Well, I am back! The Etsy shop is half re-opened, I'm still tried, but still buzzing with ideas after this weekends MCM Expo at Birmingham's NEC. Instead of too much waffling I'm posting lots of photo's here that will hopefully give you a taste of the event, and the always amazing costumes that so many people put together for these Expos that transform them into such colourful events. Ellie has a smart new camera and even managed to get a video clip ( You Tube Video ) of one of the 'parades' of characters - everyone from Darth Vader, Indiana Jones, Xena, to 'Top Gears' The Stig!!! There was even a stall of an R2D2 builders club, with lots of R2D2's wandering around the venue!
A very large and very empty NEC
Home for the next two days, the last set of tables on the end of this row
Of course, after a three hour drive the first bit of transformation needed was the hall itself! We got there by 2pm on Friday, ready to unload and put everything together, and transform some unexciting wooden tables into our stall.
A short video of The Parade
R2D2's from the builders club, note the massing Star Wars Stormtroopers at the top right of the picture
Another R2D2, this one hiding in a corner
Fight! Fight! Plenty of chances for some mock posed super-hero/villian fights!
I use a technique called 'lampworking' which involves directly heating rods of premium glass in a super-hot flame of propane and oxygen. Once it's glowing and in a jam/treacle like consistency I then wind, push, prod, roll and generally play around with the hot glass. Once I've finished sculpturing it into shape it's popped into a microprocessor controlled kiln where they anneal to reduce the internal stresses that toughens the bead (a lot of cheap mass produced beads don't always do this).
I live in the countryside bit of Essex (just above London for those from outside the UK), in a village that's been here since saxon times, surrounded by plenty of natural inspiration from the old village cottages to the open fields. I am also a self-representing artist, all the glass I make is my own work, and am a proud to be a member of a group of like-minded glass artists - more can be found here;
Member #G84 www.self-representing-artist.com/
My main website is
www.SteamPunkGlass.com
No comments:
Post a Comment