Firing my imagination

My latest piece, Fiery Heart, is so called because of the bright, tropical-coloured beads I've used in its creation.



Inspiration for the colours used in its design came from a magazine advert for paint. I thought that the combination of brights in the room set just looked so gorgeous together that I needed to use them in my work.





Its so colourful that I almost want to keep it for myself. I won't though - you can buy it now on Folksy - just click the image below:

I'm an April Fool!

And not just for posting this a couple of days after the 1st, lol. On April Fools' Day itself, I went into work just before 12, thinking that's when I started. I came downstairs to look at the rota and see where I was, and the manager then informed me I wasn't due in til 6! Doh. So I pootled around the shops then came home again. At least I got a few decent photos on my way in, so it wasn't an entirely wasted journey!




I've also nearly finished a necklace I've been working on for a while, called Charlotte. Why Charlotte? Well, I asked folks for ideas for names for my necklaces, and some UK Etsy friends came up with Charlotte, as in Charlotte's Web. All it needs now is a little more wire, which I've ordered off t'internet. Here it is so far:




Talking of spiders, I've just made a new spidery suncatcher. Astrid is the little sister of Rosie. She is also a glamourous little thing, takes after her big sis, and is of course not scary at all, like some spiders can be. Because she likes anything pretty, she has woven beads into her web.

I made Astrid from two beads, one glass and one plastic, with steel wire threaded through and wrapped around them. This wire attaches it to the steel part of her cobweb. This cobweb was made from more steel wire, with copper wire and a mixture of glass and plastic beads in shades of green and blue. This cobweb has a loop at the top, to hang it from.



Also, Doctor Who's back on Saturday, yay!

Glass Moon - a painted suncatcher

Just last night I finished a new suncatcher. I make lot of suncatchers, usually from wire and beads, but this one was quite different. It involved painted glass, which is a technique I haven't used for quite a while. I used to do it all the time. This time though, I've not done it in the usual way. How you're supposed to do it is put the outliner on the glass then, after it has dried, put the paint in between where the outliner is, to look like stained glass with lead. I instead just painted onto the glass straight away, painting over the outliner in places and using it on top of the paint in others, to give it extra texture and colour.

I started off with a rectangle of glass, which was originally in this frame. I don't like to waste anything! I painted this glass with blue glass paint:



then painted a moon onto that with white glass paint:



After I'd let that dry, I then wrapped steel wire around the edges of the glass to form a frame, and also something from which to hang this piece:



I then painted a tree onto the glass, painting over some of the wire. This wire forms a frame for this painting and also gives more texture to the tree. I also painted silver-coloured outliner on top of the tree to echo the colour of the steel wire, and add to the texture. This suncatcher measures 17cm (6.5") wide by 13cm (5") high.



It's for sale here.

Well that was short and sweet ...

That had to be the shortest unemployment in the history of me. Acme let me go on the first of this month, and I've been offered a job at New Look today :D So I start on Saturday.

In other news, I've done a new design:



I've named it Repurposeful Suncatcher, because almost everything in it has been re-purposed. It measures just over a foot long, and consists of gems and beads hanging from, and held together by, chain and twisted steel wire. The blue glass beads and steel wire are new, but the other components are not. The purple plastic beads were originally part of a bracelet, and the chain and faceted plastic gems were re-purposed from this belt:



It's not available on Etsy, (it's been given to a bricks and mortar shop) but something very similar will be soon. I also have a few other suncatchers similar to it. Click the image to go to those, and my other suncatchers: