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. 

Casting Glass Half Sphere Paperweights

 

As you might have noticed I love playing with glass.  One of the techniques I've tried but not really mastered is casting.  So I was quite excited to see Warm Glass offering a casting class in their Glass School.

 

Casting glass half spheres with Silvia Levenson, took us through the whole process of making a mould, filling it with glass, adding designs and finishing it off. 

During 3 live calls over 3 weeks she shared her knowledge, inspiration and answered all our questions.  And with a week between each call we could, in theory, join in.

 

I did try, but work kept getting in the way.  But while I didn't keep up, I have now completed my first attempt and I really want to have another go as I have lots of ideas going forward.

 

I ended up making 6 half spheres as I had enough materials and a kiln big enough to take them.

Making the moulds and doing the first fire with glass billet was quite straight forward.  But then I had to cut some glass circles and it took me a little while to get the courage up to try that.  In the end it was pretty straight forward, helped by the fact I bought myself a circle cutter. 

Next step was to decorate some of the circles for each half sphere.  I would have loved to try a stencil, but I didn't have any and didn't have time to find any.

 

So in two I added one of my glass leaves.  In one I tried to make a landscape. In a couple I used decals.  I did add some gold stars but they burnt off which was disappointing.  (something to remember for next time).

 

I wasn't sure what to do with the last one, so I used some bubble powder.  I had no idea what it would do or how much to use (I think I over did it).  But I do love the result!

I have so many other ideas that I want to try now! 

 

I really enjoyed this project.  It stretched my but in a good way and I definitive want to have another go.  The only problem is how long you have to wait before being able to open the kiln.  With such large chunks of glass they have to cool very very slowly so they don't crack.  I hated waiting!

Peony Paper Flower Making Workshop

 While I don't do so much with paper these days, it is where I started and I still love it as a material to work with.

I can't remember if I've mentioned the Makers Barn on here before or not, but it is a fanstastic place and I keep an eye on their workshops, because they tend to be a little unusual but very good. 

There is also a local lady who makes paper flowers that sells them at the Makers Barn, but every time I've been they have been sold out.  So when I saw she would be doing a class at the Makers Barn on making paper peonies I had to sign up.  Her flowers are amazing!

 

So this weekend I spend the morning in the Barn with Rachel Southon and 5 other ladies and learnt how to make a peony.

Rachel dyes her own crepe paper for her flowers and the range we had to chose from was wonderful.  While I was very tempted by a deep purple/red, I ended up with a much paler pink.

 

She then talked us through the process step by step.  After a stressful busy week, it was so nice to sit in the quite calm barn, filled with beautiful handmade things, while cutting and glueing paper. 

We had a range of abilities in the group, but there was no stress.  Help was given as needed and Rachel was a great teacher sharing tips and tricks as we went. 

 

And after 3 and a half hours we all had a peony.  While they were all different, they were also beautiful.  I am so chuffed with mine.  Such a lovely way to spend a morning.

The only thing to spoil it was realising I'd left all my template behind in my excitement over my flower. 

Copper Foiled Leaf Box

 When I first came across copper foiling I was excited by the idea of being able to create boxes in glass.

However, that was before I realised quite how hard it is to get things to sit at the right angles as you solder them, and how hard it is to make changes.  It's quite a challenging process.

 

Last year I cut all my glass to size for a simple glass box.  I used a 'coaster' blank and fused one of my glass leaves to it, and used that sizing for the rest of the box.

Then I foiled it and solder it and it ended up with a terrible mess - the lid wouldn't open and when I forced it, it ripped all the foil off!

 

I pulled all the rest of the foil off, then left it in a sad little pile in the studio.

Following on from Lauras class last week, I wanted to get back into the studio, but to do that it needed a good tidy.  And I had to decide what to do with my 'box'.

I decided to have another go.  I cleaned all the glass and stuck on new foil.  I'd read a bit about how to make boxes over Christmas, so had another go at putting it together.

Success!

 

It's not great, but it shows the concept does work, and it's a cute box.  With a bit of practice I think I could improve my technique and be more confident with the end result.

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! 

More Bears Called Cyril

 

I've got a bit of a thing for bears.  So while I was struggling with motivation to get into my studio this winter while it was cold and wet, I set about making another couple of bears using my Cyril pattern.

I first made Cyril in 2016 and he came out really well.  I'd found some mohair on offer last year and decided to buy it so I could make another, I just wasn't sure when that would be. 

 

As I was going through my stash to find bear joints and eyes etc, I also found some other long haired material - so soft! and decided to make two bears at the same time.

It's taken a couple of months as I've only been using my Saturday afternoons, and making two is a lot slower than one.

 

Mohair Cyril went very well, except for one paw pad that split when I turned it the right way round!

Fluffy Cyril was a pain in the a**!  I got covered in fluff every time I touched it and there was so much fluff it was hard to actually sew the parts together.  I had to trim his fur after I put him together to give him some definition, and he's still just a fluffy blob!

 

I still think original Cyril is my fav, but these two are still fun.  I nice size to hold and I've weighted them so they feel a good weight too.  If they were bigger I'd love to add a growler.

And I think I've got enough mohair to make another one!  Maybe next year. 

Stash Busting Powdermill Cardigan

 A couple of years ago I crocheted a blacket.  I very much love this blanket and still use it most days to keep my knees warm in our old cold house.

At the end of the project I had a bunch of part balls of yarn left over (Stylecraft Special DK with names like Fondant, Spice, Violet, Pistachio and Fucshia) but I wasn't sure what to do with them.  I just kept them together and put them in my stash.

 

Then last year I knitted the Powdermill Cardigan and as I knitted, I couldn't help but wonder what it would look like using the colours from the blanket. 

The thought kept nagging at me, so I gave in and had a look at the bag of part balls to try and work out if there would be enough yarn to do it.  It was hard to tell, but what's the worst that would happen, I'd have to buy more wool!

So I set out to knit another Powdermill Cardigan, but this time from the stash.  Except my needle broke, so I had to buy a new one first! 

 

Eventually I got started.  I was originally going to blind pick my colours, but I wanted to keep the dark stripe/light stripe of the original pattern and that needed a little bit of planning to make sure it would work.  So I ended up planning the colours more than I had wanted.  (and this slowed me down as it was a hard decision to make EVERY. SINGLE. STRIPE.)

However, there were a few rules.  Colours that had touched before shouldn't touch again if possible.  And if they did I couldn't have three in a row.  I used the buttermilk as the colour to pull it all together as it had in the blanket and as the dark grey had in the orginal cardigan.  Lastly there should be a reasonable gap between the use of a colour so it didn't get bunched up. 

 

As I had limited amounts of the colours I decided against having all the edges match, to make sure I didn't run out.  But I did in fact run out of one colour - the buttermilk!  Luckly I was able to get a new ball at the local wool shop - a perfect match.

I also tried a new way to finish the front openings.  In the last cardigan I used a ribbon sewn in, but it took ages and didn't look the best.  This time I attempted a steek sandwich.  It needed a little tweaking but actually worked very well.  It also meant I learnt a new way to pick up stitches - much easier than I had been doing - but of course I only learnt how to do this on the last time of needing to pick up stitches.

 

I decided against buttons and button holes.  I have a shawl pin if needed.  

I adore how bright this cardigan is.  I love how well the colours sit together.  And if I leave it on my chair it merges into the blanket. LOL.

Might try something a little smaller/less challenging next... 

Printing Workshop

 

As some of you might be aware, I am slowly building a business as a creative coach.

Because of this I was looking for some inspirational posters to be hand printing for me by someone local.

Asking at my local Arts and Craft Society I was pointed in the direction of Type Tom.

 

Looking on his website, I very much liked his style of work so asked if he could print me some posters.  But he said no, would you like to print them youself?

If you know me at all, that is not the sort of offer I could turn down.

 

So this weekend I went down to Bognor to his workshop and spent the morning printing a set of 4 different posters in my brand colours!

He's also made me a logo block so we could emboss the corner of each poster to show it was mine. 

 

It was great to learn a bit about letterpress printing, before selecting the type from a wonderful selection of wooden type sets, laying it all out and printing it.  It was really hands on, so how I came away with only one smudge of green on me I have no idea! 

And I ended up with a box of posters ready to use as I see fit.

 

I'm sort of hoping I use them up quickly so I can go back and have another go!