Whoops, been gone a bit, haven’t I?

Do excuse the vanishing act. I’ve been very busy doing a whole load of things. I’ve decided that it’s pointless to try and catch up on all the posts I’ve meant to make, so will just start here.

So, what’ve I been up to?

In April I officially became self-employed (as well as being full-time employed). I became a UK distributor for Farbglashütte Lauscha, so I’m importing lovely glass from Lauscha in Germany and selling it on my website at Lauscha.co.uk. I’m also gradually getting through colour testing it all, because we don’t have that kind of information as available as we do for other manufacturers. I’m posting the results on my website as well as on the Frit-Happens and Craft Pimp forums.

(If you’re interested, my testing typically goes plain spacer, spacer reduced or etched, silver leaf, silver leaf reduced and encased, psyche, terranova 2 frit, white, CiM tuxedo, CiM stoneground, copper green, ivory, then for transparents there may be frit painting with iris gold and a spacer over white. Plus testing with any other colours I think might be interesting).

I’ve been to some classes, all at Di East’s studio in Enderby, Leicester: By George, it’s Lush with Julie Fountain and George Harper-East in June, where we made beads the first day and made them up into jewellery the second. Di East taught Sarah Hornik’s Glass & Colour class at the end of July when Sarah got refused entry into the UK – she also had an open day immediately after which I stayed for and shared a table for my first time selling glass at a fair.

I went to Tuffnell Glass’s free Summer Bash in August – two days playing with glass and I camped with a tent I’d got specially! I had my first go with boro there and made some marbles. (I mean to try soft glass ones too as soon as I get the time…)

On Saturday I’m doing a figure class with Lucio Bubacco. Eeeek! I’ve never done anything like this before so should learn a lot. I did a bit of practicing this week – off-mandrel sculpture in soft glass is a very different way of working. There are photos up of what Lucio demoed on Wednesday – they are just amazing.

Here are some of my tests (click to go to Flickr to see more).

I’m getting ready for the GBUK AGM and Bead Fair on Saturday 24th September at the Loyd Lindsay Rooms, Ardington, Oxfordshire. I have a table booked there and will be selling my beads for the first time as well as Lauscha glass, so I’m busily making stock and trying to sort out how I will display it and all those many things.

Phew! There have also been a few fun swaps going on – there was a twistie swap earlier in the year that I got a bit over-enthusiastic about and made piles of twisties! I’ve just sent my murrini in for a murrini swap, and I’m quite pleased with a couple of the recipes I came up with. I have a charm swap due at the end of September…

I’m also doing a little bit of testing for Kaz’s monthly limited edition murrini and frit blends.

It’s all go, and I’m having a great time! I decided that this was the year I would go for classes and attend events, while I am still full-time employed and have the disposable income. I’m intending to go part-time so I have more time for glass, which requires the courage to actually leave or alter my rather dull job. I think I’d probably be better off leaving entirely and applying for something different part-time, but I know how things work here and there would be Change! So I keep putting that part off, but the days when I manage to get a decent amount of glassy work done are so much more satisfying that I know I have to do it eventually. I’m waiting for restructuring at my boyfriend’s workplace to be over, then I think I’m out of excuses. (He’s happy for me not to have a part-time job at all. I’m… not. I get issues about money and the spending thereof in that situation).

Life! It’s full of stuff! :)

Cheeky Frit Blends: Ferry Cross the Mersey

Ferry Cross the Mersey

Ferry Cross the Mersey

Not a full test, but I played about with this a bit. Left is a white base with silver leaf, frit on top and superheated, the ends encased in clear and then it was pressed. Right is a white base, the frit was painted on with clear, then I added some silver brown dots that were reduced and dot encased, then it was pressed. Not successful since the silver brown is the browny-ambery areas…

The bird is made of clear dipped in the frit and painted on.

Nice deep blues in this frit, and lots of saturation for using with clear.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Afternoon Delight

Afternoon Delight

Blend 36: Afternoon Delight

Over white, over light pink and encased, frit painted, over straw yellow with twists, and on a light pink barrel.

A light and summery blend. Purty. I used light pink instead of white as the base for a couple of these since this blend has white in it. I really like the one with twists over straw yellow. It has a nice suggestion of roses. I imagine a set of those would look rather good etched.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Do Wah Diddy Diddy

Do Wah Diddy Diddy

Blend 33: Do Wah Diddy Diddy

First three: over white, over white and encased, and frit painted.

There’s a nice selection of colours in here, with the spring green and browns giving a foresty feel, then the deep blue and aqua add some extra zing.

The last two are superheated over white and with swirls over straw yellow. You can kinda see in the frit painting and the straw yellow nugget that there’s definitely a reactive glass in there that goes iridescent. Very tricky trying to capture it on camera!

Cheeky Frit Blends: Wondrous Place

Wondrous Place

Blend 37: Wondrous Place

First three: on white, on white and encased, frit painted. This has got one of the striking glasses that I’ve never managed to strike on my hot head in it, so some of the yellowy-brown patches will do other things if you can make them work! But it’s a nice jungly mix like this, and I really like the frit-painting one. The last one is over ivory with silver leaf. The photo is picking up more colour variation than you normally see with the ivory – it’s a bit blander in person and I think could have done with more frit on it.

Wondrous Place superheated

L: superheated over white. R: heated and swirled over pale green apple. Back: over straw yellow, encased in Reichenbach antique green.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Rock Me Gently

Rock Me Gently

Blend 35: Rock Me Gently

Again I start with the frit over white, over white and encased, and frit painted. This is lovely. I like it better encased as I tend to frizzle the pinks if they’re on the surface. Really pretty on its own, and the frit painting one is gorgeous. The heart is a base of CiM heffalump, and it’s encased in Effetre rose quartz. Hand-shaped as I don’t have a heart press… yet!

Rock Me Gently heffalump heart

Here’s another view of the heart.

Rock Me Gently BHB

This is a BHB that I encased badly (again in Effetre rose quartz). It has a little ink blue in it too.

Rock Me Gently kryptonite heart

Aaand I tried another heart! Over CiM kryptonite this time, encased in clear. The shape’s not quite as good.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Spirit in the Sky and Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

Spirit in the Sky

Blend 27: Spirit in the Sky

Mmmm, lovely watery blues and greens. Like before, over white, over white and encased, frit painting with clear. Then I have it over avocado and over avocado and encased. I really like the last one, a couple of the colours have developed faint outlines and I like the blues with the yellow-brown. The dark blue has a fuzzy brown shadow around it.
The bicone is ivory with cobalt ends. I wanted to see how much the greens reacted.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

Blend 34: Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

I was surprised by the amount of brown in this when I got them out. They are as above, then the last lentil is over avocado with random dot encasing. Er, didn’t work, it doesn’t go with the pinks. I need to think about background colours for this, now I know what it looks like. I’m not quite sure what I should use it with.

I then tried a few more different things.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da with silver and ivory

This is on top of ivory with silver leaf.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da superheated

Over white, over pale green apple, over straw yellow with antique green wrap. The pale green apple cylinder is meh and muddy.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Sea of Heartbreak and Morning Town

Sea of Heartbreak

Blend 38: Sea of Heartbreak

I also love this frit blend! It’s a lovely gardeny/sunset-on-water selection of colours. First three as before (over white, over white and encased, frit painting with clear), then over Effetre rose opalino. Which was half-and-half too far into the kiln, because one side has gone mostly opaque and the rest hasn’t! (I’ve had this before – rose opalino opacifies if it gets too hot while annealing, so I have to remember to keep it a bit closer to the door).

Morning Town

Blend 32: Morning Town

This one is fun. It looks mostly lime green and blue before you use it, and then the browns and yellows and a bit of purple shows up. First three as above, then over avocado. Finally over cobalt blue and reduced, which I have another picture of here:

Morning Town reduced

You can more or less see that bits of it go mirrored, but I imagine you probably don’t want to use it that way in general! Could do with more reactive experiments for this frit.

Cheeky Frit Blends: Witch Queen of New Orleans and Devil Gate Drive

[These frit tests are from the first half of August 2010]

Kaz of Cheeky Cherub Designs, who also makes and sells lovely murrini on Etsy, has started doing frit blends. I was one of the winners of a draw on Frit-Happens! to be a tester for some of her new blends. There are more results by other people over on the forum – I’m putting mine up over here too.

Witch Queen of New Orleans

Blend 39: Witch Queen of New Orleans

First up, this intriguing purply mix. The colours were hard to photograph properly – the areas that look brownish actually have a bit more colour variation than that going on in them. They are ringed green and blue and brown, subtle but there (there’s multicolour dark in this blend). I also don’t think I’ve quite got the hang of what to put this one on or how to use it to its best. I found that when I left it on the surface the pink boils easily, so you need to be a bit careful. It’s over white, over white and encased, frit painting with clear, over dirty martini and over ink blue over white. The BHB nugget is amethyst over dirty martini, then frit and some dots of amethyst on top. It didn’t work out very well and the surface is a bit fried in places.

The one that’s encased over white is my favourite, and I probably should try photographing it again to show other sides! There’s pink and deep blue and purple and the little variegated bits.

Here’s a couple of beads I made a bit later:

Superheated over periwinkle, and superheated on straw yellow, with Reichenbach antique green on the ends and a raised wrap in the centre.

Devil Gate Drive

Blend 40: Devil Gate Drive

I love this one! It’s like red berries. As before, we have it over white, over white and encased, and frit painting with clear. Then the dark nugget is frit painting with pale green apple. You probably don’t want to do that
The wibbly flowers are Vetro odd custard, and the one on the left has rose opalino.

(I do like Kaz’s naming scheme too, even if I do get Witch Queen of New Orleans stuck in my head every time I see the name…)