Hooray! Our first local craft fair booked

So, it's on...


We have our date - Thursday, 2nd October.


We have our venue - The Pavilion @ The Royal Oak pub in Prestbury, Cheltenham.


We also have a long list of excited, local, mega-talented artists.

All we need to do now is organise this special event. This will be Tash's and my baby - a local event featuring oodles of local talent in contemporary, handmade crafts, art and design. An evening of informal shopping which we are hoping to make a regular event. I'll post more on the details as we get the plan together over the weekend/early next week. Wish us luck!

'Fiesta' featured

Another etsy.com treasury featuring my glassy goodies. This time it's my rainbow-coloured stripy pendant, 'Fiesta'.

Underwater photography...ish!

My trip to Blackpool (read 'dump'!) on Monday was good fun. We went to the Sea Life Centre, out of season, on a weekday - the perfect time to go to have it all to yourself! Many, many moons ago I did work experience there for 2 weeks, building tanks, feeding fish and sharks and cleaning many windows covered in fingerprints! It's changed a lot and is well worth a visit. We spent at least 2 hours in there. I was practising using the manual settings on my fancy digital almost-SLR camera and took a few good shots. I love taking photos and even if some of them are a bit blurry, I still think they're pretty cool! Here are a couple of my faves from Monday:

Very cool 'crystal ball' type image

Pacific Cleaner Shrimp

Liking this photo!

I have to say though, from what I could see of the illuminations along Blackpool prom, they're really a bit of a cop out these days. Moulded plastic shapes are definitely not as good as lots of coloured bulbs. Bring back the old-style illuminations!

Southport Airshow

Sunday I was at the Southport Airshow. Along with being a creative type, I'm also a bit of a nerd! Planes and helicopters are totally one of my 'things' - I was even going to be a helicopter pilot in the Navy - it was either that or a graphic designer. Unfortunately/fortunately(?!), graphic design won. Anyhoo, the Southport Airshow is always amazing, played out across the vast expanse of flat sandy beach, as you watch planes and helicopters demonstrate their amazing skill from the prom. They even have simulated battles with gun & bomb pyrotechnics which made a few folk jump and set off car alarms! Very cool :)

The Red Arrows opened the show. Go boys!

This dual-rotar Chinook helicopter really did fly at this angle, I was holding the camera straight! Crazy!! They fly over where I work all the time, but definitely not like this!
The bombing run left a massive smoke ring which flew off over Southport which was very surreal. This is it after a couple of minutes, high in the sky. I didn't realise I'd managed to snap it with a cloud which framed it perfectly behind!

Etsy.com treasury fame for 'Caramel Mocha Moods' coaster duo

It's always nice to have my work selected to be featured in an etsy.com treasury, but especially so when it reminds me of past designs I have forgotten about. When I first made 'Caramel Mocha Moods' I couldn't keep up with all the orders I was getting! They are so tasty-looking, you have to agree.

World domination ahoy! Muhahaha!

Just received the latest folksy.com newsletter and guess who seems to have been picked as one of three featured sellers.... that's right, little old me! :D They chose my fave photo of the moment, the detail shot of 'Blackjax' birch-framed handmade fused glass artwork (which is still for sale if you fancy owning it!!). Check out my framed artwork page.


If you don't hear from me for a bit it'll be because I am off 'oop narth' to my folks' place for a long weekend. Have a good one yourself :)

Wedding present commission

Here's a work in progress shot of a commission pair of coasters for a friend. He's best man at a wedding and wanted a pair of my 'Happy Ever After' coaster duos to give as a gift to the happy couple. He was also after the date on the back so it has finally given me an excuse to get out my glass paints! I am particularly impressed with my red hearts :)

This is the top view of a similar pair of coasters:

Warm and fuzzy

My 'day job' is as a graphic designer in children's publishing. We get marketing reports every month and I just had to share this comment on one of my latest titles I designed:

"This is My Monster: This has to be the cutest monster in the world. When a jacket elicits so many "oohs and aahs" from fully-grown adults you just know you have nailed it. The touchy feely and sound chip element seems to be a pretty strong combination and delivers a product that everyone wants to have in stock."

Makes it all worthwhile :)

Lots more glassy goodies on the way...

Here's a quick snap of some of the new ring tops ready to be made up into my handmade fused glass rings. Really pleased with these. A few new designs in addition to the 'Stax', 'Bubblz' and 'Blox' ring designs, yet to be named. Hope you like the new ideas...

Photo taken on my very expensive metal candle plate from Sainsburys. How could I not buy it when it was in the sale for 58p?!?! Bargain :D

Featured on 'Simply Sentimental' blog

Just got home to check my emails and see someone else has decided to feature my work on their blog. This time it's Sydnei of 'Simply Sentimental' who found my work on etsy.com.

"I wanted to let you know I found an item in your shop that I thought was just TOO great and featured it on my blog"

Thank you Sydnei! (I'm in the 'colour of the week' section on the left hand side).