Tag: follow me

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Recovery and organisation April 2021

I do like a Spring clean, I am quite a messy worker, I get carried away and there’s NO time to put things away as I go !! So after I finish a project I have a big clear out .
This clear out I concentrate on my fabrics, I have amassed a lot over the years, there are some fabrics that I have held onto for so long and still have not used, there will be ‘that’ perfect project for it, one day. 

I always feel so much better when the workroom is clean and tidy. I think it is a therapeutic way to clear my head before the next project.

There has not been much making done at the moment as I had Carpal Tunnel surgery done on my left wrist. The operation went well , its still a bit sore and nowhere near back to normal but definitely getting there. I think it is one of the  hazards of being a Sewist!

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All About myself and HRJ!

Welcome!  Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself!


I’m Fallon, a thirty-something year old, living in Hertfordshire with my husband and daughter.  I’m an avid crafter, have been all my life, trying my hand at many different activities for fun and making numerous things for my daughter and as gifts.   I also love home baking and drinking copious cups of tea!  I have a degree in photography and shoot freelance baby and children photography (when global pandemics don’t get in the way!)

 

I’ve been using polymer clay since I was a child, initially making teeny tiny food for my dolls house.  My husband bought me a food themed polymer clay book many years ago, and after experimenting with cakes and sweets, decided to start selling the increasing number of makes I produced, mainly to clear some space!!  The rest is history, HRJ was born in May 2011!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I chose to continue the foodie theme as I love all things quirky and retro – I’m an eighties child, so the retro food you find at old school birthday parties is an absolute favourite at mine – plates of iced ring biscuits, fondant fancies, etc – whenever we have a birthday at home, we always have that kind of tea party to celebrate!  I think the theme brings a sense of nostalgia to childhood/good memories from the past (my allsorts sweetie bracelet was one of my very first makes, and is still so popular today, with the young and old!). I’ve now also started to branch out into homeware and decorations…but more on that in my next blog post!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspiration strikes me at any time – I generally get distracted by anything cute and quirky, especially colourful eye catching things.  I love kawaii styles, and have incorporated it into some of my pieces.  Current trends inspire me, as well as actual foods; being a keen baker, I follow lots of baking accounts on social media, and sometimes try to recreate something edible into clay form!  I also have had many commissions and special requests over the years, and some I have felt would be really popular, so have then made these into pieces for my shop too.

I joined TBCH in early 2020 and love the unique community of makers here, they are all so helpful and friendly, with each and every one making beautiful high quality handcrafted items.

Oh and if you’re wondering…my favourite biscuit to dunk in my cup of tea is….a chocolate bourbon or Lotus Biscoff!

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More Squashed Glass!

I’ve had another go at the squashed glass technique and this time I used opalescent glass which reflects light as opposed to transparent glass that transmits light.

I love the effect that has been produced where the various coloured pieces have met and merged. There has been some reaction where some different coloured pieces have overlapped and merged caused by the chemical make up of the glass colours I have used in this piece. Various colours have Lead, Copper or Sulphur in them and when they meet you can get some special effects ranging from subtle to dramatic. 

This piece has some subtle reactions where the sulphur bearing red has overlapped the copper bearing greens and blues.

In addition a particular colour called Steel Blue has a tendency to dramatically change to a matt steel colour on the surface exposed to the air in the heat of the kiln. This hasn’t happened to a great degree because it was covered by the kiln shelf except for some subtle areas on the edges of the Steel Blue bits in the piece.

I shall square off the edges and slump this in a gently curved mould to make a lovely platter to be listed in my shop.

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How to photograph fused glass?

Ever since I started selling online I have struggled with photographing my fused glass pieces to show them at their best. As you can imagine the main issue is light reflection on the glass. I have tried reflecting the lights off white card, black card and silver backed card. Pointing the lights at the backdrop, directly at the glass, and at the reflective card. All have produced mixed results and I seem to try a different set up every time I have a new piece to photograph.

My most recent set up is featured in the picture above and involved using two clamps to attach the light that is hanging down to a handy shelf above my ‘photo studio’ corner. I got a nice new camera for my recent birthday which has lots of handy features which have made a big difference and I shall probably be retaking pictures over the next few weeks.

Wish me luck!

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Meet the Maker – Beverley from Bevart designs

Meet the maker blog

Beverley Chapelhow – Bevart designs.

I am Beverley, of ‘Bevart designs’ I live in the beautiful Ribble Valley in Lancashire. I will always be that artist that fell into making jewellery making and designing, many people have said that my artwork would make lovely jewellery pieces, this got me thinking and I started to create and work on this possibility. I made a few pieces and put them on display in my studio… to my delight I sold a few, 12 months on I was accepted for a great art and craft show called ‘Art in the Pen’. I took with me my framed artwork and my jewellery, I made more sales than I thought possible. Being encouraged by this I applied to sell on ‘The British Craft House’ and was thrilled to be accepted.

I have always taught art classes to adults sometimes with a crossover into craft making like flower arranging, printmaking, card making etc.

I am inspired to create any art work including my jewellery by nature, the Japanese way of Wabisabi, travel, and other artists, I love the work of Greyson Perry, Yayoi Kusama, there are lots more!

my art studio

I graduated from university in 2008 with a degree in fine art, with a friend and colleague we wanted to still try and work together in a studio environment, we wanted to find a place where we could provide affordable studio space for other artists. I am currently the proud owner of ‘Atelier Arts’ an art studio collective with gallery and teaching space in Clitheroe from here I sell my paintings, I teach art classes to adults including general art and life drawing , I also teach art in Spain with partners ‘Caves of Dreams’  we provide a full all-inclusive art holiday experience in Baza, the region of Andalucia.  

Teaching in Spain

What is the dream? The dream was always to own an art studio, the other is to be selling my work more regularly, whether that’s jewellery or my paintings to build a following and to become successful.

I am currently working from home and we have a workshop in the garage, so I can keep on creating and making.

My proudest moment business wise is owning my current business and that being a success. Forever proud of our two daughters growing into confident, successful, independent women.

My creative future looks like this, over the past year I have been experimenting with ice dyeing and eco printing on fabric. I love textiles and pattern, this is something I want to add to my shop in the future in the form of scarves as I believe this would enhance my jewellery range. I am also planning some Yoga and Art retreats, I want to provide creative relaxing workshops based around self care, using our mental and physical self in a creative way using clay and paint.

To relax and have fun I love to tap dance, I regularly take part in yoga, pilates and meditation. I also love photography and to travel sketch and paint.

I also enjoy a good night out with friends in the city of Manchester drinking cocktails!

I also adore cake, what is my favourite cake ….any cake!!! But very partial to a lemon drizzle

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Fused Glass Pebbles of Swirling Colour

I’ve recently been making glass ‘pebbles’ in my studio to try and get my creative juices flowing again. The Covid 19 lock down has left me strangely stumped at times, almost as if having so much unplanned time on my hands has slowed me down. I would wander into my studio and fiddle around tidying my sheets of glass, ordering them by colour and size but couldn’t get stuck in to anything constructive.

So I decided to make some puddles. This is a fun technique where you place a stack of different coloured equally sized glass pieces together and fuse them. The layers fuse together into a solid lump. Then the fun starts! Using a hammer and tile cutters you break the piece into smaller bits, exposing the striped layers of colour. These smaller chunks are then fused again with the layers upright. 

The result is lovely rounded pebbles of swirling colours, I love just running them through my fingers!

I’m now thinking of what to do with them. Some will be pendents and some I will incorporate into other projects.

Thank goodness, I’ve got my mojo back!

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How It Started – Meet JoSara

Me, Jo from JoSara

Hi, I’m Jo, thanks for popping in. Where did it start? Well, I was looking for a decorative and practical bird bath for my own garden and I couldn’t find any that fitted the bill. I had seen a few mosaic style designs on my search and I thought, I could have a go at that. So, I researched garden suitable materials, taught myself how to mosaic, and made my own unique pattern Moroccan pool style bird bath (a design that is still one I have in my shop today, and the bird bath is still going strong in my garden). That started me on a train of thought where lots of different mosaic designs I could create were popping into my head.

handmade mosaic birdbath with unique hedgehog design
  Rainbow Hedgehog bird bath

Those train of thought designs included something to help our hedgehogs, because it was around that time that I became aware of the plight they were in with their numbers plummeting. As I read more on the subject I realised water is key to attracting wildlife to your garden and can be a lifesaver for them, too. So I thought what better? You could have something decorative to look at, while the water it provides is helping keep your garden wildlife healthy and you could also enjoy watching the wildlife that appeared. Seemed a win, win to me.

Mosaic bird bath with a unique handmade design created by josara
     Moroccan Pool bird bath

I have always been quite arty, but never pursued it, I certainly never thought it would become my career. I also have always had a keen interest in the natural world, but never thought of combining the two things until I made that first bird bath and the penny dropped. There must be other people out there that want something a bit more unique for their home and garden too? Fate had it that I was in a position to leave my long term, very dull, admin job and try starting my own business to find out. The timing was perfect with the handmade boom just getting going and lots of information about how to start a handmade business online was appearing on the internet. So my brand, JoSara, was born with my first online shop opening in 2011.

JoSara in Birds and Blooms magazine
JoSara in Birds and Blooms magazine

Since then it’s been going from strength to strength, including more online shops, a website, and being featured online and in print, with my Three Bees bird bath being in the 5th best selling mag in the home and garden category in the US, Birds and Blooms. And in the US that means a LOT of readers, so that was amazing. My ranges have been expanding, with new designs still popping into my head. And it’s all thanks to the nature and wildlife lovers, and lovers of things a little bit different that were definitely out there.

To follow new designs in progress follow me on Facebook – JoSaraDesign

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“Tis the season to be jolly ….

‘Tis the Season to be Jolly, I have always loved Carols around a tree, the pretty lights, the anticipation of piles of gifts on Christmas morning,  the buzz of excitement in the air but I will confess as I have got older the magic is fading for me. I see adverts on the television of happy families sat playing games and enjoying themselves but in reality as I read the papers I see a different world one where many families are separated and the older generations are possibly spending the day alone as they don’t want to be burden on relatives, or those families who don’t have money to put food on a table let alone buy gifts, who then have to deal with the question why Santa leaves lots of gifts for some Children but not them.

I read a lovely article in the Telegraph yesterday, saddened slightly by its content, but felt it was also full of Christmas Spirit as it made reference to a school in Blackpool where the Head is opening the school up on Monday to have a Christmas Eve eve party for the children, with Santa and hot food, to ensure that all children had that magical experience and a hot meal over the holidays. I am sure this isn’t first school to do this, and I doubt will be the last. 

For many of the gifts I will be giving this year they are sourced from small businesses not large corporations, I will try and avoid the pressure of the sales post Christmas, and only purchase something if I really need it.  

It is a most wonderful time of the year, but we do shop all year round, not just a Christmas so if you could continue to buy from the small business owner I can hand on heart tell you that really does help put food on the table, and keep a roof over someone’s head. Perhaps you can spare the odd gift for a child who is without, or pop an extra roll of toilet paper, or can of soup in the trolley for the food bank at your local supermarket – you never know the joy that small act of kindness could bring someone. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against the corporates (I am an Amazon Prime Customer ?) , but I am hugely aware that by using them we are feeding anonymous shareholders but by buying from an independent you are helping keep that small business afloat, and that alone does deserve a happy dance ? Merry Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year