Bubbling under the Sea!

January and another year begins and I have had a great start, I have a few courses lined up for this year and the first one was with a glass artist I admire greatly : Diana East .  I had been drooling over her mini seascape paperweights for some time and my husband organised a one to one course for me which was fantastic.  These photos are what I produced in class.  I came home brimming with excitement and ideas and went straight to the studio to experiment with the techniques we had covered which included these, some blown Boro beads, Fuming and Cane making.

Here are the first attempts!  All the pieces you see within are premade and then positioned and the whole design encased in clear.  It takes time to produce the little gizmos to make up the design and then you have to get the clear over them without melting them in the heat.......

I found myself waking up in the night thinking 'Hey maybe I could include that!'  A while ago I bought a tutorial on how to make Jellyfish from Mary Lockwood and thought it would be fun to try and incorporate one into the design It worked well :

Whilst I was on the course Di had also shown me how to make a little clam to put inside so I had a play with that to

 These little paperweights are really addictive I am loving playing with the designs

I have also been experimenting with some other ideas which are very much work in progress but this will give you a clue.   I think you could make some lovely pendants and ring toppers with this technique, I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head!  I am also on the verge of upgrading my kit so the extra charge of Oxygen should improve things too so watch this space!!

I was also given a book by another artist I admire hugely : Stephanie Sersich and as I had a pile of orphan beads from last year I sat down and made a couple of necklaces using her techniques:

It is so clever, actually weaving the beads into the design which makes them really secure and I really like the button detail from the clasp

It also worked well for just a single focal bead like the one below

February should be an exciting month too I have a course booked with Anouk Jaspere and I have my new Oxcycon and hopefuly my new GTT Lynx Torch arriving.

On the home front it has been a certain young lady's second birthday so we had a meet up of 6 Lakelands on the beach to celebrate!

Here are three of them Milly at the rear!  Thank you for visiting my blog and hope to see ya next month!

Jennie ;0)