Pondscapes with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust

 

  

 

Wow!  Amazing use of colour and texture in particular when creating dragonfly wings! This workshop was in a new venue with a different twist to my normal creative days.  Working with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, we designed this workshop to take inspiration from pond life, especially dragonflies.  A few Derbyshire landscapes snuck in but I think that's ok and when everyone's work looks this good for the first time.... what more can I say!  Its great! Click here to see the album.


I wanted to draw particular attention to a few pieces, I'm only sorry I don't have the time of blog space to write about everyone's unique creations! 

Firstly a set of 4 fishy coasters by Gill.  Apart from the wonderful shapes and textures involved we worked upside down in order the guarantee getting a set of functional coasters once fired. This way any air bubble that might be trapped within the glass wont effect the stability of Gill coffee cup or glass of wine!

And secondly the beautiful Poppies by Hazel.  An emphasise on bold colour combinations has created some wonderful stylised finish to these confetti flowers.  I hope she doesn't mind me saying this but Hazel was wonderful to work with, being partially sighted, she had a wonderful overview of her designs.  Wanting a variety of bright colours to enjoy, the challenge was that some of the coloured glass are Striker colours, meaning the may look very pale almost clear when working with them but the colours change and intensify after firing.  See Hazel's Butterfly in the facebook album.

Thank you to everyone who attended to course, You have given me some lovely ideas to develop for future workshops.


Feel free to comment, get in touch and spread the word.
Stevie

Half day tasters... time to play!

Wow, a fantastic range of work was made one my recent Half Days courses at The Beetroot Tree.

With a morning spent creating Fused Glass Jewellery with an emphasise on sparking Dichroic.

Students on the workshop created Pendants, Brooces, Rings, Earrings and Studs using a simple but effective technique I call "mosaic fusing".  Layering tiny pieces of coloured and dichroic glass on top or below a single layer of clear Bullseye Glass.


Click here to view my facebook photo album from the day!

A lovely afternoon saw another group making Fused Glass Coasters and Hangings using metal inclusions, coloured glass confetti and shimmering Mica Powder.

A fantastic mix of designs, as usual, all unique and inspiring!

View the facebook album for this workshop, follow the link.

To see where you can book another session, go to my workshops listings page on my website and feel free to get in touch too!

Fused Glass Landscapes - 17.6.12

Well, another lovely day at The Beetroot Tree Gallery. This time teaching 4 lovely ladies (each of them having been on at least one of my previous workshops) as well as 1 very chivalrous gentleman!

The more workshops I teach, the more I love how unique each participants ideas are. Everyone always designs and makes something in their own style, with their own inspirations or imagery. Even those students who may need one of my samples or a photograph of a pieces of glass to get them started, always end up having put their individual flare into a piece!!!! It just goes to show no two hand made creations are ever the same!!!

So, the above photos are of a wonderfully textured, abstract piece created by Ian. Using various metal inclusions and coloured glass, including sheet, powder, frit and confetti. As always, the photos don't do it justice!

For my photos of this groups fantastic work, click here.... enjoy!

For a list of up and coming workshops, track Stevie down!

Glitzy Glass - Fused Glass Jewellery Workshop

With a record turn around of just 4 days (due to the Jubilee bank holiday festivities next week), I have fired, finished and glue over 80 pieces of fused glass which my 10 lovely students made on Saturday 26th May at The Beetroot Tree Gallery.

A workshop designed to make wearable art using Bullseye glass, Metal inclusions and the amazing Dichroic... Everyone loves sparkle!

As usual, I started off with pre cut clear glass which everyone added coloured elements and sandwiched metal inclusions.....

In my portable kiln - fired within an hour of starting the worksho

All fused - opened the kiln after lunch for everyone to see

So after a very productive day I headed back to my studio to load my larger kiln with the following!

Loaded and ready to go! Look at all the colours!

Fired - I just love how much things change!

For more photos of the finished pieces, take a look at Stevie's facebook album and feel free to comment, link and share!  Enjoy!

Landscapes at The Beetroot Tree 22.4.12

Wow, just finished firing the students work from another fab workshop at The Beetroot Tree Gallery. You guys never fail to astound me with the level of creativity and number of new ideas/designs you come up with!

As usual, I started everyone off with a very quick task using pre cut Bullseye glass. We layered small metal inclusions, thinking about texture and confetti and frit for colour....

Before...

 

And after.

So, the general theme of the day with Fused Glass Landscapes but I never hold participants to this....

We had Abstract Shapes by Mavis.

Seasonal Trees by Jackie

Gold and Yellow Shapes by Rebekah

Flowers by Frank

Every one of them beautiful.  I do want to draw particular attention to the set of works created by Karen.  Her use of metal inclusions to create texture and the subtle/atmospheric colours of glass used are a true inspiration. 

Before firing.  Look at all the different components...

Bit of a close up with the textured metals

Three fired panels.  The photos don't do them justice so sorry about that!

As usual, more images from this workshop (and more) can be found on my facebook page!
Keep in touch!

Update to my "Microwave Kilns at Home" page.... a write up and lots of photos to do with the magic of firing glass in a domestic microwave....... check it out.  Any feedback or discussions welcome! 

Flutterby - 14 Students at Trowell Village Hall

22nd March - I was invited by Broxstowe Borough Council to teach a full day workshop as part of their "Take Part Art" events programme.

14 students spent the day creating creative with the Flutterby theme. Here are just a few examples of the finished works and descriptions.


This is David's Dragonfly - a wonderfully sculpted image, created in wire, simple colours were added with glass powders, confetti and mica powders. I had my concerns, technically I mean, I thought the wire design might catch air bubbles, but David was happy to just see what happened. I love to teach students like this - less pressure on me I think!

A tile by Grace - this photo doesn't do it justice but the dichroic glass pieces, placed in this mosaic effect is stunning! I can't be the only one who loves sparkle! I love the process of piecing together small pieces of coloured glass and use it a lot in my own work as well as teaching a 1/2 day Jewellery course I have titled "Mosaic Pendants & Earrings". I think it is just a great way of playing with colour and shape and each pieces is 100% unique!

Finally for this blog post, although you can see the whole photo album on my facebook page, is this hanging my Helen Domleo. Not sticking with the theme but I loved Helens use of wire, you can tell she is a very talented Jeweller. I suggested she bash the wire stems with a hammer and a metal plate to flatten them slightly. I find this helps to stiffen the wire, so it doesn't bounce around so much and it gives a really interesting texture/raw edge rather than the smooth round wire. I am going to develop list more as a process as recent sampling in my own practise has thrown up some interested results!