Fused Nautilus Bathroom window

Delivered this panel today and the customers seemed really pleased with it, which is always good!

The design brief was simple: bright, jewel like colours, based on a Nautilus/spiral design and to obscure the existing patterned sealed glass unit which the panel is to be fixed in front of.

At 63 cm across, its the biggest fused piece I have made and many thanks to Ray Boundy at Glowworm Glass for the hire of his kiln and watching it for me! I kept the colour scheme simple and bright and by leaving small gaps between the coloured pieces the design has an orderly segmented feel. I have brought in more flowing, organic feel to the piece by putting a powder between the sheets of glass; this reacts with the glass when heated in the kiln making small bubbles within the 2 layers of glass. I have printed patterns in glass paint on the reverse by drip painting and then sponge printing with transparent paint, this gave the glass lots of texture, helping to disguise the existing patterned glass.  The darker red, blue and green areas have been acid etched. To do this I printed small circles onto the glass with PVA glue (using various pen lids as stampers) and the glue acted as a resist to the acid wash, which has frosted the glass.

The panel will rest in the existing window frame and be secured in place with a few small screws and some sealant; so easily adding great interest to a bland bathroom and getting another layer of glazing as a bonus!

Preparing for Exeter Open Studios 2013

Its only a couple of weeks until Exeter Open Studios 2013 and my studio is a slightly frantic hive of activity! The big clear out happened this week, I have no idea how it gets so full of rubbish and where the piles of random stuff comes from, but its a good chance to get really ship shape and its much nicer going to work in a clean and tidy space!

I am still finishing off the pieces for the accompanying Gloss Gallery Exhibition of works and I haven’t even got to the framers yet! BUT I have done some successful castings in paper clay moulds and I am really pleased with the resulting dragonflies (which I will glue on to the finished leaded panel) and my latest lino cuts are finally looking how I want them too.

It looks like it is going to be an excellent Open Studios event with lots of local artists opening their doors to the local public, so if you are in the Exeter area please come and say hi and see if I ever finished any of these works in progress! If you would like to download a map just click here  and if you would like to see who all the other artists are please click here 

Pretty glass scraps looking for a good home!

glass pieces up for grabs!

VALENTINE GIVE AWAY!!!

I have lots of pretty hand painted glass scraps up for grabs for anyone who might have a use for them!

I just completed a large order of lace hearts, I paint off cuts of art glass with patterns based on Honiton lace, bond the paint permanently to the glass in the kiln and then cut out the heart shapes…..this leaves me with lots of pretty scraps. I have no need for these, but they are too pretty to throw away.

SO if you have a good use for these (I am guessing this is one for mosaic artists) then they are yours for free! Just leave a comment to say what you would make with them (and obviously a contact address) and I will choose my fav idea and send them to the recipient, easy as that.

Some of the pieces are very small, mostly they are around 2-3 cm in width, all uneven sizes and because they are glass they are sharp! I have about 1 kg, so it could make a good project!

From snow to rainforest

Took our annual pilgrimage to Eden Project yesterday, it is only an hour or so drive from our house and we like to go in January with our old friends for a spot of ice skating and to heat up in the tropical bio domes!

Yesterday I needed to take LOTS of photos of olive trees in the Mediterranean Dome for a new commission I am working on for Olive Tree Therapies  a gorgeous new beauty salon in Exeter (more of that another day) but I also did lots of snapping in the other, bigger dome.

Snowy day on the Moors

I love it when it snows and always get very excited; as do my children! We watched the rest of the country get snow….indeed it did snow in Exeter, but it didn’t settle. So by this morning we were desperate to find some snow.

We didn’t have to look far, Castle Drogo  was a winter wonderland today and we had a great time sledging in the deserted peace of the magical castle on Dartmoor.

The light was really unusual today. I often find this in the South West, there is something in the damp misty air which transfuses light in a unique, sometimes eerie way and I got to take lots of photos, which to me is the modern day sketch book. I take lots of photos and refer back to them often.

New directions for 2013

The Christmas and rush and New Year lull have passed and I am slowly working out what this year has in store!

I have a couple of great commissions to get started on and lots of exhibitions lined up for later in the year, but this week is all about printing on glass. I have been experimenting with this for sometime now and I have joined a print artist collective at TAAG in Teignmouth to help me get back on my printing feet (its been a long time since I used these techniques).

I am quite pleased with some of the results, see what you think, they are direct mono prints, lino cut prints and block prints using polystyrene and foam.

Four little birds to give away!

handmade glass birds

I have had these little fella’s hanging around in my studio for ages, they are lovely, but a bit too delicate to sell. But enough of my friends and customers have commented on how much they like them for something to happen to them; so I have decided it is give away time!

The birds are made from green and kingfisher blue glass painted with copper paints which have been fired in the kiln and they are edged in thin lead and have little wire feet and crests soldered on. They will look great hanging on a tree or in a sunny window, but they don’t like to be bent so need to be treated a little bit carefully!

handmade glass birds

To win one of these all you need to do is follow me on twitter and tweet about the give away or follow me on Facebook and share this blog post. I will pick 4 winners at random (I usually get my 4 year old to point at some lucky likers/followers) on the 1st December 2012 so they will be with their new owners before Christmas!

Good luck!