Christmas is Over & Synchronicity

It's been a crazy few weeks, what with two craft fairs and a welcome influx of orders, plus various 'dayjob' things that need my attention at the same time! Last Thursday I was at the Museum of London's Docklands branch for their Xmas evening fair. It was nice to be in the warm, but after a frantic hour of getting the stall up, three hours of chatting to customers and stall holders, then a frantic half hour packing up the dry air started taking it's toll as I begun loosing my voice! Luckily a couple of old friends turned up (including Miss Alice who seems to know every interesting corner of London!) who insisted I stop for a quick drink before trundling back on the DLR to get home, like Cinders, by midnight.

With nothing else planned now, it suddenly feels like xmas is over for me! I'm still adding to the Folksy and Etsy shops, and a good job too as one of my razors has been featured in the Folksy Festive Sampler, which is both an online newspaper, and a real paper that's being given away around the UK! I need to make more shaving brushes and razors (they are quite time consuming) and I am in two minds whether to continue to sell them on Folksy or sell them on my website to save people the hassle of opening accounts on Folksy, although I suspect I'll carry on just selling them on there for the time being.

At least now it feels like I might get time to sort out one or two projects I've been mulling over for a while, including some custom metalwork for the shaving brushes. The night before I was about to order in supplies I was chatting to my other half about silver cored beads, as I know boro versions of these would look fantastic. Spookily the next morning I logged into Frit Happens (a forum for lampworkers) and found someone offering a special press to help core them! Such strange synchronicity, I had to buy it, and now added to my 'to-do' list is practice big-hole-beads too. I suspect my Xmas break is going to be quite busy after all!

Razors, Marbles, and Beer

It's been an odd week, most of which I've spent trying to make as many razors as I can, only to run out of the heads! About ten minutes ago the postman turned up with some more (phew!) so I will get some more listed on Folksy soon! This had me going through my stash, and I am now reaching the end of the old two blade versions which aren't made anymore. I think I've got two more to list, then it'll be the end of a little era, and I'll only have the Mach3 heads which are a little more expensive. I still have a stash of shaving brushes, however they are limited in quantity too. I've found some replacements, but they don't have the nice silver finials and are a lot more expensive. At least I know have the firepower on my new torch that it's a little easier to make such large glass items, I just need to make them now!

After getting the new torch I realised I needed a bigger marble mould to help me when making marbles and cabochons. Almost everything I seem to do starts in some way as a marble, until reshaped or bits are added. In a fit of madness I ordered a new mould from USA, not realising how big it was! It's massive! The picture here shows it next to my original first graphite marble paddle, the largest hole on that is 25mm (1 inch) and this one has 6 holes on each side, going up to a whopping 1 3/4 inches! As only use the rim of the mould this (in theory) means I could make marbles up to 2inch or more although I've not managed to do anything bigger than 40mm yet that stayed in once piece!

Our local pub closed recently, only to reopen a week later under new management. It's good that it's still going, but the changes aren't good for us as my other half has lost her part time work there as barmaid. I am not sure how old the pub is but it's listed in 1841 census, but I don't know how much further it's history goes back. It's a real old world place, there are pictures in there from around 1900-1910 (at a guess looking at the outfits) when it was much smaller and next to what looks like a dirt track! We did manage to obtain a 'little' something from the landlady as she was clearing out. New pumps were put in a while back, and these older pumps are good solid brass (I guess they're 20 years old or more), rather than their new faux-brass replacements. There is talk when we eventually move of building a home mini-bar one day, and this will certainly help put Del-Boy Trotters home bar to shame! For now though, it will go into the loft until we decide when and where that will happen. It does give me time to find some more horse brasses and old beer pump badges to go with it though!

Return of the Razors!

Yes, razors are back!

One big problem I've had with making the razors I was selling in my Folksy shop last year was that the heads were no longer being made. Luckily I have a few squirreled away, although once these double blade ones are gone, they'll be gone for good!

Fortunately, I have managed to track down a source of new heads, and they take the Mach3 triple blades which I had lots of people asking about last year. They aren't quite as 'Edwardian' looking as the old type, and quite a bit more expensive, but it does mean I can continue to make them!

One problem I'd forgotten about (probably deliberately!) was the amount of rejects that I end up with. Making such long handles introduces alot of stress in the glass. Normally this isn't a problem as a good long soak in the kiln will anneal out these stresses. However on such long ones as this by the time I've finished working on the far end the other end has cooled too much and starts to crack! Even trying to keep it warm doesn't help, in fact it often makes it much worse, I even find that putting it into a warm kiln brings the temperature of the 'cold' end up too quickly and causes it to crack! Argh!

While trying to work around this I've been experimenting with making the entire handle solid glass. This makes, to my mind, much more pleasing and organic shapes with the light going straight through the handles allowing me to do much more exciting things with the colours and designs. Also as there is less metal work it makes the heads for it cost a little less too so I can do them a bit cheaper than the other Mach3 types! I really find this type exciting and want to do many more of these solid glass handles, I've only listed one so far but I have ideas for so many more

I have also found out the Venus Ladies blades fit these new heads too, so if I can get the pink boro to behave and not boil and bubble and go a horrible colour then I'll try making some Ladies razors too! Watch this space!

And the Winners are......

It seems like an age ago that I annouced that when I reached the magic 50 sales on Folksy I would do a little give away! Well, today a few little packages went out as a thank you for suporting my shop. I'd have loved to send something to everyone who bought from me, and favoured my shop! Instead I picked out of a hat (well, ok, not a real hat but a random number generator!) firstly Terry from http://www.folksy.com/shops/EdieOhara (lovely neck warmers in silks, wools and cottons, ideal for these colder morning!) as one of the many people who have favourited my shop.

Second up was the fabulously named Treaclezoo http://www.folksy.com/shops/treaclezoo who makes such fun crocheted things - they do look good enough to eat - who has been one of the many kind people who've bought from me on Folksy.

Hopefully I'll get to 100 sales on Folksy to do another giveaway with more prizes!

I've not managed to do much this week as I spent alot of time moving around the workshop, making more desk space so I can find what I'm looking for! Of course these things don't go to plan, so it took more time than expected, but the results have come up better than I expected, and now have a nice 'U' shaped workspace with the kiln back in easy reach - much safer than having to wander around with hot marbles. The worst part was having to move the extractor fan, only to knock it back down trying to get the benches back in! Doh! At least now I might not hit the wall with the end of long rods which was happening where I had it before. Above is a picture of the 'old' workshop, I'll try and get some new pictures taken before I make it too untidy!

Be a Revolutionary Rebel - Make and Buy One-off's!

Black Gilson Opal Heart inside red Pendant

Recently I applied to some of the 'professional' selling sites, the ones that go after adverts and write-ups in the glossy posh women's magazines as the place to buy from. Initially I was a bit disappointed that they weren't interested in what I have, but thinking about it again I can see how what I do doesn't suit their way of working, The more I think about it, the more I realise I am probably the complete opposite of what they do!

Everything I make ends up being a one off. It doesn't mater if I try to do the same thing twice to make a pair (now you see why I don't list many earrings!) each piece is always slightly different in some way. My curiosity often gets in the way too, 'what if I add green to the next one, or add this, or take that out?' and suddenly I'm making a one off again. If I put my mind to it I can make several flower marbles in a row, but even if they are the same colour they end up with the petals and shapes slightly different.

ZOOM!! Rocket pendant -listed st Etsy Store

For those who like one-off's this isn't a problem, but when listed in a glossy magazine I can see how that might be a problem. I remember an Orchid seller I used to know having the same problem when trying to win a contract with a large well-know chain store. Although he won on them being raised in England, he couldn't guarantee that each plant would be the same, which is what they wanted for them to all match on the shelf, so they went with a Dutch grower instead.

One of the things I found great about doing the stall last week was that people were so excited to be able to buy pendants that they knew were one off's. I'd forgotten what an usual and rare thing that has now become in our mass-produced society.

Tadpole Squiggle galaxy - listed at Folky

Not being able to 'knock out' twenty closely matching flowers does mean that I photograph and list each item individually. This week I re-jigged my photo setup for the twentieth time, as I seemed to spend hours taking photos that still weren't any good! Finally I've got a set up I am happy with, (for now!) and I'm getting more consistent photo's, and each is taking a lot less time too. This means I've been able to crack on and list the HUGE stash of pendants I've made recently, and start to re-fill my Etsy and Folksy stores.

I guess I'll never be a 'designer' with people wearing exactly the same handbag with the same logo in every city, but I know that when I box up and post out a pendant or a bottle stopper that the person at the other end is getting something unique, and that gives me a warm glow in itself. It's almost as if I'm being an underground rebel against the mass-produced culture! Viva La Revolution!

Folksy Milestone Giveaway!

I was going to do a celebration giveaway on Folksy when I hit a milestone of either 100 people favouriting my shop or 50 sale, however I managed to pass both milestones when I wasn’t looking!

However I realised I’ve not quite got to 50 sales on Folksy, so can do the celebration giveaway after all! Some of the sales were for two or three items, but Folksy logs each thing sold as a separate sale, so I’m 3 away from the magic milestone of 50!

So, I’m going to do TWO raffles! One for a small pendant for everyone who has been so kind to add me to their favourite shops, and a second larger one for everyone who has bought something from my Folksy shop, one entry per item they have bought! That way anyone who has been lovely enough to return to buy more from me is in with extra chance to win!

I will probably be giving away two of the lovely new nebula pendants I’ve been working on lately, although I haven’t chosen exactly which ones yet, so maybe I’ll give the winners a choice of colour preference as well – I’d hate it if someone loved green and got red instead! I've popped on a picture of some I have in my Etsy shop to show you what they're like.

I’ll be doing both draws as soon as I hit the magic 50, so you’ve still got time to add me to your favourites or pick up something you like ready for the draw!

http://www.steampunkglass.folksy.com/

All Change!

You may have notice I’ve been a little quiet on the blogging and listing front of late. I can now reveal some good news of some enormous changes which will hopefully mean both those things can improve!

I am now no longer commuting for the ‘day job!’ Instead I have taken on a project which is entirely non-office based, and everything will be done on the interweb! I still can’t quite believe it myself, and still wonder when I’ll be told it’s all off and to get back on the commuter un-merry-go-round! Although these first weeks (and my internet/twitter/blogging etc silence) are a bit mad as I spend a lot more hours getting things started, it does mean a huge quality of life improvement for me as well as getting me nearer to the point I can dump ‘the day job!’

Apart from the financial saving, the saving in time is a huge boon to me. Already I’ve had a few evenings that I’ve been able to get on the torch and play around with new ideas, rather than rush around doing chores or just being so shattered I fall into bed. I thought it might take a few weeks to have an effect but already I have got a lot of new ideas and directions I want to go with the glass.

To prove the point I’ve made an entirely new style of pendant with shapes that I really love! They are so much more organic, like seedpods or tropical flower buds, and I’ve developed a different way to capture this nebula look. There was a bit of hesitation when I first did this, but I took a leap of faith and here’s the result! I was actually more nervous about making the second one in case it was a fluke and I couldn’t make it again!

This past week I think I’ve done some of my best work for a very long time. I feel the reduction in stress and travel hours has made a difference already, and just at a time I want to start taking my glass in some new and exciting direction too. Even things like getting photos taken so I can start listing some of them is easier when I can do it during a needed tea break between looking at spreadsheets. It really feels like I’ve got a large chunk of my life back.

And then I found out I’ve been featured on Joy Funnel’s blog too at Fired With Imagination! http://joyfunnell.blogspot.com/2010/05/strangely-startling.html Joy is a maestro with silver clay and fresh back from Japan where she’s been seeing how silver clay is made. So it’s quite a treat to see that she has a complete set of jewellery – earrings AND bracelet – made with some of my Steampunk beads! And very good timing as I've been working on a new idea for Steampunk beads too. Now that’s a good end to a good week!

Return to Galaxies

I’ve been beavering away on my galaxy marbles again. I stopped making them for a while as I wasn’t very happy how they were coming out, so went back to the drawing board and tried a couple of different techniques to form them. I am much happier with them now, and leading on from the complex cane techniques I’ve learnt a lot recently about ways of building up more complexity in the marble.

Wot more!?! Yes, I am still excited to find out how much I can pack into something just over an inch in diameter. I do like the idea, especially with these, that I can put a whole world – or even worlds! – into such a small space so the viewer has more things to discover.

If you go to one of the forgotten distant wings of The British Museum there is, (at least there was the last time I went there) a small display of items from the 1500-1600’s. Among them are what look like large boxwood pocket watches but inside they have the most amazing carved religious scenes. In a space less that an inch ½ across are dozens – yes dozens!- of figures clustering around a crucifixion scene, some of the spears soldiers are holding are no more than a splinter. How some medieval genus managed to carve these, probably with quite basic tools, inspires wonder and awe at their craftsmanship. I guess it’s seeing things like this that convinces me that even a marble or a bead can be a big enough canvas for any epic scene. One of the technical problems I’ve had with these marbles is down to the lack of heat I can get into the marble until I can afford a bigger torch. Looking at these is a reminder that I don’t need to make them huge to be full of interest.

On an exciting glass front I am awaiting a new shipment of glass colours from a factory sale in the USA. It’s rather battered my ‘big torch fund’ but it will mean some new colours and some glass I’ll have a decent usable quantity of. One or two I’ve been rationing because I’m down to a few stubs, so it will be great to go wild with some really exciting colours, including one of the sexist multi-coloured blues ever, and even two new reds!

In the meantime here are some pictures of one I’ve turned into a wine stopper – they are all the same marble but I am finding they really look different as I move them around which is exactly what I want, but makes a real headache of photographing them to show what they are like! This one is up at my folksy shop.

Edited as I've since found they are called 'prayer-nuts' and you can see a few on the British museum website, although they are more impressive in real life! http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_results.aspx?orig=%2Fresearch%2Fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx&searchText=prayer-nut%2C&fromDate=&fromadbc=ad&toDate=&toadbc=ad&x=15&y=9

Whats in a name?

One of the first things I tried making in glass where heart beads. However my first efforts were rather ‘unfortunate’ so I was delighted to come across a new way of forming them freehand a little while ago. What I particularly like is the little hanger which adds an almost Victorian flourish to them, plus (when I get them right) the space between makes another heart shape! I still can’t get them quite even, but I’m probably being fussy! In fact I’ve just made one deliberately uneven, which I like it more than the even ones as I think it has more character!

Borosilicate colours can be really odd; because of the weird way they react with light they look different depending on the light source, the direction of the light, what’s behind the glass and so on. I’ve had to start taking photos with them on both white and black backgrounds to give a true impression of how these look. Under daylight the purple lustres come out (I guess it’s something to do with UV) but put them in front of a white card and they vanish again!

One of the colours I’ve been using to get really rich purple lustres is called ‘Silver Creek,’ which I had to order in direct from USA as no one stocks it over here. Before that I was using double purple and triple purple passion and still not getting the zing I wanted. I think it’s called ‘Silver Creek’ because it’s got a lot of silver in the formulation, but doesn’t really help tell you what colour it will be!

Boro colour makers have gone wild with their naming, I guess because all the ‘normal’ glass has got all the sensible names already! I’ve got rods with names like ‘Alien Blood’ (green-white) ‘Unobtainium’ (an amazing pearlised blue) ‘Steel Wool’ (glittery grey) even ‘Red Elvis’ a transparent red which sounds like it should be a Cold War Communist version of the King of Rock & Roll!

These odd names are rather handy as it helps me to remember what the colours do as unlike normal soft glass they don’t look the same as when they are melted in. Many of the rods are so dark they look dark blue or even black, but when used do strange things instead, even turning cream coloured! The older colours tried to have helpful names, but Green Amber Purple isn’t a great name – and this glass starts out Bristol Blue coloured plus I’ve not yet got any purple out of it either, although wonderful creams, yellows, ambers, blues and greens!. I try to label every boro rod, but I do end up scrabbling around for a certain colour with one hand while holding a hot marble in the other, so there can an element of serendipity as I end up using another colour instead.
At least these colours live up to, and often exceed, their wonderful mad names. Many years ago I was helping stack paints, all had been given glamorous emotive names like ‘harvest barley’ (a sort of yellow off-white) and ‘seagulls wing’ which turned out to be a very boring grey!

Quick update and Spoonerisms

Thank you to everyone that replied to my blog, it has been very helpful, and if anyone else would like to add I am still very interested to hear what you have to say!

Been a little more than hectic this week, not helped by spending most of it on trains going nowhere. I posted some weeks ago my idea to give those of us who still have to commute (working on stopping doing that) a little something back. I sent it to the train company, who then two days later promptly decided they weren’t squeezing enough money out of their franchise so reverted it back to ‘public ownership’ which seems to mean no ones in charge. Having said that I quite like the new bizarre mix of 1970’s and 2006 carriages linked together, the old ones are way more comfortable too! However it's lucky dip as to if they are running on time or hugely late though.

Back on the creative front the other week I popped into the Folksy Xmas do-thingie to hear what Folksy had planned for the site and to meet a few fellow sellers. One of the lovely people I met there before I had to rush off was Claire McNeil who runs an Etsy and Folksy shop called Spoonerisms http://www.etsy.com/shop/spoonerisms

Claire hunt out old unloved spoons and turns them into Jewellery, on the night she was wearing a lovely pendant made from the end of spoon which had stunning art-deco style pattern. I think it says a lot for craftsmen of old that these old spoons had such wonderful detail on them that can still be reworked and re-envisioned into something beautiful and desirable again.

One of the lovely things Claire has also done is create a series each with their own stories of past loves, broken friendships, and times past called ‘Broken Promises,’ each spoon having a personal memento embedded in resin in a spoon. The stories are very personal indeed, my favourite is an earring given to her by a chap she met in a bar, clicked with, exchanged numbers, but never saw again. It has the romantic title of ‘the one that got away.’ There are so many lovely ones it was tough to pick a picture, and some with such heartrending stories, even an old engagement ring that never turned in to marriage. Gulp! I do promise that not all the stories are quite so sad though!

Oriental Magpie & Cornwall Punk Pirates

I am still a little pc-less, but now have a semi-functioning laptop so hopefully will be able to start listing some new bits and bobs in the next few weeks. Being able to sit on sofa I can see why people prefer laptops, although it does have a tendency to ‘get stuck’ on some web pages, so I see why some people call them ‘slaptops!’

The big news this week is the opening of a new website for Crafty shoppers, called
http://www.theorientalmagpie.com !!!!!!! This is a little different to other sites as all the listing, photographing and publicity is handled very amiably by it’s founder Emma. There will be quite a lot of very new bits from me, all of them are exclusive to The Oriental Magpie only, including the largest marbles I have yet made! The website launches on 16th July, there is a few sneaky previews on there and on the Facebook page, do take a look!

I am away for a few days this weekend, back to Cornwall for ashes scattering (ceremony? Event? Not quite sure what the term should be.) It’ll great to see some old faces, although rather sad for the reason why. I will be back at the start of next week so if you order anything from my Folksy, Misi or Etsy stores it might be a day or two late to you. However there is talk about hijacking a fishing boat to scatter the ashes from, and considering the motley crew of old punks, rockers, and assorted weirdoes, (plus some local Cornish chaps) that’s going along then anything might happen! I suspect some grog will be drunk, and we’ll give Johnny Depp a run for ‘most interesting pirates!’

Steampunk power walking? A Sterling idea!

tancreek2
Originally uploaded by steampunkglass

With most of London taking a stroll into work this morning, I thought I’d mention something that has been percolating in my mind for a while.

I have been thinking about making something entirely for myself for a change. For ages I’ve fancied getting a really nice walking stick. This is not because I am infirm and need one - although when I’ve done the odd twisted ankle or sprain I’ve certainly wanted one - it’s entirely for vanity!

Many years ago when I seemed to spend more time ‘dressed up’ in various historical (or should that be hysterical?) costume, normally Victorian or Edwardian. The one part of my outfit that was always missing was a nice walking cane. Friends had charming silver skull or Faux ivory dragons topped ones, where I went without - even when I severely damaged the back of my right leg and ended up limping for months.

For one thing I didn’t fancy carrying it, preferring to keep my hands free, also some of the ‘Ladies’ who went to these events tended to be a little ‘aggressive’ when they ‘borrowed’ any canes/swords/artificial limbs etc that were left laying around. Seemed best not to increase the available weaponry!

Of course the other problem was finding one I liked, something with that personal touch. I’ve seen pictures of various Steampunk themed contraptions built into canes, normally fantasy weapons – not for me thank you! I certainly want to build in some nice glass elements though, I have been wondering for ages what to have as a handle before I started making marbles; now it’s obviously got to be a BIG galaxy marble!!!

One thing I originally wanted to add was a sterling engine. This is a strange Victorian heat pump engine that is like a steam engine but uses low pressure air expanding from a heat source one side, then cooled on the other. I have seen a great design that is powered by heat of a hand or surplus heat from a VCR, however they are quite large, and very expensive kits to buy! I am not sure if my engineering talents are up to it either, but I did like the idea of harvesting waste heat from my hand to cool the handle by conducting it down to the cold tip of the can, whilst helping cool my hand!

I certainly will include some high tech energy harvesting green technology, some devices that convert small amounts of energy such as the strike of the cane tip on the ground, small amounts of sunlight, the general movement etc, to do interesting & useful things like power built in torches, lights, spinning zoetropes etc. Maybe even a fake sterling engine too! Alternately I might just try something simple with elegance rather than eccentricity in mind. Now that I’ve told everyone I shall have to make it happen rather than just thinking about it!!

In the meantime if you have a tin can, coat hangers, and time on your hands there are some great ‘build it yourself’ plans for sterling engines on these links;

http://www.reuk.co.uk/Make-a-Stirling-Engine.htm Basic info, plus a little movie of an engine powered by a hot cup of tea!!!!

http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~khirata/english/make.htm Nice site, in English of Japanese, with many types of DIY engines from tin can ones to more elaborate ones, plus descriptions of the ‘Sterling cycle.’

http://www.stirlingengine.com/ A great site with amazing kits and ready to go models too, lots of videos and pictures of their ‘hot tea’ and hand warmth ones running.

Colour my Blog

I seem to have had a ‘what was I thinking?’ day last week. Apart from a rather nasty increase in the amount of stuff cracking in the kiln (which needs some investigation in case something is seriously wrong, or it could be I just left the door open too long!) I seem to have made a very odd collection of bits. Normally I’d hope to find one of these experiments has produced something interesting to explore, this time I think they shall just be exploring my reject pile instead! I blame it on tidying the workshop, once it's back in a mess I hope normal service will be resumed!

However on a good note some of my blue little world earrings have made it onto a blog by Fiona at http://jewellerymydesign.blogspot.com/ where she has had the inspired idea of showcasing some Folksy sellers items by grouping them together by colour! I seem to have made ‘dark blue/ indigo’ colour theme! Well worth checking out her blog, I think she has made a better display of Folksy wares than we see normally on the Folksy front page! It also really shows the wealth and diversity of talent of makers we have in the UK.

Why I think too many craft sites is a good thing

There is a great deal of choice of online stores for people who sell their crafts at the moment. I am concentrating on Folksy and Etsy at the moment, but I also have a small store at MISI as well. Ontop of that there is also Artfire, Corindr, Dawanda, Zibbet, and probably more that I don’t know about. The one thing they have in common is they are all trying to be the next big ONE coping the success of another well know auction site….. You know the one…….

I so hope this doesn’t happen!

If you are trying to sell you’re old slippers or box of onions, or whatever else that is cluttering up your house, it seems there is only one internet auction site worth using. It’s a shame no other competitors from the early dotcom days survived, it could do with competition to keep it on it’s toes, and to give sellers and buyers more choice. I hear from so many sellers bemoaning the sudden rule changes, increases in fees, delisting of auctions for the strangest of reasons. I was speaking to one crafter a few months ago who said she was working from the moment she got up till midnight on her shop, and daren’t take a holiday else she would loose her powerseller status. To me it seems she had stopped working for herself, and was now working for them! Surely this should be working as a partnership between them and us, not a dictatorship telling us how we should run our affairs for their benefit.

I have been selling a few spare plants on ‘a well know auction site,’ and I’d thought they’d got it all sorted until this weekend when I ran into their craziness! Despite already having done half a dozen sales without any queries I was blocked by their automated system because they didn’t like one of my email addresses! It took over an hour to sort out, not helped by constantly having to re-log in on virtually every page change, and in the meantime has ‘frozen’ a sale that’s gone into my paypal account!!! GRRRR!!!!!!!

So please continue to support these smaller sites, even though some will always be small, some will be glitchy, some won’t do enough PR, at least they are helping to keep big sites like Etsy on their toes. Yes, it would be easier if we all sold in one place, but if we loose this healthy competition then I think we will all be poorer for it.

I'm still here!

You may (or may not!) have been wondering where I am? Fear not, for I have been hard at work on some new offerings (coming soon, to my Folksy, or even my Etsy shop soon!)

Despite Parcelforce's best efforts to keep it away from me, I finally managed to get hold of some borosilicate compatable dichroic, and some amazing manmade opals (which are made in such a way they can be put inside glass!) Along with the new improved power I can get from my torch, it's giving me a lot more control to try these choice glassy goodies. A little sneak preview here, my next job it to try and take some decent pictures!

Trying to hard to be perfect

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Originally uploaded by steampunkglass

Well, as promised, first release of MARBLES! Now in my Folksy shop, http://www.folksy.com/shops/SteamPunkGlass Just a few mind you, still expecting and hoping to make some even better ones!

I seemed to have got stuck for the past few weeks, and my failure rates has gone up too – the one that was most frustrating I’d been working on for about 1 ½ hrs, it was looking good too – one of the nebula type which I’ve found really hard to recreate. It was past that point when good sense says’ ‘stop fiddling and leave it alone!’ Just saw one little dent that I KNEW I should have just accepted, but wanted it perfect – you know what comes next…….. clink! BIG crack, followed by a few more. Welding the bit together really didn’t work, still left a big fatal flaw in the middle.

Nevermind! Glasswork I find can be a bit of a ‘Zen lesson’ that you cannot control everything, and to accept some things will not be as perfect as we’d like – just accept them and move onto the next and try again. It’s still surprisingly difficult for me to let them go if they are not perfect though, I spend more time pointing out the flaws rather than the good bits!

It seems to go to that ‘bubble or no bubbles’ argument; I spend ages trying to pluck out every bubble or imperfection, yet it’s those that show the handmade marks people seem to like more! People tell me they like the very things I am trying not to leave in them saying it gives more ‘character’ and ‘shows it’s really handmade.’

Of course, me picking faults with them is probably really just an excuse not to sell them so I get to stare into them for a bit longer!

They’re Coming….. From Another Galaxy!!!

group of marbles
Originally uploaded by steampunkglass

Well the news seems to be out, my next project is being unveiled….. Galaxy Marbles! Yes, for all those who think I’ve lost them, here is a sneak preview of some that I have been squirreling away at over past few weeks. I still have a few kinks to iron out, but I think I’m just about there now! I am hoping to start listing some for sale soon, please keep an eye on the blog here or even twitter http://twitter.com/SteamPunkGlass when I will announce their release.

I have got the formula just about there now, and I got onto a great roll over this long weekend, with clearer definition and a lot less bubbles, more going on inside – I’ve been really getting excited about the results – until Easter Monday afternoon when my gas ran out! ARGH!!!!! Isn’t that always the way!

For me this has been a long process of evolution, I’ve surprised myself at the techniques I’ve learnt and developed whilst doing this project. From basic implosion flowers this led on to twists and spirals, then the whole new complexities of boro glass colours. There is a huge amount of chemistry involved, not my strongest point either! Boro colours have a lot of heavy metals, often it seems in greater/more dangerous quantities than soft glass. I’ve had to rethink and improve my ventilation as well to work these. Some have high levels of chrome which when heated become gas, some of which can then re-form with the molten glass producing new glass within the glass. Doesn’t sound like a problem, until finding out the new glass has different expansion properties – which is why I have one marble with a great big split in it!

I think it’s a testament to soft glassmakers that we have such a range of colours which we can use without too much thought about compatibility. I know there are a few that aren’t compatible and cause cracking issues, and we always moan when they do as it’s so frustrating when something toiled over breaks. Boro colours have only been around to artists since the early 1980’s, and clear Borosilicate is just over 100 years young, whereas soft glass has been around for thousands of years, so it’s hardly surprising it’s got the edge on reliability!

Anyway, enough glass-geek talk, I need to go and take the long walk to the gas shop!

Accidental Glass

Sometime it’s the accidents that help me do things better, these are the ‘happy’ accidents, although they don’t always seem happy at the time!
I have spend days working on a new type of necklace with leaves made of glass, and I’m not talking about those little mould stamped green leaves you see in the bead shops, these are monsters! Most are about 2-3inches long, twisted, with colours layered into them using borosilicate glass. After I made the first batch I found the choker I put them on was too thick for the holes I made. Drat! So next glass session I make some more, and since they are organically made but going with the flow of the glass, not all of them were useable on the necklace I had in mind (although I am sure I will find a use for them eventually, even if it’s selling them in a de-stash sometime!). I threaded some on, and realised it needed so spacer beads, but once again the wire was too thick for my stash. This is where being a lampworker comes in handy, I was back to the torch for third time to make some customer green spacer beads!

So after a lot of to and fro-ing, I finally got the necklace done. Something bothered me about it, maybe it was because it didn’t just ‘happen’ as my best stuff does when some magic brings it all together. Regardless I went to take some snaps of it, and was trying to set up some pictures when the whole thing slid off onto the floor, meeting up with various objects that were rather ‘too solid’ for such a delicate crop of leaves. I think you can guess the result!

I don’t know if I’ve become more ‘Zen’ since I’ve started lampworking, or just because I was so tired, but I wasn’t as upset as I probably should have been about this, but when I looked at the ‘remain’ an hour later, it suddenly clicked. Only three of the leaves had survived, and it looked so much better like this! Less is more, I reminded myself! I made some slight adjustments, and it looks good, although I think I can still make some much better leaves for the next and final version.

I’ve been quite busy lately, and I’ve recently opened another shop outlet on MISI, where I’ve been transferring some of my stock from the old Etsy Shop. I am still in two minds about Etsy, but until things pick up or I have time to make 200 things to list there to make it worthwhile I will be putting stuff onto Folksy and MISI for the time being. They are all priced in £££’s rather than suffering exchange rate yo-yoing, and are just really nice places to be at the moment with a lot of friendly folk there. www.folksy.com/shops/SteamPunkGlass or my new MISI shop atwww.misi.co.uk/steampunkglass Hope to see you there!

Evil Ruler of The Kiln Galaxy

Small Blue Worlds
Originally uploaded by steampunkglass

It seems at the moment I am at my most productive on a Sunday. Saturday seems to start slowly, plus this weekend I was completely shattered which is not great for being creative. Sunday was a different matter! I cleaned down my work desk and decided to leave the boro flowers for a while to use up my soft glass stash. This was about the time I realised how much I’ve come to love off-mandrel working! Twiddling around sticks of bent metal that are covered in potential harmful dust is not ideal (although I still love the smell when first heated, reminds me of my first time bead making.)

Second bead and straight in with 101-stupid-mistakes! ‘Putting hot sticky bead into kiln and touching other hot bead.’ Not a good start, although I think I saved one of them, albeit after having to reshape it again.

So enough with normal beads, thought I’d make some more of my ‘little worlds,’ which I’ve had some nice comments back about this week. I’ve been meaning to make some more for a while, and to try out some new colour combos as well. Suddenly it all clicked again, and from having mandrels sitting around gathering dust, and bead release hardening in the pot, I actually had to raid my drawers for any more I could find – even some part bent ones! I’ve filled the kiln before, but never this much! The kiln turned into a little galaxy of Planets!

I’ve done a good few with the classic deep blue, (as per the picture here) plus more of a nice pale green peridot colour. I’ve not listed any of these yet as for some reason I can’t seem to get any of these to be a close size match yet. I have had a go with some more ‘Mars Red’ and some fab ‘Indigo’ – yet more new colours I have yet to unveil! However I left the best to last, and think I have come up with some of the best little worlds I have EVER made! Even ‘The Boss’ was blown away by them, and that takes some doing! I am really excited about the way these are going now, the three hours for the kiln to cool was torture last night! The only problem I have is I only have a tiny bit of this glass left, and when I checked this morning found out because of the high silver content it’s about 12 times the cost of the normal blue!!!! Ekk!!!!! I will have to ration this stuff!

I will get these cleaned up later this week so I can make some new earring with them, keep a look out for the pictures as these really are worth seeing, until then I’m going to be mean and leave you wondering about them - after all I seem to be Evil ruler of my very own universe of little planets now!

I really must feed my subconscious more often

big shell1
Originally uploaded by steampunkglass

It’s funny how glass making can be come a kind of trance somedays, and that’s when the subconscious can sneak in and give you a nice surprise. I had a brief afternoon trip to St Ives the other week. Normally that would be great, except this was a cold and windy day, and we went there to try and clear our heads after a funeral in Truro a day before.
I must say I do like seaside towns when they are off-peak; you get to see the real place hiding under the plastic spades and holidaymakers. After a few hours cheerless wandering, I popped into a tourist shell shop, feeling the need to get something ‘positive’ however small and silly. I bought a small bag of chipped shells and one larger long coil shell, not even sure why. When asked what was in my little £2.99 brown paper bag I said ‘a bag of inspiration,’ although I felt far from inspired. On my return home the bag got left in a corner of my workshop as other routine things like washing clothes and buying cat food took precedence.
Then on Sunday I was messing around with some new techniques I’ve been trying, mostly involving making spirals trapped inside beads (I love doing spirals!) Some of them were taking ages to do, 45mins on a bead is a very long time to stare at the same thing, when in a lapse of concentration – or I think maybe my subconscious had a better idea – I pulled too far on a spiral, and then pulled a bit more, and a bit more, until I had these amazing shell-shaped beads, with little sea anemones trapped inside! Of course what I didn’t realise until after I had tidied them and tweeked them a little, that they were like that one big shell I had bought a couple of weekends before. I then looked on my desk and found I’d ‘doodled’ the same twisty texture with some other glass that I then didn’t know what to do with.
So, the moral is, feed your subconscious, even when you don’t think it’s paying attention!