A lovely commission for March

I was delighted to hear from a friend over in East Anglia who asked if I would be able to make a piece celebrating their creatures for his Wife's birthday.  Her birthday, coincidentally, was exactly the same day as mine so everything was boding well.

The panel featuring both of their beloved cats and one out of the three of their pet chickens has now wended it's way to the Fens and the double pleasure was that they collected it personally and I got to see them both.

Temporarily out of action

Normal service will be resumed very soon now.....

P1070024_edited-1, a photo by Ajay Jayne on Flickr.

At long last it has become possible to get to proper grips with a pencil and glass cutter again after a minor mishap involving me punching the Alps. They are large, hard and unforgiving and I am celebrating not actually having broken anything.

Although it is cold and rather grey in Watford at the moment I am working on some designs that capture aspects of the seaside. A small panel featuring a Cornish landscape with a large St Ives "steal your chips" Herring Gull has surfaced from the kiln and is now waiting for me to foil, solder and assemble over the weekend.

Designs involving rock pools and the stunning Cornish coastline are also coming together with the lighter evenings and mornings encouraging me to mend even faster and get plenty of the designs translated into glass.

A picture of the rocks and waterline at the bottom of Trebah Gardens to keep me focused.

Christmas is coming and soon there may be snow

I was lucky enough to be in Northern Italy last January during a snowfall and for the first time in my life saw single, huge and beautiful snowflakes. I have seen pictures of them under microscopes but this was the first time I had actually seen the little six sided spiky crystal shapes with my own eyes.



Inspired by those flakes and my love of the colour cobalt blue, since it reminds me of delft tiles and Nordic 1960s designs, I worked at recreating some snowflakes using cobalt blue enamel and fused clear and opal white glass. Each one has been individually hand painted and by the end of the week, they will be ready for hanging on the Christmas tree and will be for sale in my Folksy shop. http://www.folksy.com/shops/Redhenglass