tching!

I took this rather lovely thing out of the kiln on Monday.  It was quite cool to the touch and survived being cleaned up with no problem.  But the kiln shelf underneath must have been warmer than I thought and the sudden change in temperature shocked the glass; because as it has been sitting on the desk beside me, every so often I hear little 'tching' noises as it has gradually started to crack... you can see the biggest crack in the bottom left hand corner but there are others all up that side. Aah, the joys of working with glass!

So this piece is destined to be used in a 'what if' type experiment.

Whereas the piece below is from a different firing and is behaving itself; at least I managed to get one piece finished and framed up.  Better go and cut up some more glass!

And the sea glass is on

The internet has been behaving today so no more crawling around on the floor (I am informed it was off at 2am but since I am generally asleep then I'll let it off...)

So I had a nice peaceful afternoon stitching the sea glass pieces on.  I do like to see the little rectangles all lined up like this; maybe I should do a collection of them on a canvas or in a frame some time, what do you think?

But this lot were destined to be cards.

I think some will be going out to a local shop, and I just need to find time to photograph the rest so I can list them in my etsy shop.

Slow Progress

They look a bit more interesting now, don't they?  I had hoped to spend a peaceful afternoon stitching on fragments of sea glass but instead I spent the time on the phone to our internet service provider, and crawling around on the floor connecting this and disconnecting that... it seems to have worked, I'm posting this after all, fingers crossed!

And the sea glass will still be waiting for me tomorrow.

Restocking

I've had a little run on my seashore art cards during this last week or so.  And the lovely thing is, I actually have time to make some more!  The process is a bit longwinded but I do enjoy it.  So on my table today are...

They're all a bit samey at the moment but that will soon change.

I've also had time to stock up on a few of my silk and wire hearts, now available here; the red ones have been out of stock for ages, but no more!  Here they are, hanging up to dry.

Things I might have time for now...

1. Walking on the beach (instead of creating work about it)
2. Catching up with all the people I've promised to have coffee with when it was all over
3. Teaching my boys to cook something more adventurous than bacon sandwiches and omelettes (although they do make a mean bacon sandwich and omelette, and most excellent chocolate muffins)
4. Reclaiming the garden from the wilderness it has become (more on that later...)
5. Making myself a dress (I've had the fabric for ages)
6. Walking to the local independent shops instead of making evening runs to the supermarket in the car
7. Finishing off the myriad repair and re-decoration tasks which have been on hold for the last 4 years
8. Housework (just a little bit, I'm not going to break the habit of a lifetime and go overboard on it!)
9. Trying out all the creative ideas I've had to put on the back burner during the course of the degree
10. Building a business!

I've had my post show slump - which seems to have been much shorter than I expected, maybe the good weather has helped - and I'm looking forward to the future!

I've finished!

Finished my degree that is... apologies for the complete lack of blogging over the last few weeks but it had to go, along with cooking, laundry, in fact any housework at all, and even, at times, sleeping.

Am I glad I did it?  Yes.  Am I glad it's over?  YES!

So here are some pictures of my final collection of work.  They're not the most brilliant photographs, I seem to have created work that is camera shy, but I've done my best to capture it and please take my word that everything looks better in real life!

There are more pictures over on my new website.  And normal blogging service should be resumed here shortly...