How to spend a small fortune

I have been reading a few blogs lately just to get an idea of what everyone else does and no matter what subject the blog covers there is a universal theme - apologies!  It is nice to know that we are all the same, life takes over and the weeks fly by and I am no exception, so sorry that I haven`t blogged for weeks.
My life took over a bit as I also run a guest house, so as the sun has come out at last people are emailing and phoning to book a break by the sea.
So anyway back to the glass.  I was telling you how I started at evening class with Frank.  Trouble is that I was like a kid in a sweetshop when I went to buy my supplies at Newquay Glass and I got lots of glass which was not designed to be fired together.  When I came to make the piece some of the glass was Bullseye and some Decofloat and some Spectrum 96. 

This is double dutch to those of you who have never fused glass but basically it is a bit like cooking one type of cake that needs to be cooked at gas mark 2 and another that needs to be cooked on gas mark 6 – you would not cook them in the same oven at the same time.

I also had lots of problems actually cutting the glass and if I couldn`t do that I was in real trouble.

I asked Frank how I should be cutting glass and he said “very carefully!”.  It turned out that I was sitting down when I should be standing up, so therefore the angle of my glass cutter was wrong.  I was also pushing way too hard, you only need to score it not cut right through it!

I do find it quite a challenge as I have arthritis in my hands so I use a pistol grip glass cutter which I find much easier to handle.

But I am glad that I had problems because it will make me a better teacher.  I have also tried lots of different ways of cutting glass to discover what worked for me and hopefully I can help my students to discover the right way for them.

It is like Christmas here but without the wrapping paper!  Lots of bubble wrap and those polystyrene bits in the boxes though.  I have spent a fortune the last few weeks but have had really good service from all my suppliers and now have the basics for my glass studio.  I could spend another few fortunes though before I am finished!  Now just got to find the time to play with all the goodies!

I didn`t buy any glass though!  That sounds a bit stupid but there is a lot of other stuff that I needed first.

Today I unwrapped a lovely slumping mould which I bought from Creative Glass. http://www.creativeglassshop.co.uk/  They were really helpful as it was out of stock when I ordered it, so they sent the rest of my order then a lovely man phoned me when it was back in stock and they sent it out without any extra postage costs.  

Mind you, that was the first of many as Warm Glass had a sale with 30% off moulds, so I bought a few more and here they are all kiln washed ready to go!

 You have to remember to unblock the air holes with a pin after putting the kiln wash on.

nails are courtesy of Claire at Beautopia Nails & Beauty at Hayle, they have a Facebook page.  I am really into dots at the moment and I have several ideas for dotty designs once I get started properly.

Bottles, bottles everywhere.......

As well as telling you all what is happening now, I suppose I should tell you how I eventually got started.  As I said before, the first time I saw fused glass was at college, after that I noticed quite a bit of jewellery around at craft fairs.  We have a lovely glass gallery in St. Ives – Jo Downs Glass – http://www.jodownsglass.co.uk which was really inspiring and when I asked in there if they knew anyone teaching fused glass techniques, they put me on to Frank at Helston.  This was an evening glass for beginners and ran once a week for two hours.  We had projects for the first few weeks and then made whatever we wanted.

One of the things I have seen around are items made with bottles that have been flattened in the kiln.  I have been collecting bottles for a while.  Not any old bottles though, I want unusual shapes or coloured glass other than the norm.  

However, my first experiment, indeed the first ever firing in my kiln was with Grolsch beer bottles

and I was delighted with the results

the next experiment with wine bottles was not completely successful!

the problem was that the bottles were rolling together in the kiln, so I thought I would put a little stopper there so it wouldn`t roll.  I had the sense to use proper kiln furniture that is designed to be used in the kiln

but didn`t have the sense to realise that the glass would just flow around it!

This is why we experiment though, isn`t it?  I tend to learn by my mistakes so will not make this one again.  The rest of the wine bottles were fine though

I had a problem with my next load though, as I was preparing to fire some baileys bottles that my daughter Jeni had kindly emptied for me.  I didn`t take photos because I was a bit upset when my kiln lid would not close on them.  As you will notice from the photos at the beginning the kiln is quite shallow and even more so when the lid is closed as the elements protrude from the lid.  Never mind, I can do lots of other things and when I start making a fortune selling all these items I can buy a bigger kiln!