April Showers!

My May Blog post has arrived early. The grizzley weather in the UK and a day off mean that I have time to sit down and tell you my news.  

First things first... I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has bought from me during April, I had a crazy month and it was so exciting to feel that people where liking what I am creating and are not being detered in buying by all the doom and gloom that our various ecomonies are heaping on us.  A few colourful beads is what everyone needs to cheer themselves up and I have been buying some too!!

So what news..........

Prior to my trip to the US earlier in the year I made myself a lovely big necklace with big chunky beads in lots of lovely colour that all measured in the region of 35mm in diameter (3.5cm) so it made a real statement. 

 I was asked so many times if it was for sale that I sat down when I got home and started making similar beads to sell and the option of buying a bespoke one in colours of your choice.  My first commission one was black and white which was a hard one for me....I love colour and most of my work is full of colour so this pushed me to the limit, but I really enjoyed it as I had to think much more about pattern than I sometimes do with colour and I was really pleased with the result.

 

I then had a customer who wished to make her own up so she bought beads over the course of a week as I uploaded them.  I found this really interesting as some I would have chosen for a bespoke random colour necklace but some I would not have so it showed me an entirely different combination of beads to my own.  These beads and the ball chain necklace are going to be a permanant fixture in my Etsy shop as they are proving really popular.  I am going to endeavour to upload a few a day which means that there will be ongoing choice for everyone.

 I have always loved creating big mandala style glass wheels and have up untill recently always tried to stick with colours that don't react against each other or bleed or web as I felt that comprimised the design.

I have tried experimenting with colours that actually react together and can cause some interesting effects and these new wheels have also proved very popular......

I love the way some glasses react creating lines that almost look like they have been painted or drawn onto the bead and the slight smudgy effect which also looks like it has been painted on rather than being created in the flame.

I also had a delivery of cupcake murrine.  A Facebook friend of mine had a beautiful Airedale Terrier who sadly passed away after a battle with illness.  At the end of her life the only thing that she could be tempted to eat was cupcakes so when I saw that Lori Peterson had created some cupcake murrine I bought some straight away and made my friend a 5mm pandora style bead to have on her bracelet as a reminder of Ruby.  

 

I had a few murrines left over so decided to do something abit mad with it and this big P!nk Sputn!ck was born!!

So there we are I have written far more than I usually would...I hope you are still with me?  So onto Milly my Lakeland.....she has to feature in my blog each month it has become abit of a tradition.

So we have had the UK Flame Off in April organised by Tuffnell Glass It is a great place to meet other flameworkers, buy lots of glass and watch some international and uk artists demonstrate their skills.  One of those artist was Claudia Trimbur Pagel who makes the most lovely beads with meticulous stringer work (fine lines of glass) and she makes great DOGS!!  I had to have one and this one just reminded my so much of my Milly!

 I think it is the ears!!

Thank you for reading my blog and Happy Melting to all  you Flameworkers out there :0)