Bright Lights!!

I was sorting out some pendants today to send up to Bluebird Beads in Lancaster - the lovely Georgia is trying out a few more of my pendants in her shop.

Last time I sent some up I forgot to photograph them (I know, silly me) so I made sure I did so today.

It can be quite difficult to photograph glass sometimes. You cannot always capture the depth of colour, and of course, by nature it's often highly reflective - the last thing you want to see when you're looking at my pendants is me and my camera looking back at you!

Most of the items I selected today are made from one of my favourite types of glass, irridised - it shines and sparkles beautiful colours, which show subtle changes depending on the angles. I love its surprises.

It was early evening when I was taking the photographs - the sun was low enough that my gigantic sized parasol had no effect whatsover, so I took refuge in the shade from the fence - however that meant that my glass was picking up reflections from the house.

I really must get myself a light tent (I am sure I can make one actually if I put my mind to it!)

Anyway, I've put this first one in as I loved the group composition - unfortunately, the white pendant got completely bleached out as the camera couldn't cope with getting the light right for every pendant - not even Photoshop can tweak the white blob back into something resembing a pendant in anything other than shape.



Just to prove that I haven't managed to make a pendant that would light up Wembley Stadium, I'll finish up with some individual pics of some of the seven pendants I will be sending to sunny Lancaster.

Hot Stuff!

Well, the day has been - not the glass (a few weeks ago I had a mass making week, kiln was on almost constantly for four or five days, and my house was SO warm - I should do all my fusing in winter, reduce my heating bills!

I do need to do some more fusing, but it has been far to warm for that. So, instead I was going to sort out my pieces, get everything photographed and post a few more on here (and update my website).

But in the end, I have not done a lot today - took my son swimming, him and his friend were in the pool for THREE hours (mind you, I was tempted to jump in myself!) - and because we (they) were in the pool for so long, the cafeteria had closed. So we took a walk to the local chip shop and then spent the rest of the afternoon at the park - it was lovely, but boy it was hot!

So not been a particularly productive day at all - hey ho!

Something old, something new....

Well, people who know me from Frit Happens might have seen some of my stuff, but I am noticing visitors from other places now (I am loving that Live Feed!).

So, over the next few days I will publish a few photographs of some of the work I have done in the past - to some, it will be "old", but some visitors to the blog (or my website) they will be new pieces.



This was my first pair of coasters that I made a few weeks ago - not sure the photo shows their true beauty, they are irridescent and reflect beautiful colours. I just love Bullseye glass!





This plate took some doing, and kinda developed as it went along - I had a problem with the underside not coming out totally clear, so I ended up sandblasting the whole of the reverse - but I love the effect. The plate is really shiny on the surface, and frosted underneath, but because of the thickness of the glass, the pattern on the top looks like its floating - now I know how to get this effect, I can try that again!

Construction Time is Over....

Well, nearly, anyway.

I've spent a good amount of time over the last few days tweaking my webpages and checking that everything functions as it should.

It now seems to do so, and I am about to "reveal" my site to the people on the Frit Happens Forum - a wonderful crowd of people who hopefully will give me lots of feedback as to what they think of it.

I know there is still work to do, but hopefully how that the framework is in place, it is simply a matter of me updating images and so on.

Wish me luck!

Anybody speak HTML?

Well, on and off for the last few days, I have been trying to sort out my website.

Of course, instead of just getting a tutorial, learning about style sheets and HTML code, I have to be awkward and try and teach myself, don't I?

But step by step, by trial and error, I am getting there I think. I have worked out how to get pictures with clickable thumbnails on, and I am beginning to work out how to use the style sheet (that the lovely Julie set up for me) - still lots of tweaking to be done, but at least I can now start updating the site.

Here it is if you want to take a look:

www.handmadebydawn.co.uk

Now all I have to do is work out how to make that (points above) a proper link.......

(edited one minute later as I found out how to do that!)

Last one for now!

This is one of my favourites and was from the first ever batch I did in my own kiln at home - this is before I made it into a pendant, and its one I wear a LOT.

I used a combination of glass and copper foil - now that does some strange things in the kiln, copper - sometimes it goes reddish-purple, and other times it goes a blue colour, like here - although in certain lights it still reflects back more red than blue.

If you look closely at this one, you can see a fingerprint on the top surface - hence why this one never made it for sale (although, honestly, quite a few don't make it for sale because I end up wanting them for myself!) - I was concerned about it, but the lovely peeps over on Frit Happens! said it was individual and like a signature - the mark of the maker! Doubt I will be leaving finger prints in all my work though!

Dennis the Menace...

Well, what else?

Chequers

This is one of the first pendants I made in my own kiln at home - my good friend Claire nearly snatched my hand off after this one.....

Again, some of my favourite glass, irridised, and a clever juxtaposition of different textures (big word, huh - wikipedia anyone?)

Good mood today!

I'm a happy bunny this afternoon - I've had two e-mails, from friends I met recently from the beading world, to say they have received, and are very happy with their pendants. That always puts a smile on my face.

I thought I would show you a bit of what I do - this is a pendant I made a few months ago, using one of my favourite types of glass, irridised. It has a sterling silver bail and currently lives on a silver plated snake chain.

I am not sure yet how to get the photos where I want them in a post, so I will have to post seperate blogs for now for each pic.

Boring, boring.....

Well, its the nicest morning I have seen so far for ages, it's probably going to stay sunny all day, and where am I? Hmm, helping out in some dingy, no-windowed office...... grrrr.

My First Blog

Hello there

Well, I hadn't really considered setting up a blog before - heck, I can't even get my website properly up and running, never mind do this.

But I met some lovely people from the beading world the other day, many of who had blogs, and one of them asked me if I had a blog.

Then my brother to tell me he now blogs too, so I have to keep up, don't I?

So, I am not sure what I am going to do with my blog yet - whether it will be a personal one, or a glassy, related to my art, blog - I think I might just have to make it up as I go along. I might even get more than one blog going (because I really don't spend enough time in the t'internet already.....)

So, I will start it off with one one of my favourite pieces of glass work - and it happens to be my first ever foray into the murky world of kiln formed glass (I did stained glass a few years ago).

Do you like it?