Time Travel

Ever wondered what the inside of H G Wells time machine might look like?

Me neither....but a fellow lampworker Glenn of Steampunk Glass has, so much so that he's begun to create REAL valves and coils using lampworking, for use in the construction of your very own time machine, AWESOME!!

Glenn was kind enough to send me my very own time machine starter kit last week, I'm having a little trouble sourcing the additional componants I need though:

1. Red Velvet Arm Chair
2. Mahogany Wood Base (Polished)
3. Flashing Lights
4. Large Spinning Disk

But I've got my other half on the case ;-)

Here are the parts Glenn sent me



See you in 1841...............................

Thank you Glenn, these really made my week.

Wordle Fun - Jan 16th - 2009

Found this on the net http://www.wordle.net/

And this is a Wordle of my blog, go on have a go!! :-)

Lost - Jan 14th 2009

Ok I haven't been around for a while, quite a while actually!!

There's been lots of family stuff going on, my youngest daughter started school and I felt slightly abandoned, very sadly my Grandfather died, which was more of a blow than I'd expected, and then there was Christmas..........

But something else was niggling me all along really, where am I going with the bead making lark? I'm quite an internet junkie, and unsurpizingly I stalk, and I mean 'stalk' all things glassy on the net, particularly lampwork beads, as I've done even before I started lampworking myself. But this continuing habit sent me head long in to something of a quandry, I completely lost sight of what I was trying to do, I was lost, in other peoples beads! I started to feel that everything I was making was rather too 'inspired' and doubted how much of it had actually come from me, and how much I'd subconsciously 'copied', my mind was so full of all those 'WOW' images.

So I took a break, the new year has found me back at the torch and I now feel I'm on my own road again.........phew!!

I recently posted a thread about my experience on Frit Happens (an open internet forum frequented by lampworkers and jewellery designers) and to my surprise there were many other lampworkers who'd found themselves in a similar situation at some point in their bead making career. The general consensus seemed to be, that looking at other peoples work is good in some ways, it raises your game, and can be genuinely inspiring, but on the other hand it can send on a path where you'r unintentionally chasing somebody elses style, and you can also find yourself suffering from a touch of the old 'Bead Envy' too, all very bad for the mojo.

I love the internet, but I've learnt that I need to curb my own obsession for lampwork beads in order to be genuinely creative myself.

So here I go, it's been tough not ogling everyone's gorgeous beads, but it's just so bad for my mojo, so I'm limiting myself to once a week ;-) let's see how I go on!

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 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 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.

Friday 29th August (OMG has it been that long!!!!!)

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted anything on here, and it's also that long since I posted any beads for sale....tut tut tut.

Well so much to tell, I'll start with my holiday, fantastic, we spent two weeks in Cornwall, as we do every year and we couldn't have asked for better weather. The sun shone brightly for us almost the entire time, Cornwall was as beautiful as ever and a good time was had by all. The holiday was made even better due to the very generous loan of my in-laws caravan, it was bliss, quite palatial compared to the old trailer tent, although the children both pined after it a few times.

On returning home my kiln door fell off as you may have already read on my website, the manufacturer suggested to me that I get my drill out and do a DIY job with a few self tapping screws....ahem, I don't think so. What's the point of a warranty if it doesn't cover a dodgy door, needless to say I stubbornly held out and a new door arrived eventually. In fact it was an upgraded door, with a window no less, so now I can use up more of my precious little time gazing through the bead window at my beads happily soaking away, watching paint dry springs to mind.

My Kiln - Bernie (complete with window)

It soon became apparent that very little bead making was going to occur during the holidays, both the OH and I have been working around each other so that we haven't had to farm the kids out, which has been great, but a six year old, a four year old, molten glass and a Hot Head torch don't go well together. The little time I have managed to squeeze in has been spent experimenting, and I became totally absorbed in glass sculpture, goddesses, more goddesses, animals, starfish anything that sprung to mind. It's really helped me to understand the glass, how I can control it, how gravity controls it and how sometimes it just does what it wants.

Free time during the day has been spent on my studio, it's almost finished and it's fabulous.

The last few weeks I've been stocking up on glass, I've got some of the latest Double Helix colours, Triton being one of the colours of the moment, I haven't got the best out of it yet, but I'm working on it. I'm totally in love with a colour called Antique Clear, it's a beautiful transparent teal/aqua blue, it is amazing etched and I've got big plans for it. I used it in a lentil set and a focal bead this week, it really is beautiful and perfect for autumn winter.

Other colours I'm crazy about are copper green, opal yellow, olive, avocado, and EDP also known as 'Evil Detrifying Purple' what a fantastic name, the supplier I got it from included this line in the description 'basically it does what it wants' and it does, but is gorgeous.

Well that about wraps up the last 5 or six weeks, the bead shed is up and running on full steam, I've got loads of lovely glass, the kids are away with Grandma and Grandad this weekend so I should get and early start for a marathon torching session tomorrow.....can't wait.

Hope you've all had a great summer, Autumn's my favourite so the best is yet to come for me.

Bye. Kate xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx