Lampwork beads and knitting

I've finally got round to lighting the torch and making some more lampwork beads! It's been a while as I've been distracted with other things. Mainly playing with polymer clay and making buttons as you may have noticed! Anyway, here are 2 sets of beads, one made in pandora glass which strikes in the kiln to all sorts of colours and it's a case of waiting to see what comes out. These ones were great... lots of purple, blue and soft green! I've put some black spacers with them to make them even smarter.

The other set are a lovely, deep ruby red heavily encased in clear with white spots. These are fun to make and I think I could get addicted to making them.

The other thing that was distracting me from my beadmaking was that I actually started doing some knitting! Having bought my lovely new knitting needles from Pennydog I just had to have a go and see if I could actually remember how it was done...it have been at least 15 years after all. Well, apparently it's like riding a bike! So, I found some soft, fluffy mohair that I have had sitting waiting all that time to be turned into something. I have several colours but when I saw the purple it matches the needles so well I just had to play with that. Of course, in retrospect, the colour matches the needles so well that I can hardly see the stitches! Well, I thought a scarf would be an easy thing to start with and decided to add a second colour in random stripes. I think I'm also going to add some beads and buttons, after the knitting part is finished, to jazz it up some more. Here's how it looks so far...

Don't forget to add a comment to the bead giveaway post as I will be drawing a winner in 2 days time!!

Polymer clay buttons

I spent all day yesterday making more buttons to put in the Crafteroo Folksy Shop for Comic Relief. I ended up with 3 sets so not bad! 2 of the sets I sanded and polished to a lovely shiny finish so they look extra smart. They'll all be on sale here later today!

Giveaway!! A set of lampwork beads!!

Ok! I've decided to run a monthly giveaway here on my blog! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below! This time, as it's the first giveaway, it's something a bit special that's up for grabs - a set of 5 sparkly pixie dust beads complete with 6 shiny black spacers!! Anyone can enter, I will mail worldwide! This will run until midnight on the 26th February and on the 27th I will draw a winner and e-mail the person for their details. So, good luck and don't forget to leave a comment!

Silver stars

No disasters in the kiln overnight...both the fused glass coasters and the circle came out ok. The coasters don't look hugely different from the pre-fuse picture but it's now possible to show the other side of the circle.

These silver stars will be going in the kiln for a slump today.

And now for something.....

a little bit different. After the long complicated process of putting the pink plate together I thought I would fuse something smaller and slighter less labour intensive. I had an idea of something to try with irridised glass so to test my theory I have made what will hopefully end up being a bowl. Not much to look at for now as the main design is face-down. All being well I'll take pictures tomorrow of the fused circle, before it goes in the kiln for a slump. Then of course I had the rest of the kiln shelf to fill...I don't like to fire the kiln with wasted space on the shelf unless I really have to. So, what would fit nicely around the circle....a set of coasters! Haven't made coasters for ages and they are fun to do sooo...black and pink coasters now baking in the kiln too. Fingers crossed that all is well when I open the kiln tomorrow morning...

Hearts Entwined

Well I finally got this fused glass plate finished. Been working on this pretty much since the start of the year and it was a bit of a challenge! So pleased it came out ok, definitely my most ambitious project to date. I think I went through a whole pack of sticking plasters during the making process but I think it was worth it in the end!

Midnight Rainbow

This morning I have another fused glass dish to show. Fresh out of the kiln is Midnight Rainbow. A really dramatic look to this one, lots of contrast between the colours and the black and the straight lines and the curves of the finished piece.