I am really looking forward to being part of this lovely market!
Goodwood Arthouse Marketplace
Month: October 2016
Recycled glass jewellery
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed…but I love making beads from recycled glass! It’s quite a process going from the empty bottle to the finished necklace, so I thought I would list all of the steps for making recycled glass bead jewellery here:
- Empty the bottle! My husband quite likes a bottle of beer, so he takes care of my beer bottle needs. I’m quite partial to wine, so I am happy to take care of those wine bottles. I have a few friends who drink gin, and donate their empty bottles to me (thanks everyone)!
- Clean the bottle. This includes removing the labels, and making sure the inside is clean too.
- Smash the bottle. I carefully wrap the bottle in a pillow case, and then I smash it with a hammer. All of the shards are collected and stored in containers.
- Make the beads. To do this I need to heat the glass on a hotplate, so that when I put it in the flame it doesn’t explode! I then pick up the warm glass with tweezers and using the flame and all sorts of techniques I am able to make the glass beads.
- Anneal the beads. Once I have made the beads, they are placed in my kiln to go through an annealing process. Glass is temperamental, and it like to be heated up and cooled down slowly. Letting it slowly cool down in a kiln is essential when making strong, resilient beads.
- Clean the beads. After the beads have cooled down (usually overnight), I then take the beads off the mandrels, and clean the core of the beads with a diamond drill bit.
And voila! This photo summarises the process:
View from my studio
Well, after a week of not feeling 100%, I’m getting back into things in the studio. I have several markets coming up in November, and several galleries to get some new work to. I feel kind of lucky that I can work whenever I want to (sort of), but when there is a lot of work to do…things get tricky. Luckily the view from my studio at the moment is stunning, so it’s a pleasure to be in there.
Bombay Sapphire Gin jewellery
I’m getting ready to list some new Bombay Sapphire Gin jewellery! They will be available soon. I love the colour of this glass. It suits a lot of people as it’s bright, but not too bright. It’s also perfect for someone who likes to drink gin.
Colour Play
View from my studio
Oh gosh! I am always perplexed by school holidays. I always think I will get more time to work, because my husband will be home to look after the kids. And yet, when we are all home together, I just want to be a part of it too! It was quite difficult (but quite necessary) to drag myself into my studio yesterday. I made the most of the time I spent there, and made lots of beads ready for some of my favourite stockists!
Colour Play
And for the final set in this series inspired by Kandinsky’s painting “Colour Study. Squares with Concentric Circles.”
Remember I mentioned that I used to make a lot of glass beads inspired by this picture? Well, these necklaces remind me of what I used to make. It was nice to be a bit more structured in my design for these necklaces. I used opaque glass in the first necklace, and transparent glass in the second necklace to get different effects.
Markets
I am really looking forward to being part of the following markets.
View from my studio
It’s school holidays where we live. That means that the kids and my husband are all on holidays. I often wish that meant that I got unlimited amounts of time to work….but the truth is I love spending time with my family, and that makes it difficult to make it to the studio. I am hoping to at least catch up on all the work I have on at the moment though.
