Kaylee's Glassy Blog

Adios

2011-05-08T15:31:00.000+01:00

As you might have noticed from the lack of posting for the last 4 months (the shame of it)... I have taken on a bit much. So I'm cutting back - which means I'm closing this blog and just blogging under my Year of Living Creatively blog instead. Hope to see you there, thanks for reading :-)

Hello, from my poor neglected blog

2010-12-24T17:22:00.003Z

Yes, I know, my poor neglected blog.

I have been making beads, honest... although not many for the last couple of months because we were on holiday for 3 weeks in November and then 2 days after we came back to the UK it started to snow. And didn't stop.

I'd never quite appreciated how much hassle snow could be. It's still white here so it'll be the first guaranteed white Christmas for many years, yet it doesn't feel Christmassy somehow - just a bit snowier than usual.

Well here is a little taste of some recent-ish beads...

I haven't managed any focals since I got back from holiday as I've been changing studio space around and didn't want to end up tripping over something while dancing around with hot glass to go into the kiln. And it's definitely been a bit too cold for dunking a focal-sized bead into annealling bubble (which is a great product, I like it much better than vermiculite - you can buy it at Mangobeads).

So for Christmas I have managed to update my website! Yippee! Check it out - www.kayleelampwork.com - it's a portfolio/showcase site, I will still be selling through Artfire, where I hope to be selling lots of beads in the new year, especially as I seem to have loads sitting around my new, smaller studio.

A merry Christmas to all, have a cool Yule and I hope it's a relaxing one for you, that's what I shall be aiming for this year!

Love,
Vicky

Secrets of Stringer Control

2010-04-27T21:01:00.000+01:00

Last week I got a bargain - Corina's Secrets of Stringer control DVD for £7.99 instead of around £17.00.

I'm a bit old fashioned - I prefer books to DVDs for learning - but at the bargain price and given my lack of stringer control I thought I'd go for it.

Well... I can now pull stringer even better - I managed some lovely encased stringer, green over white, for example.

But can I find the "sweet spot" for doing stringer work?

Can I hell.

I can't tell you how deeply frustrating this is! (There would be far too many swear words involved.)

However, I am determined to try further before giving up on it completely. I know - practice, practice, practice...

A Flock of Sheep and More...

2010-03-19T12:35:00.003Z

Last week's work... a flock of sheep! My first sheep was made ages ago, and turned into a charm which I kept... I finally got around to making some more. As you can see I tried a "natural" coloured one too... he is made from CiM Butter Pecan I think. Not sure though - I think the white sheep work better. I did try making a black sheep but he came out looking like Gnasher instead, definitely not a success!

I also made a whole passel of cats... I was inspired to make more after talking to Dorothy in our local cheese shop (if you are in Dundee you should definitely visit The Cheesery) so here you are. These guys have still to get sorted out, then some will become charms and some sold as beads.

Most of them are made with Vetrofond odd lot glass. Which is making me want to buy more Vetrofond... aarrggh... not sure hubby would put up with much more glass!

Keeping it up...

2010-01-20T14:04:00.001Z

Yes, I have been remiss in keeping up my blog... so it's on hold for the meantime. Instead, check out my new blog - The Year of Living Creatively which will cover not only glassy stuff but lots of other creativity.

The glassy blog will be back with a vengeance once I have my schedule sorted out!

Silver Glass

2009-05-21T18:16:00.004+01:00

Here are some of the beads I cleaned in my marathon session yesterday...

I bought Anouk's silver glass tutorial last week - available on Etsy - and I've been playing with my stash of silver glass.

I'm quite pleased with them, although the ends aren't perfect. I haven't made many focals before but I enjoyed making some bigger beads - and they all survived the vermiculite and batch annealing too!

Balancing Act

2009-05-21T18:06:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I spent 1.75 hours cleaning beads, followed by another 4 hours photographing them, matching them into sets, and tweaking the photos for colour. I didn't reach the part where I actually listed anything for sale!

So... I've been thinking about how to build a more balanced approach to the beads, jewellery making, writing - you know, everything I want to fit into the day.

The answer I keep coming up with is: DAILY. Small things, every day. If I don't do things daily, it seems like I blink and there you go, I've missed a week. Three weeks. Or six months. It's a bit like keeping in touch with friends - we visited friends last Friday and realised it was almost two years since we last got together!

So what do I want to do daily?

Blog writing
Non-blog writing
Make a piece or two of jewellery
Make beads
Reading (my recreation!)
Keep up to date online - finances, listing beads and jewellery, checking emails, etc

And there's the day job, the 'little' things like cleaning beads, cooking, making lunches... not to mention spending time with DH so he doesn't kill me for never being around.

So I'm starting small... I've done half an hour of journalling and here I am blogging :-) so that's a start. Now I'm off to cook tea and then perhaps I might just manage to make some beads...

Hello and Welcome...

2009-04-15T07:51:00.002+01:00

... to my first post. I'm sure this is going to be a long and fruitful collaboration (sort of!) with Blogger (I was previously on Wordpress which has lovely themes but I couldn't figure out how to customise it how I wanted. Yes, I know, I should be able to figure these things out... I'm a software developer in my other job!)

Anyway, I'm celebrating this morning as I sold my first beads on Artfire yesterday, and it's to a lady in the USA, so it's also my first international sale. Hooray! So it's off to the post office shortly.