World's Worst Blogger...

Yep, that award goes to me!
So I've been a bit absent on the blog front lately.  I aplogise to anyone on here who actually follows my blog.  I've been ill for about a month and so I've not got round to doing much and have neglected my poor little blog.  I promise to make more of an effort from now on!  An update for all you lovely people tho; with the help of my dad and boyfriend, I have managed to make progress with that damn mould that was proving rather difficult to make.  Pics coming soon! Yay!

A poor workman...

I'm well aware of the phrase 'a poor workman blames his tools' (or something to that effect), but I'm gonna go ahead and do that right now.  Today I  had to chuck out my shabby old wallpaper table I've been working on for months. It was in a terrible state. It was wonky and leaning backwards and the water from my bandsaw had ran down all the back of it, causing it to rot. It was gonna give way at any moment. I have today learnt the importance of the correct tools, especially in business.  I don't quite know how I have been working on it for so long after seeing the state of it today.  I now have the tedious task of sorting out my mountain of glass in my studio tomorrow.  Hmm, should be fun....

Checkout my new super (hero) shoes!

I've found another use for my glass fusing skills.  Jazzing up shoes! My mum was gonna get rid of a pair of simple blue shoes she'd never worn. Seeing them, my creativity kicked in and I snapped them up.  So, my mum's a size four and I'm only a three but no big deal, I'll pad them out or wear extra thick tights, they will fit me damn it!  I instantly had plans to turn them into Wonder Woman shoes.  I lovingly stuck each rhinestone on and created the stars like on Wonder Womans knickers.  I then set to the fiddly task of cutting out the logo. I cut it out on my diamond bandsaw and tack fused the yellow on to the red to keep the lines nice and sharp and voila! There you have some super revived shoes!

The kindness of strangers

A couple of weeks ago whilst at a craft fair I met a very nice man.  He makes walking sticks and attends the  fairs on a regular basis.   He is a wise and worldly man who was taken by my lovespoons and jewellery.  He talked to me about a coffee shop in Bute park, Cardiff named Pettigrew's Tea Rooms and said they have a gift shop that I should try and get my stuff into.  Well, last night I was taken aback when this man rang me telling me he had spoken to the owner of the tea rooms and told him about me and my products and the owner was interested.  I went to the coffee shop this morning with some samples of my work and they now want some of my spoons and necklaces for their shop!  I did not expect that lovely man to go out of his way to mention me and promote my stuff to somebody else and it's these simple acts in life that really restore my faith in the human race.  It was a small yet thoughtful gesture and I am very grateful to that kind gent.  It's true when they say 'it's not what you know, it's who you know'.

Getting there....

I'm advancing in my quest to make my mould.  I've made a plaster slip mould and I'm now onto the next stage of figuring out this slip casting business.  I've hit a bit of a wall at the moment as I'm struggling to get my clay to dry enough for me to get it out of my mould but I'm definately making steps in the right direction. Yay!

Just a little scratch....

I had a stall in Caerphilly Castle a little while back.  When you have a stall there you're allowed to drive your car on site to unload.  I used to like doing this cos it made me feel important.  I don't anymore!

It's a tight squeeze manoeuvring through the historic monument that was very obviously not built for cars.  At one point I had to do a three point turn to let another car out and that 's when disaster struck and I accidentally scraped my car on a low iron fence.  As I started reversing a heard a big 'eeeeeee' noise that left a real hideous scratch on my car.  It wasn't the best start to my weekend but luckily it wasn't an indicator to my time at the castle and I had a good time there.

A Latex-plosion

My latex mould worked out well.  I've made a couple of wax models out of it but I decided I wanted to make a model out of lead so it would be more solid.  My dad's a keen fisherman and makes his own lead weights so I enlisted his help in my mould making quest.

Off we went into the garage and melted the lead in an old battered saucepan over a tiny camp stove.  I set my mould down on the floor and watched as my dad poured the lead.  I don't know why I thought pouring molten lead into a latex mould would work, needless to say, it didn't!  The lead bubbled and spat as it melted away the latex leaving a shiny mirror like puddle on the garage floor.  I think this is what you may call an epic fail!

Am I living in a box?

Aargh! I'm feeling the need to vent right now.  I so need a studio.   Having to conduct my business from an old cardboard box is really not ideal! Being the creative that I am, I like to finish my work  before I tidy up the resulting mess.  Unfortunately, my mother (understandably so) does not appreciate my tornado of mess that whirls it's way through our house so I've had to 'discreetly' hide my mess in a cardboard box under the dining room table.  I do fear the untimely demise of my 'mess' when my mum is on one of her crazy 'cleaning trips' though :-\

Success at last

I don't wanna jinx it but I think the fire polishing worked! They came out clean and mark free. Yay! I've still got more to fix but I think this will do the trick.  I can finally get those damn troublesome spoons out of my hair.

Update No. 2

I'm making progress with my messed up spoons.  I'm determined not to let all the glass and hard work go to waste so my next plan of action is gonna be fire polishing.  I'm gonna grind all the manky, ugly bits off, sand them down with a coarse sandpaper then a finer one, then a finer one again then I'm gonna put them back in the kiln for a fire polish that will melt the glass just enough to smooth out the top layer.  I'll let you know how I get on!

Spoon Update

So it turns out it wasn't the alcohol causing the marks.  I think it was caused by grinder markings and because I was rushing a bit, instead of giving them a proper wash I was just wiping with alcohol and not giving a good scrub which didn't clean them up as much as they needed to be.  But I've had a few come up clean nowvso, fingers crossed, I can salvage the others :)

Warning! Alcohol is bad for you!

I've been up and filling my kiln up at 6am most mornings this week.  I've got a couple of lovespoon orders to get through and things just seem to be going wrong.   I did a batch of six spoons that I wanted to get done as soon as possible.  I'd cut them all out and thought they were going to turn out good.  In my attempts to try and speed things up a bit I thought to myself  'alcohol is drying, I'll clean them up with that before I put them in the kiln' So I put a bit of isopropynol on them.  Big mistake. It left a residue on them that even after dremmelling it off and refiring twice again didn't get it off, wasted my time, effort and money and generally caused me a whole load of stress.  The moral of the story; don't use alcohol! It is bad for you!!

Mould Attempt No 3

Today I've been attempting to make a mould again.  I've made a model out of clay, am gonna make a latex mould out of that one then fill that up with melted modelling wax then use that model to make a plaster mould.  That way i'll be able to keep the latex mould to fill again and again to make the model exactly the same each time I want to make a new plaster mould, and I intend to make lots of them.  Fingers crossed this will work! 

My Shameless Plea

So as I'm now a regular blogger I thought i'd make use of my little corner of cyber space for job searching.  Shameless I know but hey in this recession needs must!  I'm looking for some little part time flexible jobs in the South Wales area doing something creative or with animals or kids to boost my income.  I'm loyal, trustworthy and willing to try new stuff so give me a try    :)

Help Needed

I'm in the process of making my own moulds for my lovespoons.  Right now it takes me a long time to cut just one so I'm trying to cut that down by using moulds instead.  Problem is I haven't got a clue what i'm doing.  I've read a bit about mould making but I'm just stumbling along, trying to figure things out for myself.  It's not been much of a success so far.  I'm using a mixture of plaster,  grog and flint.  Anybody out there able to lend me a slice of their glass fusing wisdom?  Any help is much appreciated ;)

(Unofficially) Sponsored by Samsung

I've not updated for a while because i've not been able to access my account.  I was using the family computer to do all my business stuff but our computer is pretty old and tired and doesn't always do what you want it to do, which is really annoying when trying to run a business.  However, I have now been forced into the 21st century! I am the proud owner of a tablet.  This is all new for me cos I'm not much into all this technology malarky, I'm a creative not a techie.  I needed a new phone too so I did a bit of smart shopping around and found a deal with the Carphone Warehouse.  I got a Samsung Galaxy Ace phone, Samsung Galaxy tab and a Samsung camera for £21 a month.  I am now unofficially sponsored by Samsung.

The mystery of the missing piece

Do you know when you get days when you're just extra clumsy?  I'm having one of those today.  I just seem to be breaking/dropping/bumping into stuff.  I've decided to stop making stuff for today cos i seem to be breaking more than making.  And somehow, i've have seemed to lost a piece of glass.
 I cut my spoons in about ten different pieces and whilst loading up my kiln I placed a little piece of a spoon on the controller of my kiln whilst I put other pieces in place.  The controller has vents in it and it dropped down into one of those vents. Not good!  So I called my dad to come help me and he unscrewed the controller to open it up and we couldn't find it.  I've still not found it and i'm puzzled where it could have gone.  Strange.

The tough side of business

My poor pride is feeling a little hurt right now.  I have today been travelling around shops asking if anybody's interested in buying my lovespoons (I felt like a proper apprentice contestant!).  Generally i've had positive feedback off people, although I didn't make any sales most people liked them and were interested.  However, I went into one shop and well, my ego took a bit of a bashing.  The lady who owned the shop was not interested at all and seemed very set in her ways.  I don't think she appreciated my 'modern' take on the lovespoon.  Each one of my lovespoons is my own little creation, my glass babies.  I put a lot of effort into every one and being the sensitive person I am, I guess it's to be excepted that my pride would be a little wounded.  I'm still feeling positive though!  In the future when i'm a multi million selling glass artist, that lady will regret that she was not one of the first to supply my spoons!

Crafters have groupies too!

I had a stall at Caerphilly Castle last weekend and well I seemed to acquire a little groupie.  He was only about ten and I think he belonged to another stall holder but he was wandering round all by himself.  He kept coming up to mine and another stall holder's stall and wouldn't leave for quite some time.  He even started drawing pictures and giving them to me.  When he did have to leave me at one point, he stood in the doorway staring at me so I waved goodbye to him and he waved back but just stood there smiling, so I waved again and he still wouldn't budge.  Eventually he skipped off to where he came from.  He was not gone ten minutes before he returned again.  And well, I like kids and I think most are cute but what I don't think is cute is when a kid fiddles with my work and manhandles my glass, often with grubby hands!  It makes me nervous.  Glass and kids just do not mix.  As nice as the little kid was, I was constantly on edge for fear of my work (and my nerves) being shattered into a million little pieces.  Luckily, nothing got damaged but it reminds me of a saying my sister always used to say when I was little; 'Look with your eyes, not with your hands!'.  Never has a phrase been uttered so much.

You won't miss this bit of advertising!

Check out my new banner!  My mam and dad got it done up for me as a surprise.  It's a big one!  You'll definately see me coming.  You can't see my chuffed face in this photo cos the wind was blowing my hair everywhere, i'm kinda glad about that cos I didn't have any make up on hehe.  Check out the excitement on my mam's face tho.

It's really hard to work when you look that cute!....

So it's great working from home and planning my own working day, I can even go to work in my dressing gown!  What I do find particularly tough is that my super cute little dog has a habit of looking extra cute and snuggly or wanting to play when i've got a load of stuff to do.  How can I say no to big puppy dog eyes?  It's like she know's I can't pay attention to her and so emotionally blackmails me.  How do dogs know this stuff?  They certainly are clever little beings.  She loves popping her head in my studio just to see me.  I was just working on the floor with my dremmel and she came over to me and stuck her head in my face just to give me kisses.  Aww, she's like my little furry employee.


The Four Legged Culprit



The kindness of craft folk

I had a stall at St Fagans this weekend gone.  It wasn't a great one for me but whenever I come away from a craft event I always have a lovely warm feeling inside.  Craft folk are the nicest species of human i've ever met.  Everyone is genuinely interested in how well you do and are more than willing to help each other!  It's such a welcoming community that I am very proud to be a part of.  Love to all the humble craft folk ♥

Just to say hi...

I've been a little quiet on the blog front lately so i'm just checking in to say hi :)  I've had quite a few love spoon orders so have been up to my eyeballs in spoons of late.  It's driving me a little insane!  I make a batch of spoons then get them out of the kiln and then something will have gone wrong in the firing process.  Any potter or glass fuser will know that gutting feeling.  It always scares me opening my kiln after a firing, you just don't know what you will find.  You do make some pretty cool discoveries this way too tho.  Has anybody made any cool discoveries?  Or maybe had an epic firing failure?  Share your stories, i'd love to here about other people's kiln debacles!  Well, i'm off to wade through my mountain of love spoons.  Watch this space for more chronicles of the kiln kind.

Cheese Club

Having a sister who is going out with the son of your local pub's landlady is pretty handy for a glass artist.  My supply of glass beer and wine bottles is pretty endless.  Sometimes when it's quiet and there's no lairy drunks lurking, the cheese and biscuits are pulled out and a few of the regulars partake in a good nibble and natter.  And so, I thought what better cheeseboard could there be for a pub than a melted beer bottle?!  We now indulge in our dairy delights with an aptly shaped cheeseboard.

My Coolness Crusade

I'm perfectly aware of how uncool bumbags are and the naff tourist stigma that is attached to them, however, of late I have created my own little craft bumbag.  Well, i'd say it's kinda more pinny shaped but I guess it's effectively a bumbag.  I've noticed a lot of stall holders have them and it's a pretty wise idea having your money close to you.  And with my marketing head on I made it oh so cool with my 'Designs by Neelie' logo on it!  I'm on a one woman mission to make the bumbag cool.


A stylish piece of bumbag art!



My Super Awesome Craft Day!

So, I'm still buzzing from yesterday.  I was at a craft fayre in The Paget Rooms in Penarth and had a really great day.  Sold out of lovespoons! And had loads of interest.  Days like that really boost your morale when you've not been selling much, I'm sure any humble crafter will agree.  I really like craft stall holders.  They're always so nice and friendly and they are always willing to help you out.  I met some nice people yesterday.  The craft industry is a lovely little community that I am proud to be part of.  I think I would have forgotten my head yesterday tho had it not been securely attached to my neck!  I was a big jumble of nervousness and excitement.  It was a super awesome day which I hope was an indicator for future events to come.  Bring it on!!



This is my 'Mega Chuffed' face



Me and my little glass creations



So my mam is quite the seasoned poet and has written a little poem for Designs by Neelie.  Here it is

A dazzling array of glass creations sparkling in the sun

Unique and different, bespoke, handmade, each and every one

Designs by Nëelie will carefully listen and lovingly create

Your wishes and your dreams fulfilled, your breath will be a bate

Peruse my site and let me know if there's anything you need

I'll do my utmost to supply a perfect gift indeed!

Norma Davies ©

Is it a balloon ? Is it an alien?.... No, it's a suncatcher.





 It's really interesting how different people see things in this world, especially when it comes to art.  When making this suncatcher I thought I was creating a sky with a balloon.  I didn't know this simple image was open to interpretation.  I had this on display at a recent craft fayre and was talking to guy I know from my old arts group.  He picked up the suncatcher and says 'I like this.  I like the alien'.  Bemused yet slightly amused at this comment, I smiled politely.  He then went on to say 'You know, if you could make one like this but perhaps make the aliens ears a little pointier and the jawline more defined, i'd buy it'  I didn't quite know what to say to this comment but well they do say the customer is always right!









Hmmm, not completely bowled over....

Since I've had my kiln i've been trying to use a slump mould to slump bowls but have yet slumped one correctly.  This is probably because i've got a habit of skimming through instructions and just trying things out for myself.  So I recently made a new creation in readiness of slumping it.  In my feeble attempts to save money I decided to create an 'arty' bowl, using as little glass as possible.  I think it's got an 80's feel to it myself, it reminds me of the copious amounts of 'edgy' black furniture my parents amassed from the 80's/early 90's.  I'm not sure what to think of it right now, it did slump all the way into the mould this time though which is a plus point.  My instructional ignorance has allowed me to create an array of different shaped bowls with just one mould too which is pretty cool.

My most recent creation







The Lovespoon

I've been making lovespoons today.  These are proving really popular.  They're really selling well.  I draw up my own designs and work out the best way to cut them so they fuse together well.  I then put them in the kiln and hope all goes to plan.

The cutting process

They come in a nice little box and I even got my mum to write a poem about the tradition of the Welsh Lovespoon.  I think it's a nice little anniversary gift or even just a little token of love to bestow on your beloved one.

The packaged Lovespoon

The Lovespoon and it's tradition

Stained Glass - Labour of Love

My first ever glass piece was a pretty epic journey. I used to attend an arts group regularly and we were given an amazing opportuninty to create a stained glass piece for Caerphilly Castle. As naive as I was at the time to the long and sometimes tedious process of tiffany work, I designed quite a complex A2 sized piece with about 100 awkwardly shaped fiddly pieces of glass.

The assembled piece after designing and cutting

  As time went on I began to realise the enormity of the challenge i'd set myself. Glass cutting didn't come naturally to me so I often found myself getting very frustrated from the beginning. There were times when I worried I wouldn't finish the piece and many members of the group thought I wouldn't do it.

As I found, grinding individual pieces is time consuming!

The copper foiling process

But (somehow) amongst the frustration, doubts, cuts and splinters I managed to finish the piece (just) on time and was really pleased with the result. Seeing it proudly hanging in Caerphilly Castle made all my efforts worth it. I had an excellent teacher along the way who I still keep in contact with and who was actually the person who encouraged me to pursue glass as a career.

Stained Glass needs light to show it true beauty!

 

The completed stained glass piece

 I'll always have a soft spot in my mind for the labour of love that was my introduction into glass artistry.

I'd love to know what you think of my piece, let me know!

Craft Fayre Nerves

I've got a craft fayre on the 24th.

Truly Handmade Craft Fayre #Penarth Sunday 24th March community.penarthview.co.uk/2013/handmade-…
— Penarth View (@PenarthView) March 14, 2013

Eek!!

I always get really nervous at craft fayres.  I'm really shy and most definately don't have the gift of the gab!  I love to people watch at these events.  It always feels like every other stall holder there is a confident dab hand at this selling lark but i'm pretty sure that's not the case!

Hello Hello :)

Welcome to my blog! My Name is Neelie and I'm a  glass artist from South Wales.  I've just started on my venture as a 'creative business lady'.  I'll be using this blog to publish my journey of glass artistry and business.  I'm not business minded so have loads to learn but it should be fun and interesting along the way.  I'd love to hear from fellow glass artists and crafters so get in touch and join me in my crazy adventure ♥