I see angels

Yesterday, I made an angel - well, actually, I made a fairy, which was meant to be an angel, and then I had a little heart to heart with myself to sort the wings out, and then I made an angel. And today, the angel went on a little road trip, just across the road, to the local church. Here are the best 'angel captures' :)









...I think the top one might end up being my Christmas card this year...

"Untold Tales" or "When two glass people talk"

My friend Emma Mackintosh and I recently had a natter - it was something to do with having a 'style', which kind of morphed into 'getting stuck in a rut'. We both love our 'usual fare', namely dragons and roses, of course, but we thought it might be fun to start some collaborative work to challenge ourselves, or to set some parameters for 'structured playtime'. So, over the course of a few messages and phone calls, we decided to start a joint blog, and to post about our efforts and outcomes. To give ourselves a bit of a framework, we thought we might tackle one fairytale each month. Since we both have leanings to the slightly obscure, we figured that it would be interesting to see how we each interpreted each fairytale, and promised each other to share out thought processes behind the pieces as well as the results.

To cut a long story short, there's a new blog on the block, called 'Untold Tales', and this month, we've been playing with 'Sleeping Beauty'. At the moment, there are only a few posts on it, but it will grow over time. We thought that, maybe, others might like to see what we're up to, too. This doesn't mean that this blog will stop, if anything, it'll get more interesting, because I'll be pointing to our blog posts as and when they occur.

If you're interested, you can find it at www.untoldtales.co.uk :)

There *will* be glass - Part 2

Can you tell what it is yet?

The lovely Rachel came over today, and my education in willow weaving continued! A morning well-spent!!











It's living willow, so it'll green over, carry on groing, new shoots will be woven in...in three years or so, you won't be able to see the structure, just a green play den!

Rings at London Glassblowing

I just thought I'd share some exciting news - over the last few nights, I've been busy making rose ring toppers to go down to London Glassblowing, for a special exhibition to coincide with London Jewellery Week. I'm rather excited about this - after I'd made ten, I looked at them, and realised that they were all uni-coloured, so I made three with some funky summer frits - I liked the result so much that I thought I'd call it the 'Ascot Ladies Day' range (and no, I cannot for the life of me decide whether that's intended as a possessive or not, i.e. whether there's an apostrophe missing. I've found both versions. Just adding this because I don't want you to think I missed it out!)

There are 13 rings going to London today, together with a selection of rings, to make sure punters get the right size. I hope somebody takes a picture of them in place....or maybe I need to make a trip down to London to see!

Take Heart

I had some unexpected extra torching time over the week-end, and used it to increase the ranges of ring toppers. The heart ring toppers I made for the Flame Off flew out, with only a few left over afterwards, so I thought I'd find a way to structure them and put them online to order. For starters I have concentrated on polka dots, since I'm doing a vintage fair at the beginning of August (the 1st of August, actually, first day of self-employment, and a Sunday - no slacking here at Little Castle Designs!). I played with a few colour ranges, and then, when the first batch came out of the kiln, plugged the colour gaps with even *more* colours...and finally played even longer with arranging them for a photo.

For the vintage ones, now have several designs - leaves going in one direction, then the other...big dots, small dots...but I like these best! Already, the lovely Nicola of www.smittenkiten.de suggested that I do a pink and black dotty heart with a white rose...pic to follow shortly!

Right, I'm working from home today, but that's work-work, not bead work...for another nine weeks! Have a fab (short!) week everybody!