Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sunday 14th September

A Great Day

I had a great yesterday in South Manchester, I toddled over to meet up with other lampwork artists, and it was a very inspirational day. Lots of beady eye candy to drool over, and a chance to have a look at Kaz's amazing studio, which was so organised I couldn't believe it.........in another life maybe for me!! A lovely day, great people and well worth the trek, thank you Kaz, I'm looking forward to the next one.

I took along a little seahorse that I made over the summer, I was quite overwhelmed with all the interest he attracted. I've decided to make a series of them over the next few weeks and will launch them on my site as soon as they're ready.

This is 'Spirit' my first seahorse


After receiving Anouk's ring I thought I'd have a go myself and this is what I came up with, I was quite pleased for a first go. I think I'm going to have a try at a series of these too.



I'm sure you'll agree that this is simply 'Stunning' it was made by a very good friend of mine Marie, it's fired silver clay and is 99.9% fine silver. Marie will so be launching her website http://www.charmedbymarie.co.uk/ where she's planning to sell more fine silver items as well as jewellery using both her silver and lampwork beads from 'yours truly' although she did rather sneakily buy a few sets from other lampworkers yesterday....tut tut. :-)


Hopefully we'll see plenty more like this from Marie because it's beautiful.
Hope everyone's had a great weekend. Kate x

Monday, September 8, 2008

Monday 8th September

Last time I posted I forgot to mention this..........

I know....WOW. I just couldn't resist it, I bought it from a wonderful lampwork artist by the name of Anouk, she sells on Etsy and her work is beautiful. This hasn't been off my finger since it arrived, I LOVE IT.
More experimenting with some amazing colours, copper green and EDP, yesterday I came up with these...


Sadly they're not for sale as I've offered them up in a competition on the Frit Happens forum, I won last week and so it's my turn to offer this weeks prize. I love how the copper green comes out when you etch it, you just don't know what you're going to get, it's fabulous.


Non beady stuff
It was my youngest daughter Eivie's first day at school last week, it was a very emotional day (for me anyway!) I have to admit to shedding a tear or two on the way home. She was thrilled with the whole experience and very very proud in her uniform, she's growing up so fast.


Friday, September 5, 2008

Friday 5th September



And the Mojo Returns

It's been a rocky 5 or 6 weeks mojo wise, I have days when I couldn't make a single round bead, days when I didn't know where to start, and days when I just couldn't find either the inspiration or the slightest inclination.

But it's back, my mojo has returned, but this time I've got the measure of it, I'm not going to let it get all carried away with itself taking me to places I don't need to go yet and then leaving me feeling like I can't do anything right! No, I've got ya this time matey, I've got you on a tight leash, I've got myself all 'focused', so don't go putting any wild and crazy ideas in my head, ok!!

Just though I'd set him straight.

So while I find myself with a steady hand, and the molten glass and I are getting along, I've concentrated on taming that which is Rubino Oro (a very temperamental pink glass) and controlling fine stringers (very fine hand pulled strands of glass).

Dealing with rubino I've found it's all about temperature, it really doesn't like it too hot, once I got the hang of where it likes it in the flame, and more importantly where it doesn't we've got along. With stringers it's pretty much the same story, but when you get it wrong it's sooooooo frustrating, gggrrrrrrrrrr......................the bead usually ends up in the bin.

Last night I came up with a design for a bead that combined the two, and I just kept on making the same bead over, and over, and over, and over again, I made 13 all together, and these are the six I was happiest with.



I've called them 'Tamed' and you can WIN THEM if you send me an email with Free Beads in the title and join my mailing list, I won't bombard you with emails, I'll only email if I'm listing new beads on my site. Just email kate@sublimebeads.co.uk Good Luck.

Next week I'm off to Altringham to meet up with some like minded glassy folk, we're having a get together at the studio of another Lampwork Artist called Kaz. She came to visit me when she was working in Doncaster, actually I had hounded her in to it, lucky for her I wasn't an axe murderer or anything, what a lovely lady. We chatted about all things glassy, I got to show off my studio, and of course it wasn't long before we had to turn the torch on. She was very generous, sharing lots of tips 'n' tricks, she even gave me a bundle of glass as a gift, what a sweetie.

So I'm off to her studio on Saturday 13th, she's invited lots of other glassy folk too, no doubt there will be lots of chat, swops, and knowledge sharing, I can't wait. The glass art community is so embracing, encouraging, helpful and so, so generous in their willingness to share information, honestly it astounds me, I feel truly luck to be a part of it.