Brightwells Craft Market

 

Back in May I put my hand up and said I'd like to join the Farnham Creatives' Network Craft Market as part of Farnham Craft Month.

I've never done a craft market before, although I have been to many.  I love to look round at everyone's work - so many talented people out there! 

So for the past 6 months I've been working towards the market - not just making things to sell, but also thinking about what my table might look like and how I want to present my glass.

 

Once I knew the size of the table I bought one of those stretchy white table cloths.  You just hook it round the legs of the table and it does the rest.  I liked this and it worked well, however it does make it hard to hide things under the table as you get a gap at the bottom.

I also bought a table runner with my logo on.  I love this so much!  However, although I ironed it, it still got a crease in it from rolling it up to transport it.  I'm going to have to work out how to stop this happening, although I imagine most other people didn't notice.

 

On top of my table I wanted a little height, so 'im outdoors built me a cabinet with moveable shelves and LED lighting round the edge so it lights the glass up.  It was great - the lights really made it!  I used it mainly for vases, but I think you could put anything in it.

He also made me some stands for my bubble earring studs.  The stands worked really well, however, I think it was hard for people to see the details so the earrings didn't really sell.

I feel like I need lights on all parts of my table to show the glass off at its best.

 

I had a selection of vases, necklaces, earrings, paperweights, coasters, bangles and loose beads.  I have to say my berry beads were best sellers with the bee beads not far behind.  I must remember this for the future.

The market went well, I sold some things and got some lovely comments from people about my items.  It was so nice to hear, as selling online you don't often get this sort of feedback.

 

I also surprised a few people when admitting it was my first market as everyone said my table looked really professional, so that was another positive. 

All in all the weekend was a success I think.  I'm not sure I'd want to do it too often, but I wouldn't say no, if I found a market that felt like a good fit. 

If you missed it you can find many of my items on my website. 

Brightwells Craft Market - Flyer

 I'm quite excited to announce that I'm doing my first craft market this October as part of Farnham Craft Month.

I'm part of the Farnham Creatives Network and 16 of their members have come together to run a craft market on 24-25 October - 10am-5pm at Brightwells Yard in Farnham.  A mix of artist, potters, fashion and even some fudge!

I've never done a market before and I've no idea what people might buy but I've been busy making stock to take with me.

However, we need to advertise the market so the call went out for someone to put together a flyer.  I said I didn't mind having a go, if no one else came forward.  And that's how I ended up putting together a flyer for the market, even though I don't really have any graphic design skills!

Except for not being given all the correct information in the first place, it was quite fun to put together.  I tried to make sure similar makers weren't next to each other and that the images I used showed their work to it's best.

I thought I was done when someone suggested it might need a map on the back.  Luckily that didn't take too long to add. 

 

It was all put together in free Canva and actually prints out quite well considering. 

If you're looking for Christmas presents maybe pop along for a look.  And if you're reading this after the market you can always visit my online shop.

Blown Hollow Glass Beads with Olga Alianova

The one bead I'm happy with

 

I am totally obsessed with hollow glass beads and have tried many techniques to try and make the perfect hollow beads.

Hollow beads are much harder to create than solid glass beads and there is much less room for error.

Last year I did make a couple of necklaces with hollow beads but while they look great and they are the best I can do with my skills right now (and I am happy with them) they are heavy.  So far all the techniques I've tried have ended up being quite heavy.

I continue on my quest....

Last year I saw this class come up at Tuffnell Glass, but by the time I got myself organised it had sold out!  I was gutted.  So when I saw they were running it again I booked it straight away.

Olga is a very talented bead maker and her hollow beads are amazing - and importantly very light.

The end of Day One

 

So I last weekend I drove all the way up to Yorkshire again and spent two days learning Olga's technique.

As with many things, it looks very simple until you try it yourself and then you find it is much much harder than it looks.  And I wasn't the only one!

So for much of Saturday all I managed to make were bubbles that were much too thin to keep and so went into the glass bin.  It was a very frustrating day.  I am used to having something to show for my efforts by lunch on the first day, but not this time.

The end of Day Two

 

However, by the end of the day I managed to make a couple of beads that weren't too thin and didn't crack when I put them in the cooling beads.  Maybe I was finally getting the hang of it?

On Sunday I went back without much hope.  However, I did manage to make some reasonable beads at last.  My main struggle had been working out when the first bubble of air was coming into the glass.  If you don't stop at the right time it just turns into shards.  So I was given a flexible hose to try so I could see the end of the blow pipe.  Finally I could see what was happening and stop at the right point.

 

I finished Sunday with a couple of beads I'm actually proud of.

And while I might not have the handful of beads I'd normally expect, Olga was very generous sharing her different techniques for decoration, so that's given me lots of ideas too.

Having two days to do this while frustrating was actually really good as it let me work on my techniques without having to worry about taking the dog for a walk or cooking dinner etc.  And by the end of it I could see an improvement.  But if I want to get anywhere like as good as Olga (yeah right!) it will take a lot more practice!  I mean days rather than hours. 

 

So a good weekend even if it was frustrating in places.  It was great to learn a new technique and it's always lovely to spend time with other lampworkers.

Making Marbles With Martin

 

 I've just spent the week in Scarborough with 'im outdoors, the dog and my in-laws.

It was a nice week away, but I think I bemused the in-laws by disappearing for a couple of hours on Monday afternoon so I could take a marble making class.

I've been wanting to try marble making for ages, but didn't have the confidence to do it by myself.  

 

I knew that Martin at Tuffnells Glass does a marble making 1:2:1 but at 2hrs it doesn't really justify the 6hr drive!  However, when I realised we'd be staying a 30min drive away I booked a session. 

Although the rest of the week was quite cool, I still found myself sweating away in a glass studio again!

 

Over the course of the 2hrs I learnt how to make a vortex marble and one with dichroic glass (a glass that changes colour in different light).  Two different techniques but with lovely results. I think my recent classes with Laura helped too.

 Then I had to wait before I could have a proper look as they had to anneal in the kiln.  We went back a couple of days later on the way to Bempton Cliffs (we saw puffins!!) to pick them up. 

 

So they are not round, and one has a dent where I dropped it while melting in the punty mark.  Oops!  But as first go marbles I'm very pleased.  I understand the concept and I'm pretty sure I could do this again at home, although they will probably be smaller with my little torch.  And I think if I had more time I could get the shaping better, but I didn't want to keep 'im outdoors waiting as he came to pick me up.

I can really see how each thing I learn builds on previous skills and improves my skill set as a whole.  And while it can still sometimes be frustrating when things don't work, over all I'm very satisfied with the skills I'm building. 

(They are really hard to photograph.  You can find a video of them on my Instagram.) 

A Lampworking 1:2:1 With Laura Quinn

 What do you do on the hottest day of the year so far?

Spend it with Laura Quinn doing a 1:2:1 lampworking session of course! 

We were due to start at 10:00 but moved it forward to try and miss some of the later heat.  I'm not sure how well that worked.  I was very sweaty - it's hard to do your best work with sweat rolling into your eyes and making your hands slippery.  By the time I left at 4pm it said 38c in the studio!

 

But it was a great day.  I'd asked for a 1:2:1 because I felt like I was really starting to get somewhere with blowing little vases but I really needed someone to just help me fine tune what I was doing.

We started by making 4 tiny vases.  You can see the improvement if you look at them in order.  So much better than what I'd been able to make by myself.  I'm really starting to see how hot I need to get the glass and the angles I need to hold things to get gravity to help me out.

 

After lunch we went up a tube size and I made a tiny glass.

I don't intent to make many glasses, but it was great for improving my technical skill.  Again how hot the glass needs to be.  The angle to hold the reamer.  How to use my diamond shears so I don't twist the glass.

I learnt so much I'm desperate to get into my studio to put it into practice and start to really memorise the different steps.  But it's still a little too hot.  Maybe later in the week. 

 

While a sweaty one, I was a great day.  Laura's a great teacher and so happy to share her knowledge.   

Note: I did manage to get into the studio and I made 5 more vases.  I still need to improve my necks but very happy with what I managed to create. 

But it's made me wonder if I need to upgrade my torch.  While I could work with this size tube, it was a little slow and I think I would struggle with anything bigger.  Something to think about. 

Intro to Borosilicate Glass with Laura Quinn

 

Just before Christmas last year I spent a morning with Laura Quinn and my mate to have a go at making blown baubles.  It was a lovely morning, and as we were leaving Laura started telling us how she was going to offer an intro to borosilicate glass class in the spring.  So of course I signed up.

I have done a little with boroilicate before, but I'd been having a few issues at home (like the petals falling off my flowers) so I was keen to get a little more tuition on this.

 

Laura has transformed her garage into a lampworking studio with room for 4 students.  It's a really nice space and the group size was just right, enough people to talk to but not so many that you didn't get personal attention.

 

The class was over two days.  We started by learning how to make chains.  I made some rectangles and some circles.  I was surprised how easy it was to join them up!

Next up we started making components for flowers - petals and leaves.  We had several techniques to play with here, and I think this is something I want to practice more at home.  My petals were quite fat!

 

On day two we learnt how to put our flowers together.  This was in a slightly different way than I've learnt before, so I think I can now play and take the best from both.

After flowers we learnt how to blow little vases out of glass tube.  I think this was my favourite thing!  I only had time for 2 and I could see the improvement just in that time.

 

Laura also showed us how to make glass rings.  Different from how I make my soft glass rings!

 

And lastly some glass knitting.  Much harder than it looks, but I think I started to get the hang of it towards the end.  

 

So by the end of the weekend I had quite an impressive haul.  And I'd learnt so much!  It was a great environment for learning - very friendly.  I'll be keeping an eye out to see what other classes she offers in the future.

I haven't really been in my studio this year as it's been quite cold and I've not been feeling very inspired.  This was the shove I needed, and now I'm excited to get out there again.  Yay! 

Recycling Broken Glass

 

Whenever I work in glass I always end up with either broken bits or things that didn't work and they all go into a tub.

Last summer I'd finally got to a place where I had enough old glass to think about recycling it.

First I had to give it a wash, then I set up my big kiln with some metal dams set up in a square, poured in all my old scrap and set it to a full fuse.

 

I should point out a couple of things here.  1. I made sure all the glass was the same brand - if you don't do this it not going to end well.  2. I lined my dam with fibre paper so nothing would stick.

Out of my kiln came a very solid slab of colourful glass and I had to think about what to do with it.

 

Later in the year I got a tile saw and a flat lap grinder.  So in the new year with some time on my hands I set about cutting up the slab and then grinding each piece down to take off sharp corners etc.  I then put half into the small kiln for a fire polish. 

 

I learn so much from this process.  For instance, you need to grind open bubbles out or you just get a cloudy mark on the surface.  Don't spend too much time shaping if using a fire polish as they are so thick they will loose their shape a bit.  Be careful using the flat lap, it will grind away your finger nails!

 

So with my second batch I took these learnings on board and tried again.

I've now got some lovely colourful chunks of shiny glass.  7 of these have had silver plated bails added and are now in my shop for sale as pendants.  Lovely chunky statement pieces.

But some of the chunks will be made into rings or brooches.  The only problems, being the price of silver right now and the amount of time I have, makes this harder to sort out.  There are some other lovely metals out there so when I have time I need to decide what I'd like to do.

I love that I am able to use my waste material to make something that hopefully people will like.  It feels much better than just chucking broken glass away. 

  

Viking Chain and Glass Beads

 

One of the gifts I received last Christmas was a kit for making Viking Chain from Abby Hook.

I'm pretty busy right now, so I wasn't sure when I'd have time to try it out, but then it snowed and there was no way I was going into the studio, so I collected some tools and sat in the warm house instead and played with wire.

It was much more straight forward than I thought it would be.  Basically you need to wrap your wire round a dowle and depending on the thickness of your wire and your dowle and if you use 3 or 4 loops will all change how your chain turns out.

It's amazing, as once you've done all you're wrapping you've got quite a solid worm of wire, but then you use the draw plate and suddenly it's thinner, flexible and flowing.

 

I made my first chain using the copper wire in the kit I received.  I then made a second from some thinner purple wire from a job lot I got off Facebook.

Lastly I made a silver chain with some silver coloured thin wire. 

Which is when I realised they needed something extra.  So once the snow recided I did go down to the studio and made some beads.  Amber to go on the copper chain, purple for the purple chain and cream and turquoise for the silver.  I actually tried two different purples, but the dark was best.

 

I pulled the purple chain a little thinner than the silver chain and the beads move around, while the beads on the silver chain can be moved, but won't move by themselves.  I quite like that they sit still.  I like having that control, plus they won't full off when I undo the chain. 

These are fun and easy to make, and nice and light to wear.  I think the silver is my favourate, but I'd wear them all.  I wonder what other colour combo's I can come up with?

Tins With Lids

 

 

You might have seen that I've been learning how to blow hollow beads recently.

Sometimes they go well, sometimes not so much.  And having had a whole batch crack I decided something needed to be done and bought myself some cooling bubbles.

 

The idea of cooling beads is you can immerse your hollow bead in the cooling bubbles and it will cool slowly without cracking.  Hollow beads don't have to sit in the kiln like my solid beads as you're not trying to bring the centre and outer of your bead to the same temperture before cooling.  

But once my cooling bubbles arrived I realised I had nothing to put them in.  Doh!

 

The website suggests a metal sweet tin, which would be perfect, but all the 'tins' we had were plastic (not so good with very hot glass).  I did ask my parents and my in-laws if they had any, but they only had shallow biscuit tins.  No good to get good coverage.

So I went into town after pottery class, and had a look in the charity shops.

The British Heart Foundation had a set of 3 odd shaped cake tins - perfect!  And a steal at only £5.

 

Then I started wondering if I needed some lids.  I asked 'im outdoors if he could make me some very simple wooden lids to stop dust and dirt getting in.  And just look at what he made me out of scrap.

So this is just a reminder, that you don't have to buy brand new to get the things you need.  

 

 

I have used them and they were prefect.