This Weeks Glass.....

I love going back to see how my 'creations' have turned out!! This week my end of rods have all melted together very nicely. This time I laid down a base and then added the scraps on top, they have all melted into each other very nicely. No cracks or breaks this time, I have no idea what to do with it, but its pretty!

I put my flat disk back and slumped it into a bowl shape, not a hundred percent successful, but not too bad so I am pleased with it. Another 10 weeks should see me making a really professional bowl!! Sadly I only have one week left. 

I am particularly pleased with these little pieces, they have turned out very nicely. I hope to be able to stick bails to them and turn them in to necklaces or failing that fridge magnets!!

I had made plans this week to sandblast the backs of the coasters and circles I had made in the previous weeks, so I lugged them all back there and got dressed up in all the required garb.....

Mask and huge black rubber gloves, I went to the sand blasting cabinet placed the items inside shoved my gloved arms through the small holes in the cabinet, poked my foot underneath and pushed the pedal.... nothing. Tried again still nothing. It turns out they compressor had been switched off and we didn't have access to the basement to switch it back on again. So all that dressing up and carrying of glass for nothing. I'll try again next week.

In the end I sat down and made some more coasters, its a good way of trying out designs and seeing what works. Laura bought me some glassine paints so I wanted to try them out as well. 

So tonight's experiments, from top left, a funky chicken, a blue and copper heart which I plan on giving to Carl, the a yellow and copper heart I plan on giving to Beth. Bottom row 9 Danish coins, as I expect I will not be returning there any time soon. Another chicken and finally a two tone copper heart for Laura.

Lets see how they all turn out next week. 

All Change!

Last week we finally made a change to the living room, one I have wanted to make for a long time but we have never been in a position to do so, we finally replaced the horrible bars on the stairs. I have never liked the brown 'planks of wood' that adorned the side of the stairs and I wanted rid of them. It has taken us 24 years to get around to it!!!  I have very few pictures of the planks so I had to go back to 2008 to find this shot of Beth trying out her new school uniform to give you an idea. (doesn't she look cute??)

The only thing it was good for was blue tacking Christmas cards to!!!

So last Tuesday we had a chap come around and replace the planks. For a few days we were left with nothing - bit scary so I locked up the port, just in case. 

By the time we came back from the mini cruise we had beautiful spindles in place!!!!

I am so pleased with the finished article it has brightened the place up and makes a huge difference. I wish we had taken the plunge ages ago!!! Just need to clear up the rest of the room and try and sort out the electrics problem affecting the ceiling lights!!!

Home Again.

We are just back from our trip to Denmark. I was definitely worried about the decision to book a trip travelling north in the North sea, but as it turned out we had a good time!!

The drive to Harwich was easy and quick, the embarcation was easy and quick! We had a four berth cabin on deck 9, which as it turned out was perfect. We were close to the outside deck so we were able to pop out and take the very bracing air!!! We had bed and breakfast so on the first evening we bought dinner at the cafe. Fish and chips that most traditional of Danish food.

We went to bed around 11.30pm by which time we were heading into 'heavy seas' (that was the Captains description!!) Beth felt it was too much to sleep in the top bunk with the smallest of rails to keep her in bed, so we had to pull her mattress down onto the floor between our two beds. It was at that precise moment that the ship went one way and I went the other, landing up in a heap on Beth's mattress (and on her legs). I managed to hit my back on the side of Toms bed and now have a nice bruise to show for it!!

Tom seemed to be able to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, but Beth and I found it a struggle, we didn't feel ill or anything but it was an extremely lively night, with the ship tossing us all over the place. Lying on my side I actually felt as if I might roll out of bed at one point!! (I was thinking just how much my friend Sue would have enjoyed this!!!) It did eventually calm down and the rest of the night was fairly uneventful.

The breakfast was fantastic a buffet with everything you could want. After breakfast we arrived in Esbjerg and I was shocked to see that the sea was frozen.

These photos don't really do it justice, some of the chunks of ice were huge 10 feet plus across, as we docked you could hear the ice bumping off the hull of the ship!!!

The day in Esbjerg was marred by the driving sleet and rain, it was freezing cold as well. We did manage a walk around the shops and found the ice skating rink (I was disappointed that they had closed up and the only people skating were school children with their own skates!!) Had the weather been better it would have been a better day out.

The high street was unusual every other shop seemed to be a shoe shop!! But we were saved Beth spotted a McDonald's so she was happy to pop in and check that they were able to produce a McChicken Sandwich in Denmark.

So all in all it was very good value for money and we can now say we have set foot on Danish soil!!

While we were away we had the stairs altered, we now have a lovely sparkly white banister with spindles instead of planks of wood. I am so pleased with it. We also have no lights down stairs something has happened there and we will be getting it looked at by an electrician in the morning!!

We are Sailing!!!

Its half term and we wanted to see if we could get a couple of days away , we have looked at lots of things to do and couldn't decide, we had just about given up when I received an email offering a mini cruise to Denmark. We looked at it and couldn't make our minds up, so we didn't book it. We thought a bit more and decided to go for it only to find that it had sold out. So I called the company and they confirmed it as sold out. So we thought that was it. two days later they called and said they now had a vacancy if we were still interested. It was a sign!! So we booked!!! 

We are leaving from Harwich this afternoon and arriving in Denmark in the morning. Even better is that the original offer was by one get one free, so you only pay for one adult and we assumed that we would pay for Beth, but the lady on the phone combined two offers, the BOGOF and kids travel free in the school holidays!!! so we paid the grand total of £134 for bed and breakfast in an en suite cabin for the three of us, absolute bargain!!

While we are away we are having some work done on the house, the banisters on the stairs are being replaced by nice spindles, so when we get back it should be all shiny and new.

Monday Night Uni Night!!

Tonight I went back to see how last weeks work had turned out, I was very pleased with it !! (if I say so myself!!) The circles have turned out well and so have the coasters.

Its clear that having a professional cut the glass for the coasters makes all the difference, they lined up well and look good in real life.  I think I am going to take them back next week and sandblast the backs, that gives a frosty look and the pattern is more prominent with a white background. 

This week I concentrated on some smaller items using up some of the small pieces of Bulls eye glass and dichroic glass that I had. I hope that they will come out nicely rounded and ready to turn into a pendant. I suspect that is unlikely in reality!!!

Here are the before...

I hope these turn out looking like flowers!!

I am curious to see how the dichroic glass looks after its been cooked!!

These two are made with float glass so its to see how they turn out.

This is less than one inch square so again it might turn out interesting, or not!!!!

Cold Weekend.

This weekend has been a really cold one, over night its got down to minus 15, which is madness. The cold snap caused a few problems. Laura was in her kitchen when there was a big bang and the sound of loud hissing swiftly followed by water all over the kitchen floor. 

She tried to call the council but there was no reply (turns out they were very busy with burst pipes) So we headed over to see if we could help in any way. By the time we got there I had managed to get hold of the council and we arrived after the plumber!! As an added bonus the plumber was Nick, my neighbours son. So he had already switched off the water and was repairing the pipe. The pipe in question ran through an outside Cupboard so that was a massive design fault because it was unheated and froze, now that cupboard is stuffed full of padding and cardboard to stop the cold getting in as easily!! It was a shame because Laura's new carpet in the front room got wet, so we had to mop it up with towels. We had to take them outside and wring them out. One of the neighbours over the road popped out and offered to spin them in her dryer which was really nice of her, but there was a whole load more mopping up to do before we could spin them!!

On the plus side I had said that the kitchen floor needed a wash!

I made a few beads yesterday still experimenting and nearly setting fire to the desk. A piece of red hot glass flew off the end of a rod I was heating, in the past they have landed on the floor or in the cone of the extractor, but this time it landed on the desk and then bounced onto the oxycon, causing major panic! I was able to chuck water on it and stop any further damage but it was scary!!! Anyway the bead I was making when the 'accident' happened is in the photo above.Once it was cleaned it accidentally ended up on top of  another bead making it look a bit like an owl!!!

This week we are having a bit of work done at home. I have always hated the banisters and have wanted to get them changed into something more elegant, so finally this week we are going to have them replaced by elegant spindles!! something

Updating my glassy things.

This week has been a busy one, in fact every week is busy rushing from one thing to another. This week has been harder because of the weather and the problems that causes. Monday night we still had a load of snow and the roads were bad, so I ended up on the course on my own again. I don't blame Deb for not wanting to travel, the conditions were awful.

The week before I used a ceramic bowl to slump one of my rounds of glass into. I wanted to make a bowl, well above is my first ever bowl!! Its wonky and a bit crinkly around the edges, but its a start!! I am actually quite proud of it for a first attempt.

The round above is the result of the Mica and pottery glaze experiment. I really liked the painting bit! What doesn't really show up is the shimmery effect of the mica. I hope next week to slump that into another bowl and see how that turns out!!

The square is similar to the circle in design and again quite sparkly. The circles this time are brown in colour. I have learnt that the ceramic glazes hold their colour when fired, but the glass paints I used on the blue and green bowl go translucent, both effects have a place.

Debbie bought me a book on fusing glass and I fell in love with a design that was on the front. It was quite intricate with lots of small pieces of cut glass used to make the design. The glass that we use is called float glass and to buy coloured compatible glass is very expensive, so I recreated the design with paint!!!  Using the same technique as before I painted on one side allowed it to dry and then flipped it over and put it on top of the second round of glass which was sprinkled with orange frit. I love the colours!! I also made 6 coasters to go with the two place mats. I can't wait until they come out of the  kiln!!!

Tonight we are having another snow storm, its about three inches deep in the deepest places and that over the last lot that hasn't gone!! Its nearly my birthday and its been a long time since I had snow on that day of celebration 

The whole world has gone Snow mad!!!!

Well we woke up this morning to a good covering of snow and much excitement in the street!! 

It was that perfect kind of snow, perfect for making snow balls and snow men. It stuck together a treat and bought out the artist and devil in everyone!

We have lived here for twenty five years so over that time the people have changed and we have new people to snowball fight with. That said every time it snows we all end up out the front 'playing'

Hunny absolutely loves the snow, she chases every single snow ball and loves catching them in her mouth. She is out there playing will all the children . 

This year we have possibly made the biggest snowman ever, it was just so easy to roll the snow. 

Even I consented to a sneaky photograph!!!  Later in the afternoon a group of them went down to the lagoon to sledge down the hills. Beth thoroughly enjoyed it and came back soaking wet and glowing red!! The other good news for her is that the school is off tomorrow they say that they can't make the site safe for pupils and staff!!   

Its Here!!!!

After a day where the weather men had been promising snow, they came good in the end. The latest forecast that I received in my email in box was snow arriving in our neck of the woods at 18.00. They were a little out, it started at 18.15 and hasn't stopped since!!! Beth is very happy. I am not sure how long it will last, I have one of those inside outside thermometers and its showing -1, but that's a bit warmer than when it started a few hours ago. 

This weekend hasn't been too exciting so far I am waiting for a batch of beads to come out of the kiln. I have been trying to perfect dots again. Right at the beginning I was able to do them, but I have somehow lost the skill. I have made loads and loads of dotty things today!!!

Anticipation!!!!

There is something in the air, a strange feeling of anticipation. All winter has been fairly mild, but the first few days it has been very clear and quite cold. I have had to scrape the car and the thickness of the frost has been quite impressive!! The photo above was the frost on the roof of my car!! This afternoon I received a Met office alert predicting snow throughout the Eastern area (and it actually mention Herts!!!) So I am sitting here, temperature of  -3degrees waiting for the SNOW!!!!!!

Monday at Uni.

Last week I tried painting a design on a sheet of glass, and then sandwiching it between two pieces of glass. It was then fused. When it started out it was blue, green,brown and yellow, as you can see the brown turned into green and the yellow washed out. But I am still pleased with the result. I don't think that Wedgwood or Royal Doulton have anything to worry about!!!

I have decided to slump the flat circle of glass into a bowl. I have no idea how this will turn out. The instructor (I use that term very loosely, she hasn't done a lot of instructing so far!!!) 'thinks' the bowl may be a little too deep, so we'll have to see how that goes, fingers crossed.

My other experiment was to use all the ends of glass rods I had left over from bead making. It was a bit of a mixed result really. All the glassed used was of the same COE but for some reason it broke into two pieces. I think it might be to do with the firing process rather than the mismatching of glass. Anyway I managed to rescue the biggest part of it by trimming it and sanding the edges.  Today when photographing it I have noticed that there are some very small cracks so I don't think its long for this world!!!

Spurred on by the painting last week I actually went in with a plan of action. I found a pattern that I quite liked  and I copied a version of it in black ceramic paint. I think its quite striking, I ladled the paint on thickly in the hope that the colour will stick and stay strong and opaque. I then sprinkled pink Mica on the second circle of glass, flipped the first over and made a sandwich with it. In my head that will come out black with a sparkly pink background, lets see what happens in reality!!!

I started to run short of time so my second piece was still wet in this photo, I did the same as the circle one except this time I used sepia paint and red/green mica . The instructor came over and by way of encouragement said - 'such a lot of detailed work when we don't know if it'll work'!!! Thanks for the vote of confidence Mrs Instruction lady!!!  Onwards and Upwards!!!

New Beads!!

I have had a very productive weekend on the bead front. It has been a few weeks since I was able to get back to the torch so it was nice to spend a bit of time having a go!! I really feel that I have started to make progress, I have a large lentil press and all of a sudden I am able to make lentil shaped beads on a regular basis, which is such a relief!!

I am even happier with these, I have not been able to master the hearts and yesterday it suddenly fell into place, the right amount of glass in the right place and I managed to produce hearts Whoopee!!!

These two gave me a chance to experiment with different glasses. The one on the left has a black line through the middle, but its purely a reaction between the two glasses!

I can't make up my mind about what colour combos I like best. The pastel colours are nice and the bead reminds me of a spring day, green grass, blue sky with clouds and on the middle blossom trees with falling blossom. On the other hand it might just be a a pastel coloured bead!!!

The one on the left is an experiment with some reactive glass covered by clear glass I don't think I heated it long enough as parts of it look murky, but its an interesting outcome. The one on the right is a fairly plain bead with a splodge of the reactive glass from the first one.

Today Beth and I went to Stevenage and did a bit of shopping, I cleared out the car as it was packed with assorted junk and was long over due on the sorting front!! Mum and Dad have had a new bathroom fitted, so we bought a few bits for them from town. It looks very nice. The plumber, Alan did our bathroom and he is such a craftsman!! It will be nice for them to finally be able to actually use the bathroom again after months and months of a leaking bath.

So back to work for what no doubt will be another busy week. Have fun!!

Home Again.

Tonight I am pleased to report that Mum has arrived home. Just like all the small things in the NHS it was traumatic and long winded. The return to home process started yesterday. She was prepared for the off in the morning, bags packed dressed and sat in a chair waiting for 'transport' . There she sat all day, fretting and uncomfortable waiting for the trip home. Eventually they told her at 8pm that the transport department was closed and they simply hadn't turned up. So she had to stay for the night.

Today they asked for her to be ready for 9am, she was, by 2pm still no transport and I got a distressed call from Mum who had simply had enough. So I called PALS at the hospital and to my amazement they called me back and explained that someone would be there at 3.30pm and even more amazing they were!!! Mum is now home and in bed, she is very tired and very keen not to go back in The Lister ever again.

My all time favourite flowers are orange roses, all my family and friends know that so I was thrilled to receive this beautiful bunch of flowers from Laura as a thank you for helping around the move time.

Laura plans to take all the other helpers out for dinner once she is paid again!!!

Monday Night - Glass experimentation night!!!!

Mondays seem to come around very quickly, already we have done three weeks on our course. Tonight the instructor arrived late as she had unfortunately had an accident in her car. She was distraught (as you might expect) but she wouldn't go home and leave us to it. Poor thing, cars a write off but she and her other half are OK thank goodness. 

So we eagerly looked on the shelves to see what had happened to last weeks efforts. I was quite pleased with mine its has turned out quite nice!!!

This is the big square that I made last week, its turned itself into a platter although the edges need finishing to make them smoother. We have yet to be let loose on the sanding/smoothing machine!! Its quite interesting close up and surprisingly heavy. The bowl I want to perfect is getting closer and closer!!

I really like the sparkly green nuggets and the pink back ground. 

I also made a little dish which also needs finishing but that was an interesting experiment I used off cuts of glass plus some mica powder for a bit of sparkle. 

Tonight as I said, got off to a bad start so we ended up not getting as much done as we had hoped. I was determined to arrived prepared with a plan in my head. I went one step further and printed out a pattern to copy. I had also managed to get some circles cut out at another glazier who turned out to be cheaper than the first one and was extremely easy on the eye as well. I was most impressed with his circle cutting techniques!!!

So tonight I painted a design on a circle of glass and hope to turn that int a bowl at some point once it has fused together. 

I painted with enamel and then scratched a design on the paint. I have no idea how that will turn out, not sure if it will fade or get brighter, we'll have to wait and see.

I also took in a box of ends of rods left over from my bead making. They are not compatible with float glass so I decided to pile them up and see what happens. I have tried to make a panel shape, but it it turns out a bit wonky we will head for the machines and smooth all the edges!!!

It'll be good to see what happens. The only thing that offends me is that glaring yellow rod half way op, how did I miss that??? I hope it melts down and hides itself!!!

A Busy Old week....

I am glad that this week is drawing to an end its has been a very busy one. I have had a full week at work with lots of different meetings and cases to deal with and all the time we have been helping Laura decorate and get ready for her house move.

All week Tom has been at the new flat with Laura painting and cleaning, gloss and emulsion its been a massive job and its still not fully finished . It is now fit to live in. We ordered some nets off of eBay and on the day of the move I got them up and looking nice. We also got some nice curtains from the Dunelm Mills sale so now she has a nice cosy looking bedroom and a bright sunny living room. The kitchen is still a bit of a mess, but the cooker is hooked up as is the washing machine. We have put all the crockery and china away and designated a food cupboard. The floor needs sorting but we are getting there. 

In the old flat Laura was on monthly direct debit for the gas and electricity, this flat is on key meters, today the central heating packed up and was showing an error, so we called the engineer when he arrived he found that the gas had run out on the card!!! Whoops!!

We are nearly at the end of this journey, tomorrow morning we will go around and clear up the old flat and take up the carpet (which we have given away on freecycle) we will give it a clean and then hand the keys back on Monday. All Laura has to do now is continue to empty the boxes left in her bedroom and she will be done. I am looking forward to next weekend when I can do my own thing again!!!!

I forgot to mention Mum is still in hospital, she has been moved from the orthopedic ward to the isolation ward, seems they had a bed crisis and she ended up there. We saw her tonight and she seems to be in reasonable spirits, she has been up and is looking forward to getting home once off of the IV antibiotics. I hope that will be soon.