What Do You Do With A Mountain Of Scrap Glass?

That is the question I really started asking myself a few weeks ago as I was starting to accumulate so much it was taking over one of my cupboards.  Being a bit of a magpie it was definately too pretty to just chuck in the bin so I had to think of other options.  Mosaics was the simple answer of course, except I’d never tried mosaic work before.

Time to learn another skill 🙂

I decided that I would start out with some fairly easy things and make some little mug and cup stands plus a few candle stands as well.  As luck would have it our old windows were being replaced with new double glazing and the window fitters were more than happy to let me have some of the old glass to use as the backing. Out came the glass cutter, the dining room table became a temporary work surface and pretty soon I had a small supply of  coaster blanks.

Now I’m not the kind of person who can just do something which is simple and easy to make… I always have to do something a ‘tad’ more complicated than that and my first mosaic was no exception 🙂 and here is is!

One Apple Coaster which is perfect for standing your mugs or cups on or you could use it as a candle stand.

Considering it was my first ever attempt I was quite pleased with it…  And promptly went on to make another 3!

 

 

 

Oh Dear…

Ok, so I’ve been really naughty the last few months and I’ve seriously neglected my blog 😦 but all that is about to change. I’ve got lots of new ideas and awful lot of things to tell you about but one thing at a time.

Summer, yep, summer! It’s on the way, I can feel it in my bones. Well, actually the finger tips which don’t get frozen every day on the way into work now. The sound of the bees buzzing and the birds twittering has cheered me up no end and I’ve got ideas galore buzzing round in my head.

Here is a bit of a taster.

Now, back to work 🙂

Holiday To Do List.

Ok, so I’m on holiday from my day job for the week :-), my children are off to their dad’s for this week which leaves just me and my OH (and the pets!) here for some R&R.  My OH is planning on doing some work on a bike and I have a few plans of my own.  Here is my to-do-list for the week 🙂

1. Cut a whole load of glass for some Star designs I have in mind.  I’ve already drawn out the templates for a load of it but have a lot more to do.
2. Make some more of my Mini Christmas Trees as they are proving popular and I’m almost out of them.
3. Design and make quite a few more additions for my jewellery range.  Again I’ve got a load of glass cut already and another 4 pieces ready to be put together on my desk.
4. Make more of the Christmas decorations I already have listed.
5. Finish my brand new website ready for its launch on the 1st November.
6. Make the other Christmas designs I’ve come up with.
7. Make the Birthstone Suncatchers for the months I’m missing at present so I have gift ideas for each month of the year.
8. Carry on promoting on Facebook, Twitter and all the other promotional tools I use.
9. List all the new items in my Folksy shop as I make them, as well as on my new website.
10. Take new photos of some of my items when my new light box arrives 🙂
11. Find time to relax and chill somewhere along the line 🙂

This is just the things I can think of off the top of my head right now, no doubt I’ve forgotten a few and I’ll add them as the week goes by.  I’ll also update through the week as to how I get on 🙂

I’ve Bought Myself A Pressie!

Ok, so maybe it was a pressie for all the stained glass pieces I’m going to make over the coming months.  MerryBerry on Folksy started a thread about the light box she received as a gift on her birthday, and posted a link to it and mentioned that Maplin are offering £10 off until the 25th October 2011.

I’ve run into a few difficulties on cloudy days trying to take decent photos of my glass work as it doesn’t look too good in cloudy weather, and as for trying to photo it under room lights, the photos are absolutely awful.  And using a flash isn’t an option either!

So I toddled off to Maplin.. Ok, so I clicked on the link from the comfort of my sofa and I went for a look.  The light box is currently on offer for £29.99 which I think is a great price for what I need it for.  So I popped back to check MerryBerry’s photo of her felt business card holder again and decided to buy it.  Maplin take Paypal 🙂 and deliver for a small charge within 3 working days so next week I’m going to have a new toy to play with.

I reckon it’s going to perfect for photographing my new stained jewellery range and I can use it for the majority of the rest of my glass work too.  I’ll have to take some comparison photos and pop them on here once I’ve had a play with it.

Stained Glass Dragonfly Pendant

Best Laid Plans? Forget it!!!

Ok.. If you read my post two days ago you will know I had a ‘few’ things to do this weekend but, as with ‘best laid plans’ and all that, things didn’t go quite the way I wanted.  My day didn’t get off to quite the start I anticipated as I was feeling a tad lazy in the cold hard light of day and I spent the morning snuggled up in bed finishing the new Terry Pratchett book, Snuff.  I couldn’t help myself!  I bought it on Thursday and wanted to finish it to see what happened.  It was a great read and I’ll be reading it again very soon!

Snuff

After finishing reading, just after midday (ok, so I was feeling VERY lazy!), I contemplated the novel for a few moments while gazing at the cover (as you do!) and then leaping into action (ok, so I fib a bit and it was more of a slide out of bed actually!), I got up, got dressed and heading downstairs armed myself with another cup of coffee, and set about my jobs for the day.  The Guinea Pig cage was soon moved and is now standing on four bricks in the garden to keep the wood off the wet ground over the winter.  An assortment of bike parts were shuffled over to stand beside their donor, the ground was swept and it was time to head inside and tackle the Gixxer!

The work of a few minutes had the dining table and chairs moved out of the way leaving me with access to the back door.  The bike was turned with some difficulty with my daughter holding the bars to keep her upright, and me lifting her by the back wheel and shuffling her bum round a few inches at a time.   Then it was a case of trying to do a 7 point turn (!!!) in my living room, which really wasn’t helped as the front brakes are partly seized, but I persevered and after a short time she was pointed at the back door.  Then the penny dropped, making a huge clang as it did!  The bike looked too wide!  A tape measure soon confirmed my worst fears.  The bars were 4″ too wide to get through the door and I knew in my sinking heart that no amount of wriggling, twisting or coming at the door at an angle was going to get that bike through the back door.  I did think about removing the door itself to get a little bit more room but thought that was going a little far!  I must admit I did swear a little bit at that point but not too much 😉

Note to self:  In future measure the bike before you start anything like this! 😉

So I hatched plan B 🙂

I’d take her out front door, after all she came in this way so she would fit out again 🙂

More bike shuffling ensued and soon she was turned with her bum pointed at the living room door.  It wasn’t without incident as I managed to wedge her and me against the dining room table, with her at about a 45 degree angle and me on the verge of collapse under her.  I’d forgotten to lift the side stand before I moved her!  It was in exactly the wrong place as it got stuck against the table leg and I couldn’t tilt her enough to get the stand over the table leg.  Thankfully my daughter soon lifted the offending side stand and saved her poor mum from being squished on the living room floor under the bike.

Getting her out through the living room and front doors was almost a breeze compared to my escapades in the living room and thankfully she was soon out of the house and parked outside the garage.  Getting her into the garden was going to have to wait until my partner got home as I felt I was on the verge of busting a gut at that point and was desperately in need of a lie down (again!) and more coffee.

I want to know whose bright idea was it to bring the bike into the house in the first place?

Oh yeah, I remember….. It was mine!

Another Busy Weekend?

Hmm.. After a busy week at work it’s looking like I’m in for a busy weekend too!  Here’s my potential ‘to do’ list.

1.  Move the Guinea Pig cage in the garden and pop it up on bricks on the grass so it doesn’t rot over the winter.

2.  Sweep up where the cage stood.

3.  Move the dining room table and chairs, and a new cupboard so I have unimpeded access to the back door.

4.  Attempt to move my Suzuki GSXR750 project bike out into the garden from it’s place by the living room window.

5.  Skin my knuckles on the door frame trying to get the handle bars out through the door.

6.  Probably swear a lot as it might not fit out through the door.

7.  Kick the bike.

8.  Swear some more!

9.  ‘Make’ the bike fit!

10.  Park the bike in the garden and collapse in a heap on the grass for a rest.

11.  Have several cups of coffee

12.  Rearrange my work area now the bike is gone.

13.  Make the new Christmas decorations and Chakra suncatcher I have planned 🙂

14.  Hopefully enjoy the rest of my weekend 🙂

I’ll let you know how I get on!

Busy Weekend?

Yes, you could say that.

In between my ‘housewifely’ duties I’ve bought my Guinea Pigs in for the winter, as it’s starting to cool down outside now and I don’t want them out in the cold.  Here they are all lined up on my sofa 🙂

Mischief, Mayhem, Susan and Judy

I’ve also made 35 Christmas Tree decorations this weekend too, 30 were my Beaded Decorations in Red, Blue and Gold

Beaded Christmas Tree Decorations

I’ve also made 5 of my Christmas Angels in a beautiful pale mauve glass, but I’ve yet to take a photo of them to pop in my Folksy shop.

My biggest news of the week so far is that I’m going to be launching my own website!  I decided about a week ago that it would be the way to go, so I’ve signed up to the provider I want to go with, I’ve purchased my domain name and I’m now busily sorting everything out.  It’s just great and I’m really enjoying myself as I’m popping all my stock into it’s new ‘home’.  I have a 30 day free trial to enable me to set everything up correctly and once everything is done the way I want I shall be launching it properly.  Watch this space for more details 🙂

October Birthday Gift Ideas

I’ve always loved the idea of birthstone gifts, mine is Emerald as I was born in May, and when I started working with glass I decided that I would design and make a range of birthstone inspired gifts.  One of the birthstones for October is Rose Zircon and I sourced some beautiful pale pink shades of glass which was perfect for my range.  The sun always looks stunning as it shines through stained glass, as you can see from these photos, but this pale pink glass is particularly beautiful.

As always, if you would like more information on the pieces shown please click on the photos.

Rose Stars & Curls Suncatcher

Rose Zircon Suncatcher

Rose Zircon Suncatcher

I Take My Hat Off To Bead Workers!

I’ve been working on some new Christmas decoration designs for the last few evenings, designs which started out to be quite a simple idea in my head but developed (as they do :-S ) into something a little more complex!  The idea was to have some hanging squares with a little bit of wire work on them to embellish them, and a ribbon to finish them off. Fairly simple but beautifully effective.

So there I was cutting and foiling the squares and I started thinking “Maybe a few beads would look good on them too” and then I remembered that I had some tiny silvery beads I’d bought for another project knocking around somewhere.  So I hunted them out and got out all my other beads (I have a few!), and my findings and started fiddling.. As you do.. Within about 10 minutes I needed my glasses as I couldn’t see a flippin thing and I was already starting to go cross-eyed.  So glasses on I went back to work and as I worked I thought about those who do beadwork for a business or hobby.

Red Beaded Christmas Decoration

I take my hat off to you all!

These beads are tiny and I’m damn sure they have a life of their own!  They will ping off somewhere of their own accord, without my glasses I couldn’t see properly, and they are so flipping fiddly to work with.  How do you not lose the plot working with them all the time?  I’ve made 10 decorations so far, red and green, and still have blue and gold to go!  You must have the patience of a saint to work with them all the time!

I’ve used beads on some of my birthstone suncatchers but I’ve not tried using them in this way before and having done just this little bit of bead work in the last few days it’s really made me appreciate how much time and effort must go into your work.

Green Beaded Christmas Decoration

As a result I’ll now look at bead work with a fresh perspective, having realised what actually goes into it 🙂

Christmas Decorations 2011

I’ve been quite excited about making Christmas decorations for months now (I think I need to get out more!!) and have made up quite a few of my ideas already.  I’ve got quite a few more ideas as well yet so expect more over the next month or so, but in the meantime here is a little show of the ones I’ve made so far 🙂

If you click on the photos you will be taken to my little Folksy Shop where you will find more information 🙂

I hope you like the ones I’ve shown so far and will post about the new ones I’ll be making as soon as they are ready for sale.