Tag: handmade

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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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Women Who Do Podcast

All about The British Craft House and how it started and evolved.  Chatting to the amazing Women Who Do about building a business from the ground up, how important it is for small businesses to stay true to themselves, how to build engaged communities and why we are doing things differently.
Make a cuppa, plug in and enjoy
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A little bit about me!

Hi I’m Jo from Jo’s Little People also known as ClayFiguresUK

I live in North Cumbria (very close to the border of Scotland) with my husband, three daughters, dogs, cats and guinea pigs!

I’ve been making my unique little figures for over 20 years and have hundreds in my collection!

All my figures are designed then entirely handmade from polymer clay by me. I don’t use molds. Every figure starts life as a lump of clay, so they are slightly different and unique, the slightest change to facial expression creates a new little character each time.

I love making commissions too, it’s always nice to do something completely different and one of a kind.

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Take up a challenge and a little dollop of cement….

Blimey, no blogs for months then two together a bit like buses lol! You may (or may not) recall this time last year I joined a ‘set a cabachon a month’ challenge and surprisingly I managed to finish the challenge (I must write a blog post about that lol!) well this year I have joined the same challange again but instead of using bought cabachons I am going to try and make all 12 of the cabachons myself!

Okay so here we go with the first cabachon. I made this one from cement (yes really! it’s cement for jewellery making, I didn’t raid Mr P’s garage).  So I set the cement in a puffed heart mould then marked up with tape to create some lines for glue.  Then added a line of 24ct gold leaf and one in silver leaf. Over the top of this I added a thick coat of resin to seal the concrete and protect the gold and silver leaf. I wanted to add some texture so ‘fluffed up’ a bit of gold and silver leaf at the top and bottom and embedded it in the resin and then across the middle added some dots of silver.

The bezel is made from sterling silver and designed to fit the cement heart perfectly. I actually made two, this one and an oval one but decided to keep the oval one for myself, well, we all deserve a little treat now and then don’t we ;).

I hope you enjoyed learning about how I made my cement cabachon and pop back again next month to see what I come up with next. Stay safe everyone xx

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Hearts aren’t just for Valentines!

I have had a lovely time over the Christmas lock down period making fused glass hearts in a cast iron pan. Thanks to an excellent tutorial from glasshoppa.com me and my daughter whiled away the time, when we couldn’t see the rest of the family, coming up with various combinations of glass to pile up in the mold ready for a hot fuse.

Once out and cooled down they needed a bit of grinding and cleaning before going back in the kiln for a nice fire polish.

Now I’m waiting for some little box frames to be delivered so I can mount them and then put on sale in my shop. Should make a lovely little letter box gift to send to those we love.

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Photo Feedback

I get some fantastic photos sent of things people have bought from me in their new homes, which I love to see, especially the range of wildlife (and not so wild) that use the bird baths and water dishes. One lovely customer even got one of my hedgehog water dishes onto the BBC. So I thought it would be nice to make a collection of them here for inspiration and help with choosing designs and a glimpse of what might turn up to use them.

The water dishes are perfect for hedgehogs to use safely and not be able to tip up
A Rainbow Hedgehog adding complimentary colour to a patio

wood pigeon mosaic bird bath

A Wood Pigeon using a Three Bees bird bath
A Three Bees looking great in a contemporary garden
A blue tit on a bird bath
Iridescent Three Bees wings shining through the water
daisy design mosaic bird bath
A Pastel Daisy bird bath used with lovely rustic style garden ornaments
cat drinking from bird bath
The not so wild life will use the bird baths too
mosaic bird bath in garden
A Pastel Daisy bird bath on a patio, perfect for birds and hedgehogs to use
Hedgehog drinking from bird bath
An adult garden hedgehog drinking from a mosaic Harvest Hedgehog bird bath
Hedgehog water dish
A hedgehog bird bath used on the ground for hedgehogs to use, next to a raised bird bath. You can never have too many water dishes in your garden.
owl design bird bath
A turquoise owl being used to add colour to a deck and matching with the other ornaments
A squirrel popping down from the trees for a drink from a bird bath
A tree stump with a wooden top added for a base for a Gypsy Rainbow bird bath
Complimenting flower colours with the mosaic
A blackbird taking a dip in a bird bath
A blackbird taking a drink from a water dish
Cat and bird bath
The water dishes will work as outside cat water bowls too
mosaic handmade bird bath
The slightly raised translucent centres of the daisies adding interest and depth to the design
peaceful garden scene
Buddha watching over the birds bathing
mosaic bird bath
A Moroccan Pool bird bath next to a wildflower meadow patch
Using a bird bath dish on top of an old stone stand
Mosaic bird bath in garden setting
A Pastel Daisy bird bath with an old terracotta chimney used as a base
baby starling in bird bath
A baby starling cooling off in a Harvest Hedgehog water dish
sparrows using bird bath
Sparrows absolutely love splashing around in the bird baths, either on their own or in small groups
Even ducks can drink from the bird baths. Got to luv a duck 😉
wren using bird bath
You might even be lucky enough to catch a garden wren flitting in to use your bird bath



dog with mosaic bird bath
Of course anyone that’s thirsty can make use of the bird baths
wild robin with a mosaic robin garden bird bath
I think this has to be my favourite customer pic, their garden robin with his new robin reflection bird bath, which apparently had literally just been put outside after arriving that morning in the post
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Poured Paint Jewellery

Hello! what very strange times we are living in at the moment and it seems for some time to come as well. It’s been lovely this week as I have had a week off from the day job and spent time with my granddaughter, we (in Wales) have only just been allowed to meet indoors again so I was able to spend the whole day with her, we played games, created a few of our own and painted, absolute bliss!! after all the fun we had I was inspired to get my paints out for some grown up painting.  

Well when I say grown up it’s no less messy as this time I wanted to try paint pouring lol! What is paint pouring I hear you ask, well you mix different colour acrylic paints with pva glue, pouring medium, oil and water to about the consistency of heavy cream, then you add small amounts to a cup in random colours, then literally pour it over the canvas!

My paint pouring video

There are a few different techniques you can use, but so far I have only used the one by upending the cup and moving it around the canvas, then use my blowtorch which draws the oil to the surface creating what’s known as cells.  I absolutely loved it! it was great fun, very messy but the finished pictures are amazing, so many colours all creating the most wonderful patterns.

It wasn’t long before I realised this type of art would make some really interesting jewellery so I picked a few (of the 15 I did!) and have put them to one side for making jewellery.  As for the jewellery, I felt these needed fairly simple settings so I created some shallow bezels with sterling silver. Just two pairs of earrings and two pendants for now, but there will be more to come in the future and as usual I’ll mix the metals up a bit and include copper and brass when I have time to make more. 

Once the silver settings were made I cut the paintings up into small circles and then set these little circles inside the silver settings with resin to both protect them and add some dimension to the finished pieces.   I have to say I’m thrilled with the results, next on my list are brooches, scarf rings, keyrings and some bracelets I just need to find time to make the settings now. 

As for the paint pouring, I’m definitely going to be doing that again! though next time they will probably be bigger, I’m thinking coaster size and I’m sure I have some 8×8 frames stashed away somewhere!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed reading about my foray into paint pouring.

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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