Glass Butterflies

I thought I would try out another tutorial.  Did a little google search and came up with these...

http://www.torchbugs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6509

They looked easy enough so washed some glass, fired up the torch and sat down.

The first two I did with opaque bodies, this didn't blend well into the wings in my opinion, it made them just look "smudged", plus according to the tutorial you just melted the wings in, this seemed to leave them lumpy and uneven, so  I adapted and gave them a squish flat before separating into two wings.

After that I moved onto transparent glass for the bodies, this blended so much better into the wings.

By adding a sparkly czech crystal bead for a head and wiring up on a pin, it made a quick, yet effective, pendant.

I would have made loads more, but the oxygen ran out.  Waiting for delivery of a new tank now  :)

Tiger Beads

Each time I fire up my torch and go to my shed, I seem to produce similar beads. I seem to be stuck in a style rut and need to break it.

When I am at Higham Hall, teaching basic glass beadmaking, I always take four Lampworking books with me for the students to borrow, but I have to admit I have only ever flicked through them myself, so often the students will come to me with a page open saying how lovely a bead looks.

So, this time I brought the books home with me, and promised myself I would try out some of the tutorials.

The bead I fancied trying first was the Tiger bead from "Passing The Flame", by Corina Tettinger.

I made myself promise not to pick up any other glass, or frit, or tools, than the ones needed to make this particular bead.  I didn't even take my usual glass of wine with me !!

I pulled some stringers, made some twisties, dipped my mandrels and off I went.

I didn't have one of the glasses suggested - Dark Amber - so I made a few with 'Dark Topaz' and some more with 'Straw'  This was the only variation I made.

Of course this morning I was chomping at the bit to get to the kiln.  But when I did I was quite chuffed with the results.

Dark Topaz based beads.

Straw based beads.

And a Straw based focal bead.

Wonder what I shall try next.....

My Rag Rug Inspiration.

Isn't it funny where your inspiration comes from?  Sometimes it can be just spotting something in your day to day life, other times it can be a need of something you would like to own, and others it can be a memory.

The rug making I have been doing comes from a memory of long ago.

This is my dearly departed maternal Grandfather.  Nelson Llewellyn Bray.

I don't have many memories unfortunately as he died when I was about 12.  But I do remember he was an avid gardener and rain, hail or shine he could be found pottering in the garden or in his shed.  (His shed had the most wonderful earthy smell, a cross between old wood and rusty steel mixed with potting compost)

When he was indoors he always sat in a chair near the fireplace with his feet up on the wall.  When he drank his tea it was always poured into his saucer and slurped from there.  He never gave one single kiss when you said goodbye, it was a cluster of 4 or 5 - the cluster kiss was what I remember most.

Then there was the rug making.  Winter he would be sitting in the window of the bungalow he shared with my Gran and Uncle Bob with a piece of sacking on a frame.  He would happily sit and prod, and us Grandchildren would stand by his side and watch.  We would never get to cut the rags, or have a go at prodding, but we were happy to watch.

My Mother, Vera, remembers having to cut up the rags when she was young, and getting "rag-sick" from the dust.  Perhaps that's why we never got the job.

When I was about 8 years old I got presented with this...

The rug my Grandfather made especially for me.  All the Grandkids got one, all different.

Mine is now in the attic, carefully stored in clear plastic.  It was starting to fall apart and I couldn't bare to have to throw it away, so I decided to hide it away for safe-keeping.  It is around 36 years old now.

So, I am proud now to have resurrected this craft within my family.  Both myself and my Mother are now rug-making and enjoying it thoroughly.

My rugs so far...

The first one I made was made from lots and lots of recycled fabrics, I wanted to know how each fabric worked while being 'prodded'. I found wool blend was difficult as the prodder went right through the fabric, velvet was beautiful as it shimmered, t-shirt was the easiest to work with.

The next one was made entirely from t-shirts.  30 in total.  Makes a good bath mat  :)

And this one was made from the lovely shimmery velvet, it's so soft and luxurious, and a dream to tread upon.

I'm thinking Denim next.......  watch this space.

So.... did YOU win the hat?

I am so sorry this is late, the Hat Draw.....

http://soozintheshed.blogspot.com/2012/01/would-you-like-hat.html

.... was supposed to be drawn on Friday, but my memory not being what it used to be I totally forgot.  (Someone should have nudged me  ;) )

Anyway, I have knuckled down and I am happy to announce we have a winner...

The rules were people had to either "like" or comment on the hat of their choice, so first I had to draw which hat would be given away.  I used the "Fruit Machine" random name generator and the hat was.......

The GREY one.

So, as there was only one person that commented on this particular hat, there was no need for a second draw.

I am therefore please to announce the winner as HELEN BAIRD !!

Well done Helen, I will be in touch to sort out delivery.

Would you like a hat?

Well, would you?  A nice wooly hat with a difference for spring?

Well, I think I shall give one away.  You could win this one...

Or this one...

Or maybe this one.

What you have to do is go to this album....

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.282916641762814.70842.242521565802322&type=1

Click "LIKE" or add a comment to the one you like, any comment will be fine.

Then on Friday 27th I will first draw a hat (Brown, Burgundy, Purple, Grey, Rainbow)  then I will draw a name from all comments and likes on that hat.  I will then send the winner that hat  :)

Simples.

Me and Barbara Windsor.

I don't think I have told you the story of me and Barbara Windsor....

I am telling you now because during a big shed tidy up I came across the Christmas Card and postcards I from Ms Windsor herself.

The story goes something like this......

A few years ago, Barbara Windsor was on a TV programme, something like those programs where you research your past.  Anyway, she had a lovely bracelet on, which was mentioned the next day on our beading forum Bead Buddies.

A few of us did a bit of Googling and found some very tiny thumbnails, but nothing we could really have a good look at.  So I decided to write to her...

Dear Ms Windsor,

Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Sue Simmons and I own and run a Bead Shop in Cumbria.

I also run an online Forum for Beaders (www.beadbuddies.co.uk/forum), and one of my members started a discussion about a bracelet you were wearing, and I quote…

“Did anyone watch the re-showing of the "Who Do you Think You Are" programme for BW tonight - I couldn't take my eyes off the bracelet Barbara Windsor was sporting - caught a few glimpses of a silver thing with dotty-ed lampies I think??”

This has turned into a quest to try and find a photograph of said bracelet, and the only one we can find is a very small one (attached)

So we wondered, as a group, if you had a better photograph of your bracelet, or if you can tell us the bead artist who made it?

I know this is a really strange request, but Beaders are funny creatures and this will bother them for ages if I cannot get to the bottom of it.

Also, if you would be happy for us to do this, we would like to make you a piece of jewellery in your favourite colours, as a collective work.

Thank you so much for your time.

Didn't really expect a reply at all, well, celebrities have better things to do with their time don't they?  But lo and behold, only a few days later there was a message on my answerphone - from Barbara Windsor!!!

She just said there was a lovely story surrounding the bracelet and she would call me sometime to tell me.

A few weeks went past and I had given up hope of another phone call, when the phone rang  "Hello Sue, Barbara here, how are you darling?"  WHOOP WHOOP!!

She told me the story of the bracelet, which sadly had since been lost.  So I offered to make her a new one.

There was no photo of the piece, so I just had to wing it.  I ended up with this... my hand-made glass beads, swarovski crystal, strung on sterling silver with my signature tag.

I sent it off and a few days later got another call, she was delighted and wanted another - but brighter and bolder this time, and on elastic.

Ok, so bright and bold it was, I used orphan beads from Kathy (My Precious) and some polymer clay beads from Elise Canning, and strung them up on strong elastic.  

She loved that one too  :)

At this point we decided as a Forum that it was quite fun to send gifts to celebrities, so we got together a list from the cast of females at Eastenders and made them all a little sometime.

I sent a fused hand-made glass ring each to 'Shirley' and 'Heather' and a beaded necklace to 'Pat', and got signed postcards in return :)

Later that year I got a Christmas Card , hand signed and personal.  How lovely.

Maybe it's time to do another collective gift box .......

A silly mistake....

I fancied a bit of knitting, but something I would actually wear and not get bored half way through when knitting it.

I found this gorgeous free pattern.....

http://berroco.com/exclusives/kia/kia.html

Right up my street is this style. Problem is it was for a certain wool type, which is now obsolete, and I wasn't sure what thickness of wool it was either. So off I trotted to the local wool shop, chose a nice double knit in a random shade of blues and greys, with a silver metallic thread running through it.  Perfect.  Bought my two sets of Sz 9 circular needles and rushed home to make a start.

I dug out my Sz 9 needles and set to work.  You start by making the edge piece, which you sew into a ring, then you pick up the stitches along once edge and just work in a big round.

At this point I should mention that I NEVER do a test piece to check my gauge (Tut-Tut)  does anyone?

So, I got the rim done, that looked fine, in fact the whole thing looked fine until I did the armholes, they looked a little neat, but just a little.  I carried on, it actually wasn't until the last few rounds that I realised this wasn't going to be the big baggy waistcoat, one to fit my generous frame, that I thought it would be. In fact, it was more like a bolero jacket for my Sz 8 daughter!

I do like the pinwheel design on the back though...

The mistake?  I used Sz 9 needles, which are 3.75mm instead of 9mm needles!!!

(the top ones are the ones I SHOULD have used, the bottom ones are the ones I did)

Oh well, lesson learnt.

Right, try again..... this is my new wool, and this time I have been out and bought 9mm needles.

Butterfly Rug.

This was my third rag rug.  My first was a mixture of different fabrics, my second was made from t-shirt material, so I wanted my third to be something different.

I had seen a fellow rug makers work and among her mixture of fabrics, she had a little swish of velvet that shimmered.  I love it, and decided my next rug would be made totally from velvets.

I also wanted a different design. As I also play with stained glass, I thought I would see if I could transfer a stained glass type pattern, to a rug.

I hand-drew the butterflies on the back of the rug, but this left a large background area which I thought would be  to plain if done in one colour, on the other hand I didn't want to have too much going on in the background as it might detract the eye from the butterflies.  I decided on smoky type swirls in two shades of silvery grey.

I was plodding (or should I say, prodding?) along quite nicely when one of the ladies that run the rag-rug club I go to asked if I could get it finished by the 10th Jan, so it could go in an exhibition at our local Museum and Art Gallery.  At this point it was only half done, but I was so pleased to be asked because I am quite a new member and they only wanted four rugs in total for the space they had.

So, this last week has been a MAD prodding frenzy, cutting, poking, ordering new velvet, stressing....

But today, I finally got it finished.  Had a little hiccup in that I ran out of the light silver material, so had to unpick some bits and re-jig the swirls a bit, but we got there.

This is the front view, how it will be displayed....

And this is the back, it looks much more defined this way I think.

Quite pleased with it....... on Tuesday I will say goodbye to it for three months, unless I decide to pop into the art gallery and visit it of course  :)

My Sajen Collection.

I was introduced to Sajen pieces by a friend, and how I love them.  I would have loads more if I had lots of pennies, but until then I have to make do with the three pieces I have.

Recently, as I have been wearing one all the time, I keep getting asked about them, so thought I would share...

They are made from Silver or Gold, richly adorned with gemstones. Designed by Marianna and Richard Jacobs and hand-made by bali artisans - you can find their website here...

http://www.offeringsjewelry.com/

The first two pieces I had are quite large and I never had a chain thick enough to look good with them.

This was my first piece...

Followed by this gorgeous moon shaped one.

My Mum asked me last year what I wanted for my birthday, so I suggested she might buy me a thick silver chain to display my pendants on.  She actually bought be a wonderful (and expensive) Pandora chain, of course I was delighted with it, and strung a pendant on it right away.

Unfortunately though, these are not the kind of pendants you can wear everyday - or rather, overnight, on bed.  And I am a lazy type of person who likes to keep jewellery on for weeks.  So the hunt was on to find a Sajen piece that I could wear every day.

I found this one on eBay, a stunning piece with an amethyst goddess face and a stunning pink stone that changes colour to purple or blue when I move.

I have a search in on eBay for a nice ring now ;)  Don't go bidding against me if you search though  :)

Eye Eye

Oooooo it's been a long time since I blogged - naughty me!

Anyway, I thought I would tell you about my latest experiment.

A friend of mine made me the most wonderful beaded necklace with a glass eye cabochon as the centre piece.  This then got me thinking, eye cabochons.

I did a bit of research and found some glass dolls eyes on eBay, but they were something like £7.00 a pair.  Gulp.  I was looking for something a wee bit cheaper so I could resell to my customers.

After a lot of emails and a bit of haggling, I found a factory in China that made dolls eyes.  It took a good few emails for me to get across what I wanted  - oval, flat back, glass, no wires.

Well, I obviously didn't do very well as I received round with stems on the back  - at least they were glass!!

So, how to get them flat.  Luckily I have a kiln, so I set to work.

First of all I had to use my rod cutters and snip all the back off as close as I could get them.

Unfortunately I couldn't get some of them quite as close to the back as I would have liked, so they didn't all sit too straight in the kiln.  Never mind, I thought, the odd wonky one will be fine  :)

All night they were in the kiln, and I didn't peep once.

In the morning, I threw open the lid and ...... whey hey....... eyes!!!

They weren't too wonky at all, a success of sorts  :)