Pimp Your Craft....

I've found my work, whether jewellery, wall art or glass dishes featured in Etsy Treasuries quite a lot lately - I've now clocked up 4 - here's a few current ones:

So, why this sudden flurry of activity you might wonder?

A few months ago, a friend of mine started up a new forum - Craft Pimp it's a fab place for all sorts of art and craft techniques, from glass, to ceramic, from paper to felt and fabric and much, much more.  Its a place to share work, ideas, inspirations... and everybody is so full of enthusiasm and have been having fun creating treasuries (an Etsy Treasury is a collection of up to 16 items selected from the thousands of handmade items for sale, usually themed - I personally love to see the colour collection ones) - sometimes promoting the Craft Pimp Team, but also sharing things they love from other makers on Etsy.

As a result of this, listed work gets seen by a wider audience.  Not just MY Facebook Fans, people watching MY Twitter timeline or people who have MY shop in their circle... all of those people who are in the treasury will share it with their friends, fans and followers... spreading out further.  I've noticed that I have been added to a couple of treasuries created by people that I have no apparent link with - they're not glass workers, or known members of either of the forums I frequent. 

They could have simply found my work by a tag search... but they may well have found me through friends of friends of friends.... either way, it means more visitors to my Etsy Shop, more hits on my website - so, I say, bring it on!

Contemporary Craft Exhibition

Should have posted this a bit sooner!  But my work is currently in an exhibition up Arkwrights Mill in Cromford, Derbyshire.

The gallery is a lovely room, and it features a group of former students University of Derby and  real mix of materials and work, its on until Thursday:  Contemporary Craft Exhibition

So a few pictures of the exhibition...

Some new work

my little corner

table close up

Nicola Lidstone & my work beyond

A view of the gallery

Sarah Jennings Work

Latest experiments

This is actually going back to experiment some more with work I've 'played' with before - I am now looking at ways it can be displayed, put together to make pieces suitable for craft exhibitions, playing with light...

This kind of texture was on of my first encounters with glass, many moons ago - and I starting trying it with coloured glass at Uni... but other 'stuff' took over (namely an extremely large piece of wall art that weighed 50 kilos and was my degree show piece....

I wanted to make something for the Contemporary Craft Exhibition this weekend, that tied together the style of the ceramic wall art I've been doing, with the glass.  I think this may be it!  This involves the use of mirrors to accentuate the texture.

Hope people like this idea....

Holiday Happiness!

I've been featured in another treasury. It's Easter, and my Mummy always gets me an Easter egg. We have lots of holidays, and the sun has been shining - and I think it's gone to my head!

So, there's 20% off all items in my Etsy store until May Day, simply use this voucher code at the checkout: 'Maydaymadness2011'

My Etsy Shop

Happy Easter!

Treasure Chest!

Now I am back at the studio part-time, I've been doing some experimenting.... but more about that later (when I have played some more).

Meanwhile, over on Etsy, my work has been featured in quite a few treasuries lately:

I can't stop singing...

'Cruella De Ville....' (Except I don't actually know any more words!) - but that song that starts like that in 101 Dalmations...

I've just listed these coasters on Etsy, and the song is stuck in my head now...

Artist of the Month

I'm thrilled to have been asked to submit a post for Artist of the Month on the forum Frit Happens!

For those of you who don't know, this is a forum started up by mainly lamp-workers, as well as jewellery makers and glass artists, although it is not exclusively so.  It is a lovely friendly place, with lots of eye candy, and I spend far too much time there!

Each month they feature a different maker and I was flattered to be asked.  I have been part of this community for nearly four years, before I started my journey at university, and it has been such a supportive forum throughout this time.

The article is really a potted history of my glass journey, and an opportunity to show some images of my work.  I always like to include some eye candy in my blog posts, so here's one that I only recently used (although it's from an early piece of work, my very first kiln glass piece).