can use that. So, new studio set up below. It means I can watch movies and work at the same time, or chill on the sofa. This new table gives me double the room I had before so I can work unrestricted. It also means I can leave the drill set up and I might even have the grinder/saw rigged up too so I have all my tools out and ready to use. If I fancy doing some sewing I can also move things aside and put up my sewing machine here too. Oo, it's making me want to make stuff already! Best get to it then, got to make my big brother some cufflinks - he is getting married in a couple of weekends time. Eek!


Here's how the hall looks now, should you be interested?! To be honest, these photos are really to prove to my mother that I have been sorting things out! ;) I intend to put some of my square-framed artworks up in the hall soon, to have a gallery. Seems a shame to keep them in their boxes until they are sold.

New webshop underway

It's not quite ready yet but I've spent a few hours working on transferring my products from the old site to the new shop. I think it is looking really good and showcases the products well. I hope you like it too. Let me know your thoughts. I will keep some pages on the old site and have this new one for the shopping elements.

http://handmadeheaven.bigcartel.com

New shop

So, I've been mulling over the new website idea for a bit as, of course, it is an extra expense in time and money but I think it will go ahead. I much prefer the functionality of the big cartel shop over my current one. I was on my own website today and there are lots of little errors that creep in and annoy me. The new site seems much more easy to use and more reliable. I will probably keep my non-shop pages where they are and have the shop hosted elsewhere. I am actually really looking forward to spring-cleaning the shop and making it that much better to use. I will then have good incentive to get it stocked up! Glass-making has been on the back-burner for a while and I need a boost to get back into the swing of things. I think this weekend I will focus on Handmade Heaven and see what comes of giving it more attention!

I have had some commission enquiries this week which has perked me up a bit :)

Watch this space...!

New website?

Hmm, undecided. I am not 100% happy with my website as is. I know most folk who see it like it so I should probably leave it be, but I am a designer after all and I know what I like! I've found a new website host (via a friend's site) who seems to offer the kind of site I'd like. Big pictures, simple navigation, product descriptions, managed shopping, pages with sensible names(!), and cool modern design. It's called 'BigCartel' and is aimed at designers, artists and crafters so it seems a good fit. It would be a lot of work to transfer all my stuff over and redesign my site but I am tempted. Annoyingly I did just renew my current hosting. Decisions decisions!

Take a peek at a quick mock-up using their free version (you only get one template choice in the free version)...

http://handmadeheaven.bigcartel.com/

Looks pretty smart and I am getting more and more tempted to make the move!

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