Commissioned, Made, Sold, Photographed……..and cake

My feet have hardly touched the floor this week! Its been very busy, but very good.  I have just finished a 3 piece commission of wedding thank you gifts for the best man and the mother of the groom and bride. I am very pleased with the results and I got to use my new engraving pen! I have listed personalised lily designs on my Folksy shop, you choose the colour and the message engraved on the panel; perfect for wedding gifts or to commemorate special occasions.

I received photos of a recent commission looking beautiful in situ.  I am hopefully starting on a new project with these clients soon.

Following being featured in one of this weeks newsletters from Etsy I have had a real run on my Etsy shop, which has been amazing and I went from having no sales whatever on there to 9 in 48 hours! Needless to say I have been busy making new stock to replace my recent good fortune!

Ah, and finally, I had a brilliant, time with my friend Joe and my family at the Heart of Devon Music Festival on Sunday, it was not the most commercially successful of days, but we had a lovely time, met some lovely people and ate some very nice cake! My kids had a riot (they love a good music festival!). I also had a lovely view from my gazebo

life is still a beach!

Every beach hut trivet I make sells really quickly and people keep buying them to hang on the wall, not put on the dinner table; so I have taken the hint and made a piece of wall art with my unique beach hut style!

I am hoping to make more, when I find some more mirrors to upcycle.

By gluing the stained glass I  mosaic with directly onto the mirror backing the glass gets a gorgeous luminous light effect as the mirror reflects the light back through the glass.

These pieces are available in my Folksy shop

or if you would rather I can make you one especially for you,  to your own requirements!

Bow Music and Craft Festival

My husbands family live in the pretty village of Bow, near Crediton in Devon and this Sunday 31st May,  I will have a stall at their annual music and craft fest! I love a local music festival and Devon does them really well. You are never quite sure who will turn up, I have seen so many cool things from traditional broom dancing (South Zeal) to Seth Lakeman (Dartmouth Music Festival) so I am hoping for some unexpected treats!

My friend and craft co-conspirator Josie-Mary will be with me and it is (on the A3072 between Okehampton and Copplestone. The only info says its:  “a celebration of music, art and crafts. Many local art, craft & produce stalls, refreshments, children’s workshops, licensed bar and live music until 8pm. Headling is ‘Hazaar’ who play traditional Eastern European music. Also performing will be Jonathan Shorland (flutist and pipes), Sleepwalkers (trad & new folk), Tony & Leigh (original folk), The Swamp Gods (folk/punk), Ed & Sherrie (folk & blues) and more. Everything is under cover and entrance is free!”

Local events in Devon are very vibrant and  always a good laugh (think much more music festival and much less twee Church fete), so come along and see us if you are in the depths of Devon this weekend.

The flower photos are just a few I snapped yesterday in the gorgeous spring sunshine!

Being a busy, busy bee, commissions and empty milk cartons and me!

I have been so busy my blog has become quite neglected!

I have a new recycled public art commission, making a sculpture out of empty milk cartons for Dairy Crest, this will be displayed in a Morrissons supermarket and  they are delivering me 300 + empty cartons soon! This is part of their promotion for the new Jugit system, which is intended to reduce the waste from milk cartons by 75% . Here is a rough drawing, but the full effect wont be realised  till I have it in 3D!

I have 2 new commissions, one for a lovely family in Scotland making a mountain scene and another making panels for the grooms gifts for a wedding, 2 lily panels and a train! Both of these commissions will let me use my new toy, I mean tool. I have finally saved up for a really good quality engraving pen and I have been practicing with it. I am very excited about the detail I will now be able to add to my work and it will allow me to personalise items more professionally too.

Craft fair season is in full swing and the Hand Made Home fair in Exeter this weekend was a great success, I sold 25 of my brooches!!! and many other things, thanks everyone who came and supported it!

This Sunday I will be at the Heart of Devon Show, in Bow outside Crediton, so please pop along if you are in the area.

For the rest of the week I am making stock to replace all the stuff I sold last weekend and my Folksy shop has been busy, so there have been lots of trips to the post office!  Its busy, busy, busy, just how I like it!

OH and my new Indie Smiles article was published yesterday, writer with the most comments wins a prize, so please go read it and comment away!

A Lotta Heart!

My 50 hearts order is all finished and they are looking lovely! Here is a sneaky peak of some of them………If you would like one for yourself, there are others listed in my Folksy shop

Big feature in a magazine!!!!

My how to make stained glass bunting is in Making Crafts this month, and its looking good!!!

You can buy the mag from the news agents if you want to see how or you can buy some from my Folksy shop

Teeny, tiny beach huts

As well as finishing the remaining 18 hearts of my 50 heart order (at last) I have also made some very small leaded suncatchers as small gifts for my Folksy shop and I am really pleased with how they have turned out!

Inspiration at Politmore House

We spent the day at Poltimore House today (just outside Exeter, on the way to Broadclyst),  drawn by the fantastic plant sale they have there annually and we love the overgrown walks through the wild flower woods. The ghosts of the past and the houses former glory hang heavy in the air and the atmosphere is a strange combination of hope for the future and a melancholy edge that comes from a derelict house, especially such a grand one!

The house and grounds are being slowly restored by the dedicated trust of local people who are trying to bring the derelict house and grounds back to good condition and make it a centre for the arts.  Its a big dream of mine to have one of the future art studios for my workplace in a few years time when they convert the house into studios!

Anyway, the semi wild gardens are hugely inspirational to me, as are the small areas of decaying grandure left int he house and I hope to make some designs from the photos I took today of the house and grounds

Life’s a beach

I seem to have the seaside on the brain this week. I am longing for the good weather to be back! so I am imagining myself there with lots of colourful designs, but a bit of shelter from the wind, I finished this one today and will make the other designs tomorrow, hopefully!

beach huts and lilies

Oh it has been a busy old week! I am still making my large shop order, it is epic!

But I have squeezed in the time to make these 2 items, which are now available in my folksy shop

The beach huts are made from recycled stained glass and each pot stand/trivet is a unique little piece of table art.

The lily is one of my most popular designs and I have cut it from a single piece of beautiful smokey streaky glass that is finished with an iridescent sheen.