Ice Patterns On My Skylight Window

Having had a week of snow and freezing temperatures I finally managed to get back in my studio yesterday to do a few bits. Here are some patterns of the ice that had formed on one of my skylight windows.
Glue chipping glass can produce a very similar result.
It is produced by sandblasting glass to make a key and then applying hide glue that when dried and adheres to the glass, puts the surface of the glass under such pressure that the glass flies off leaving a pattern.
Its important to keep pets away because they are attracted to the glue which will then also contain fine slithers of glass.

Cobweb In The Frost

I love the way that cobwebs look in the frost and found this one outside my studio on Christmas Day. I had to capture it on my camera.

Cyclamen In The Snow

Let It Snow

Woke up to snow this morning in Ballyclare and as always I proved to be the biggest kid!

Hope you like the snowman although to me it looks more like a big polar bear. It's started a competition in the close who can make the biggest and best!! Why are parents so competitive.

Had a wail of a time throwing snowballs, but the kids drew the line at letting me go on the sledge!! Just too embarrassing for my 12 year old son Tom.

The Kiln Fairies Strike Again!

I had a suprise when I opened the kiln yesterday morning. I had put some coasters in to fuse as well as some stars, which I have done so many times before, but when I inspected these they had yellow marks on them just like if I had painted silver stain on them.

So how could this happen? Then I remembered I had fired some jewellery which I had made some loops out of sterling silver. The silver had left a residue on the kiln paper where they touched it, but must have also effected the kiln wash underneath. This was obviously silver nitrate which is silver stain.

What cleaver fairies I have, if I had tried to make it I most probably couldn't. That's what I like about working with glass, you learn something new every day!

Just need to sand all the kiln shelves now and batt wash them again before starting again. It's the only way I can guarantee not contaminating anything again. What joy!!

Red Sky in the Night

I love the colour of the sky, especially at this time of year and was carrying my camera so thought I would share it. I like the contrast between the dark silhouette of the trees against the oranges and pinks in the sky. Sun setting over Ballyclare tonight.

I'm Seeing Stars

Just had a quite day preparing some stars that I fused in the kiln last night ready for another display cabinet and making some to give to friends and family for christmas. Also prepared a plate and some coasters to fire tomorrow. Frightening to think it will be christmas two weeks today!

Display Cabinet

Spent the afternoon in a very hot hotel filling up a display cabinet with some of my christmas decorations and fused jewellery. There is no rental cost and the commission is very small so it isn't costing me anything. I just need to refill it from time to time and give it a dust.

Kiln Fairies

I didn't get time to do a posting yesterday as was out with the kids last night Christmas Shopping.

I had a bit of a disaster with kiln fairies with my last batch of fused jewellery in the kiln. It is the kiln fairies that get blamed for anything that doesn't go to plan in the kiln during the firing cycle. This can be glass that moves, things that happen to the glass which isn't expected or can't be explained.

I had a few pieces that moved, a few that expanded bigger than I had anticipated so that the silver wire I had used as a finding fused into the glass as well as it changing colour which hadn't happened to me before.

But all was not lost and by thinking outside the box I managed to cut them and adapt them into earrings with a little cold work. I then re-fired them in the kiln last night to fire polish the glass, so hopefully nothing was lost and only a little waste.

Have acquired a display cabinet in a local hotel to display and sell some of my work so will busy getting that set up today.

Kiln Fused Jewellery

Today I spent the day loading the kiln up with dichroic glass to make jewellery and cufflinks. It always takes about three times longer than I expect it too as it involves stacking glass on top of each other and although you can use glue to stick the layers together I have found that it can sometimes leave a residue in the fused glass.

I managed to make necklaces with some of the pendants I glued yesterday and am really pleased with some of the cufflinks I glued yesterday and the adhesive seems to be working really well.

Red Sky in the Morning

What a glorious morning it is in Ballyclare with beautiful cloud formations, with lovely reds and pinks. Off to my studio to do some work and see if the glue is behaving.

Glue, Glue,Glue

I have been busy making some fused jewellery and like most people that have tried glueing glass to metal it is a bit hit and miss. I have tried various types of glue and have had various degrees of success.

3M's seem to make the best but the last epoxy glue dried cloudy and opaque and wasn't the effect I wanted so I've just tried a new glue 3M CA40-H glass adhesive which seems to be doing the job but also dries clear. Its also easy to use as it doesn't need mixing together like the epoxy glues so there is less waste.

Recycled Ty Nant Bottles

Over the last week or so I have been making some christmas decorations with some glass I was given. When I was working in my studio I found some glass that I had forgotten about, it is blue frit which was made with blue Ty Nant bottles.

So with this in mind and having been busy making christmas decorations I decided to have a go at making some hearts. This is the finished thing, it needed two firings because I needed to add more frit as it was too fragile. Will still need to be handled with care but I like the end result. May have a go with some green bottle glass next.

Saturday

Yesterday I went into Belfast to have a look at the Christmas Craft Fair at St George's Market. It is always buzzing on a saturday morning and today was no exception. The Craft fair was good but there was an abundance of jewellery stalls and customers.

I then went to Bangor to have a look at the Seacourt Print Workshop Christmas Exhibition which was good and had a large number of different prints and was persuaded to part with some money and buy a collagraph for my front room. It was very inspiring and has given me some ideas for next print workshop I hope to start in January.

Print Exhibition

Here is one of the prints I have put in the exhibition. It is a collagraph print which was inspired by a photograph of a thistle

Seacourt Christmas Exhibition

I have been doing a print workshop at Seacourt Print Workshop in Bangor since september and have a couple of my prints in their Christmas Exhibition.
It starts on Saturday 5th December 2009 until Friday 10th Dec for more details go to www.seacourt-ni.org.uk

St Joseph's Infants School

This is a image of a commission I worked on with another glass artist in an infants school in Swansea, South Wales

My New Blog

Hi

Welcome to my new blog

I am a glass artist based in Ballyclare, Northern Ireland and this is a visual diary of my work and what is going on in life.