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My Super Silk Scarf Summer Sale is now on!
Free postage too, what you see is what you pay! Why not pop over there and snap yours up today! Stocks are limited, and every scarf unique! Loads of designs, so please do take a peek! Thanks to the lovely people at Search Press for sending me a copy of this book for review. I have not been paid for this review and my opinions are my own.
Decorative Initials by Judy Balchin is one of the "Design Source Book" series from Search Press. A photocopiable pattern book from Search Press. Priced at £4.95. The description is "A beautifully illustrated photocopiable collection of stylised and decorative letters interlaced and adorned with leaves, flowers, figures, animals, patterns and more. These inspirational initials can be used by crafts people, artists, needleworkers and all those interested in creating their own original ideas and projects". The book is printed on good quality glossy paper, with the covers in colour and the contents in black and white. It has a soft cover. It's a lovely selection of decorative initials in a range of styles and textures. However, one of the things I found frustrating with this book was that only part of the alphabet was represented in each style (and, of course, never the exact ones you want!). However, it's a good source of inspiration, with one A4 page dedicated to each letter. The designs range from 1.5 to 4 inches in height. I thought the "patchwork patches" block capitals, and the letters made of cats, were rather fun! So, if you'd like a starter for some alphabet inspiration, go take a look at this book! You can see the full series here I've got some great events coming up!
Thursday 15th June: I'll be at the Arts Networking Event at The Lightbox, Woking. 7-9pm. Free! Find out more at www.wokingartshub.org Saturday 1st July: Silk Painting for Beginners - Spaces available! Pop over to my Courses page to book your space today. Saturday 8th July: Party in the Park - Woking Park - Come and try silk painting and help us paint a big funky silk scarf! Loads of bands to listen to and other attractions too. It's going to be a fabulous day! http://www.celebratewoking.info/party-in-the-park 16-17 September: Guild of Silk Painters Festival, World of Wedgwood, Stoke on Trent. www.silkpainters-guild.co.uk Saturday 30th September: Thread a Festival of Textiles, Farnham Maltings. http://craft.farnhammaltings.com/portfolio/thread-festival-textiles/ See you there! Join my mailing list today to get information like this straight to your inbox! :) Have you been on a taster workshop and are thinking you would like to work with fused glass at home?
What types of glass are there? There are two main types of specialist fusing glass, COE90 and COE96. The COE refers to the Coefficient of Expansion. Choose a manufacturer and stick with them, as although they may say that the COE Is the same as someone else's, they don't always play well together. If you fuse incompatible glass together it will get stressed as they expand and shrink differently, and your piece may crack. Bullseye are a lovely company who make a fab range of colours, Wissmach have some nice stuff too, Spectrum is under new management and the colours should be back online later in the year. If you want to save your budget, you can also use window (float) glass or make things out of old beer/wine bottles. This is a really good way to experiment cheaply. Float/bottle glass is harder (lower COE is harder glass) but a LOT cheaper, and your local glazier will often give you offcuts for free. There are loads of projects and sample firing cycles over on Fun With Float if you did want to have a go. You can also get coloured float glass in the UK, which is rather exciting, and Creative Glass Guild (I think) or Creative Glass Shop stock float compatible frit. How can I make it pretty? You can add to your glass with other compatible bits of glass, frits and stringers, or use enamels or enamel paints, or you can get pretty picture waterslide decals for glass which fire on permanently. You can put mica powder, metal foil and metal leaf between your pieces of glass too! How big a kiln should I get? If you have room, go for the largest kiln you can afford. The Kilncare Hobbyfuser is a wonderful thing if you have the space for it, but does cost about £1800. This fits 9 coasters, or a 30cm square fruit bowl or platter. The Skutt Hotstart Pro is about £900. This is a heptagon shape with a round shelf about 30cm. It can fit 4 coasters, or a 25cm round fruit bowl or platter. If you are buying a new kiln, choose your supplier carefully as some of them give you a % discount off future purchases. Do I need a second kiln shelf? If you think you might want to experiment with reactions using metal foil and other things, it would be a really good idea to buy a second kiln shelf when you get your kiln. It's cheaper to buy it now than it is to pay another shipping charge later. You can also use it to prepare / arrange your next project while the first one is firing. Where should I put my kiln? Some people have them in the garage, some in the kitchen. Make sure you have 1ft clearance all round it, and that you either buy the proper stand or put it on a proper non-flammable surface (like a bed of paving slabs or vermiculite board or similar). You can't use an extension lead with a kiln, so it needs plugging directly into the powerpoint. Larger kilns sometimes need to be wired in by an electrician, but the Hobbyfuser and the Hotstart Pro can both be plugged into a normal socket. It's a good idea, if it's indoors, to have it in the same room as your extractor fan, as sometimes the fumes can get a bit smelly (for instance if you use thinfire paper or are working with inclusions). You don't want to be in the same room while it's on. Can I buy a second hand kiln? Yes you can, as people upgrade all the time so you can quite often find someone selling one on one of the glass communities. However, you want to work out whether the extra mileage to go and get it is worth it. Check out the Fused Glass Enthusiasts UK Facebook Community, or Frit Happens Online Community for glass beadmakers, as those are some UK based places where you can find secondhand kilns. Do I have to tell my house insurer? Yes. It is possible you may need to change your insurer as not everyone will insure kilns. Ask your kiln supplier for a recommendation, or try Direct Line or Quoteline Direct (broker). Can I get everything I need in one friendly box? You can get glass fusing starter packs which have a lot of the basics in them. Don't skimp on eye protection - ALWAYS wear your safety glasses. Things I wouldn't be without: - clear safety glasses - glass cutter (love my Toyo) - A3 green self-healing cutting mat - 1ft steel ruler with a cork back (nonslip) - cut running pliers (the cheap blue plastic ones work fine) - grozing pliers (for removing extra bits - you can use normal pliers at a pinch!) - yellow diamond pad (use it wet to sand off pointy corners) - bullseye thinfire paper - gives a beautiful finish to the bottom of your glass! (though the much cheaper option is kiln wash, which works fine too) - dust mask (proper COSSH one) to use when working with glass powder or when cleaning your shelf - spare kiln shelf - some sort of glue (use teeny bits of it to hold little things in place as you move your piece) - I love the glasstac gel because you can dilute it to make runny glue too, and it burns off cleanly. - first aid kit - get some saline eye wash pods just in case, and some steri-strips and some plasters. Do I have to buy those big sheets? They look scary! Big sheets are scary to cut when you first start off! Most places do 1ft squares or 20x25cm squares, which you can cut much more easily. You can get 10cm squares and sample packs too. Some places (like Reading Stained Glass) will cut your glass into the sizes you want when you buy it, but you have to go there! Can I get a book to help me? Yes there are some lovely glass fusing project books out there, so take a look and see which sort of projects you would like to make. The Petra Kaiser books are quite a good and friendly starting point (you can use layers of ceramic fiber paper instead of the Kaiser Lee Board she mentions, as that is difficult to get in the UK). Farenheit? Celsius?! UK kilns tend to be programmed in Celsius, and USA ones in Farenheit. Use the proper calculations if you're switching between the two. Here is a helpful converter from Farenheit to Celsius: http://www.metric-conversions.org/temperature/fahrenheit-to-celsius.htm Is there an online community where I can get help? There are loads of them on Facebook! Some of my favourites are Fused Glass Enthusiasts UK, Fusing 101, and Fun with Float. Do I have to fill the whole kiln every time? Remember you don't need to fill the whole shelf to fire the kiln! Just do one simple 2-layer coaster to get your confidence up! (If you are using thinfire paper, cut it to about 1/2 inch larger than your project, and use it with the bullseye logo on the bottom) Start with simple projects - don't spend weeks working on something if you don't know whether it will fire correctly, as that makes the "cry" factor much higher! Full fuse or tack fuse? Glass wants to be 6mm thick. If you put 2 layers of 3mm glass together and full fuse it the edges will round off and it will look nice. If you put 1 layer of 3mm glass with some pretty bits on top and you tack fuse it, you will keep the texture and the edges will round up a bit and it will look nice. If you full fuse one layer of 3mm glass, it will try to ball up into 6mm glass and will end up with thick bits and thin bits and be rather confused! There are some great resources on the Bullseye website - google Bullseye Tipsheets for more information. Your kiln may have pre-programmed firing cycles to help you when you start off. What is annealing? Annealing is vitally important! Annealing is what makes your glass safe and strong. You programme your kiln to hold your glass at a particular temperature for a length of time while it's cooling down, which allows all the stresses in the glass to even out. This means that if you drop it later it will be more likely to break into a few big bits rather than shatter all over the place. If you don't anneal, your glass stays stressed and could spontaneously crack! Always anneal for longer than you think you need to - you can't over-anneal your glass! How much will my kiln cost to run? My Hobby fuser takes about 6kw of electricity to run a full fuse cycle, so that's about £1ish. Smaller kilns can be more efficient. So it's quite affordable and a good idea to do test firings to make sure your posh projects will turn out the way you want them to. Getting to know your kiln It's a good idea to do a set of test tiles at different temperatures to give you an idea of the sort of thing your kiln can do for you. Then mark them on the back with sharpie marker so you know which temperature is which! You could use your preset programmes (tack and full fuse) for this when you first start off, then add more samples as you progress. Lisa Pettibone does a "getting to know your kiln" course in Surrey, if you want additional help. Your kiln manufacturer and/or glass supplier can be very helpful too - do ask them if you're stuck or not getting the results you had hoped for. They will often talk you through programming your kiln too! Happy Fusing! Do leave your tips and comments below! :) NOTE: I posted some of this information a few weeks ago, following a question on the Fused Glass Enthusiasts UK Community, and they said:
The salt effect never ceases to amaze my students when we try it on one of my silk painting courses!
It's quite a simple technique but makes a fantastic effect and can be used in many ways. It's not always reproducible or easy to determine exactly how it will come out, which is part of its charm. Salt you can use: You can use any salt! I have tried the following:
Tips to get a good effect:
I find that salt gives more dramatic effects with ironfix paints than with steamfix dyes. Projects you could try with salt:
Have fun, and please do check out my silk painting courses! Jane :) Have you done silk painting and used salt? Post your pictures and comments here - I'd love to see them! You can also join the Guild of Silk Painters at www.silkpainters-guild.co.uk, or join their Facebook Group here.ave Powder migration for fused glass has become quite popular recently, so here is a little set of tips and links from me.
Here is one of my first samples. This is one sheet of 3mm clear glass, with a 2mm layer of powder frit sifted on top, and then a layer of coarse clear frit placed on top. I used tweezers to move pieces around to get an even coverage. I then full fused it. The sample is approx 10x10cm. INSERT PICTURE Colours: Deep Cobalt Blue Opal Powder. Coarse Clear Powder Frit. Other glass: 3mm Tekta clear. Note that this piece will not come out perfectly square. Other ideas: You could try adding several colours of power and then white opal coarse frit (0113) on top to make white polkadots with rainbow edges.(This would need firing for a bit longer than normal as white frit is harder to melt down). You could use more than one colour of coarse frit. You could try using reactive glass, for instance turquoise blue transparent with french vanilla opal, which would give you halos around your dots. You could do this either way round! You could try doing this on an opal background. You could try putting silver on top of your base glass, then a non-reactive powder, and then coarse frit which would react with the silver. Check the Bullseye reaction chart for more ideas and inspiration: http://www.bullseyeglass.com/methods-ideas/get-a-reaction-bullseye-reactive-glasses.html The sky's the limit! I'd love to see what you create - please do post them in the comments :) Resources and links: This little tip from Warm Glass USA gives the basics: http://www.warmtips.com/20060530.htm This pinterest board focuses on powder migration and reactive glass pendants, so is a great place to look for inspiration: https://uk.pinterest.com/cdnrebel/powder-migrationreactive-glass-pendants/?etslf=4915&eq=powder%20migration Another interesting tutorial is the River Rock Reaction: http://www.bullseyeglass.com/methods-ideas/river-rock-reaction.html If you are looking for a tutorial in more depth, then you could buy "The Pebble Experience" webinar DVD by Tanya Veit of AAE Glass. She starts off with powder migration techniques, and then moves on to her pebble technique. She also has a great set of colour combinations for Bullseye glass. (Note: Buying this DVD does not give you access to her pebble experience Facebook group.) If you are looking for a book, try "Contemporary Fused Glass" by Brad Walker, which has a chapter on this and is also a great resource. Disclaimer: Use these tips at your own risk. Always wear appropriate eye protection and use a proper breathing mask when working with powders. Happy fusing! There have been a few questions flying around recently about ways to work safely in your house with fused glass. I sometimes work on my fused glass projects in my kitchen, so thought I'd tell you what works for me.
Nobody but me is allowed in the area while I'm working. I cut carefully and make sure there's no open food-containing items nearby. I work on a big cutting mat, and also clean the worktop with damp kitchen towel to get all the itty bitty splinters up, then sweep the floor after I finish. I keep all the shards and bits of kitchen towel in a separate lidded box (takeaway tub!) and dispose of it carefully when it's full. I pick up any big flying bits as I go (and often use them in other projects!). If I'm doing something which will definitely be messy, like lots of powder sifting, I sometimes open up a bin liner and put it over the work surface before I start. Wear your dust mask when using powders. I also turn on the extractor fan. If I had pets or small kids then I would recommend a separate working area where they don't go. I always wear safety glasses. Always. And shoes. I always cut standing up. I wash my glass in a bucket of water, and let any residue settle to the bottom before pouring off the water - this stops my sink getting blocked. If I'm peeking in my kiln I always wear my green kiln glasses (not my clear safety glasses as they protect from flying bits but not from infrared). If you're worried about flying bits, then you can always put your cutting mat into a deep tray or surround it with a little booth made from a cardboard box, which would stop most of the flying splinters. If you produce a lot of flying bits then look on youtube for glass cutting videos and see if you can improve your technique. Use the right tool and technique for the cut you want to make - it makes things neater. I always put my extractor fan on when the kiln is running. Or open the window! I always wear my protective gloves and special kiln glasses when peeking in the kiln. It's a really good idea to wear natural fibres, have your hair tied back and wear closed toed shoes. If you're peeking at higher temperatures or for a longer time then you need more protective gear. If I use my microwave kiln, I always use it in my craft microwave, never in my "cooking" microwave and have a large tile to put it on when it's cooling (never leave it to cool inside the microwave as you can melt / warp it!). Everyone designs their workspace differently. Some people prepare several projects, put it all away, then fuse. If you can do this then you need less space. Remember that your kiln needs to have clearance around it when you're firing it - most people recommend at least 1ft, but you might want to increase this if you have a larger kiln or are doing casting projects which require extra long firing times. It also needs to be on a non-flammable work surface. I fire my Paragon SC2 on a large granite tile which I got from a kitchen supplier, and elevate it off the work surface on little blocks so there's less possibility of the heat transferring to the surface. I have been known to use my electric glass grinder in the house - I do this by putting the whole setup into a large cardboard box with one side cut off to make a booth so that any spray is contained. I do not use my tile saw in the house - I wait till summer and do it in the garden because it can be quite wet and messy! Even outside, it can be a really good idea to use a protective box with this and/or put bin bags down, especially if you like to be able to wander around your garden in bare feet (though ALWAYS wear proper shoes, eye protection etc. when using tile saws and other equipment). It's a great hobby as long as you take a few simple precautions. Enjoy! PS If you're one of those lucky people who has a whole room or a dedicated studio for their glass work, then do check out my other post about setting up your fused glass studio. Disclaimer: I hope you find these tips useful. Use at your own risk. Always fuse responsibly. Whether you are an experienced fuser, or a novice, it is likely that at some point in your career you will get your glass stuck in the mould.
This is not always the end of the line for the glass, or the mould, as there are lots of ways to rescue things depending on whether your mould is ceramic or metal. Pendant Pods with holes These are notorious for people getting things stuck on them! They're fantastic if you can get them to work for you. If you got it stuck in the first place, it's possible that you didn't use enough kilnwash / boron nitride spray / zyp / primo primer, or whatever separator you normally use, or that you fired it too long or too hot. Some separators don't hold up to casting temperatures so do check the information to make sure you are using the correct product for what you are trying to achieve. That said, these make fantastic pendants and are well worth the effort. These often get stuck around the little round bit in the middle, because glass shrinks more than ceramic and so it hugs the centre part as it cools. You can start by folding a towel and putting it on the worktop, then putting your mould upside down on top and giving it a few good taps (not enough to break it though!) - a rubber mallet can help with this if you have one. Sometimes this will dislodge the pendant. If that doesn't work, then put it back in the kiln, upside down, suspended on little shelf posts and do a tack fuse - that should enable it to drop out. Heating these in the oven doesn't work, as there is ceramic in the middle as well as outside so you're trapped both ways! If any little bits are still stuck on the mould, you can remove these with a dremel tool (with a diamond bit, use it wet!) or with a bit of wet and dry sandpaper. If you have managed to break off the little bit in the middle you can use fibre paper or a piece of chalk to replace it, just use a new one for each firing. Stainless steel drape vases: If you slump or drape something over one of these, or a cocktail shaker, or other similar vase, sometimes if you over-fire it can get stuck. These are normally fairly easy to release, as metal shrinks more than glass, so wait until it's cooled down properly and then pop it in the freezer for a bit. Often this is enough to shrink the metal enough to release it from the former. If you can't get it off, then pop it back in the kiln upside down and it should release at slump temperatures. Keep an eye on this as you may be able to loosen it just enough to keep your vase too! If you want to get more kiln wash on it before you start, heat it up in the oven (or with a hairdryer) and then spray kiln wash on it. The evaporation will help more of it to stick. If you have one, you could also rough up the metal with a sandblaster or some wet and dry sandpaper. Stuck in a ring? The new metal casting rings (for pot melts / screen melts etc.) are brilliant, but you need to make sure you line them with 1/8 inch fibre paper (NOT thinfire or papyrus - they're not thick enough) so that when the metal ring shrinks around the glass it won't trap it. If you've trapped your glass, try popping it in the oven first to see if that will release it, as metal expands more than glass. If that doesn't work, you can support the ring on kiln posts and take it up to slump temp and wait for the glass to drop out. Ceramic drape vases (You can use these upside down for draping!) These are not recommended, because there's a high possibility your glass will get stuck and crack. This is because glass shrinks more than ceramic when it cools, so it will hug your vase very tightly and not want to come off without a fight. If you do want to have a go, for instance if you're on a budget and using a terracotta plant pot, it's a good idea to put a big circle of fibre paper over your mould, as well as kilnwashing it, as that way there is some space even if the glass shrinks. Be generous with the fibre paper so that you know it will reach all the way to the ground around your pot in case you over-fire. If you are on a budget, it's better to keep an eye on your local charity shop and get hold of a second hand stainless steel cocktail shaker! Don't use things which are smaller at the bottom than at the top. These are a recipe for disaster! If you get one of these stuck, remember you can put it in upside down and take it up to slump temp again - it should release - just keep an eye on it so you can keep a vase shape rather than a puddle! Stuck drop ring vase (ceramic) One of my pieces cracked on the way up and wrapped itself round the drop ring! I tried the freezer but it wasn't having any of it... I set it up in the kiln, upside down, supported on kiln posts with a couple of posts on the top to counterbalance the weight of the glass. I also put some thinfire on the top of the ring in case it decided to flop down the other way instead. Then I full fused it. Success! The glass came free and only the very tiniest bit of glass remained on the drop ring, and that was easily removed. I'll use this glass in another project (or for practicing on my tile saw!) I hope you have found this helpful. Please do add your hints and tips in the comments. Jane :) Disclaimer: These are some things which have worked for me, they may or may not work for you. Always fuse responsibly. I know some of you may still be working on your tax returns. Here's a tip to make it less frantic for next year...
Take your lovely new shiny 2017 diary and put a note in for 2nd week in April to say "Start doing my tax return". If you have children who are home for the hols then maybe put this in for the first week of the summer term instead. Returns are so much easier to do when they are fresh in your head (and you haven't mislaid your box of receipts!), and you will find that HMRC (and your accountant if you have one) are far less busy and have more time available to answer your questions. You still don't have to pay your tax bill till the usual time! You'll also find next year's return easier because you've only just done this one, so the process will be fresh! From a business perspective, it's better to know how you did last year asap as then you have some concrete information to inform your planning. Go to it, and good luck! PS If you need your P60 from your day job too, then get the self employed stuff done first and you can just add that in when it arrives! EDIT 17/1/17: Thanks to the lovely people over at Which for getting in touch to let me know that they also offer a new simple (no jargon!) calculator (officially recognised by HMRC) for filling out your tax return (small fee to submit to HMRC). If you're interested, this can be found here: www.which.co.uk/money/tax-calculator |
Jane Cameron
Experienced silk painter, glass fuser, teacher, enthusiastic and inspirational. Archives
June 2019
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