Posted on 21/03/202130/05/2023 by Joysofglass — Leave a comment

What inspires my glass designs – travelling with my beloved camera (and Bob ❤️)

In normal times Bob and I spend a couple of months a year travelling round Europe in our motorhome, Tandy with scooter, Kisbee, in the boot.

We also usually sneak in a winter week or two somewhere warm and exotic but have to fly there. We tell people we are doing it while we can, spending the kid’s inheritance and it’s what we do.
I never go anywhere without my beloved Panasonic Lumix camera hanging round my neck … I wore the shutter out on my last one ! Thank goodness for digital cameras.

I love to travel but I also love making my glass, addicted really, and as soon as we return from our travels I can’t wait to get my glass cutter out to make the new designs inspired by the wonderful sights we have seen.

I thought you might like to see some of the places we have been and the suncatcher designs they inspired.

Australia To visit my daughter when she was in Melbourne for 2 years

Brittany France Sunset Beach

California Dream Catcher

Cornwall England Cornish Cove

France Beach Huts

INDIA Udaipur Lake

Ireland (Galway) Shamrock Horseshoe

Lyme Regis Jurassic Coast Ammonite

Lake District Landscape

Motorhoming Across Europe

Green Northern Spain Picos Mountains

Scotland Scottish Mountains

Singapore Orchid

South Africa – Addo Elephant Park Elephant

Goa Tropical Beach

Sri Lanka Turtle

Switzerland River

My Staffordshire Garden Water Lily

Wales Near Harlech Welsh Lanscape

I hope you’ve enjoyed a tour round some of my favourite places.

Posted on 20/03/202130/05/2023 by FallonR — Leave a comment

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!

Posted on 19/08/202030/05/2023 by Bevart designs — Leave a comment

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!

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.

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

Posted on 13/04/202030/05/2023 by MaxPring — Leave a comment

This here is a Daffodil….

Inspired by my Welsh heritage and the national flower emblem I have
wanted to create a daffodil in metal for a while, but never found the
time. Taking advantage of the lockdown and a few days off from my busy
day job in the NHS I found myself drawn to creating a daffodil so I
rolled up my sleeves, put on my apron, got my sharpie, some metal and tools out and got to
work.

When I started out on this project I had a picture in my head of what I wanted my daffodil to look like, this included working out how to turn a flat piece of metal into a 3D flower. I began with some 0.5mm brass sheet and drew the outline of the flower using a felt pen, (well I drew several actually just in case I melted the first one or three!).

I cut these shapes out and gave them some texture with a hammer and then shaped the petals. For the flower trumpet I cut simple circles from the brass sheet then used my doming block and tools to shape the disc into a small cup and then ruffled the edges. The flower centre was created from tiny sterling silver balls formed from molten silver (this is my favorite pass time when I’m not making, melting tiny bits of silver into balls, it’s very therapeutic!), which I soldered in place to create the stamen. The final piece for the flower was the stem and a leaf. I formed these by hand from sterling silver, hammering, filing and shaping, then soldered all of the brass and silver pieces together, adding a silver pin to the back.

The last bit is the most time consuming of all, requiring a lot of elbow grease and polish to make the brass and silver gleam.

I loved making this and have plans now to make more flowers, I definitely want to make a bluebell and a freesia my favourite flowers of all time, then maybe a snowdrop, a crocus oh and a pansy, I could go on and on as there are so many beautiful flowers lol! I hope you enjoyed my little blog about making a daffodil and I would love to hear what your favourite flower is.

Best wishes and thanks for stopping by to read

Max

ps you can find the daffodil pin in my shop, link is below.

Posted on 14/02/202030/05/2023 by The Twisted Felter — Leave a comment

Meet the Sellers x 3!

Team TBCH South East Cornwall Meetup – meet Halyey, Buffy & Chris

Written by Buffy…who is The Twisted Felter

So earlier today I met up for brunch with the lovely Hayley aka The Northern Smuggler and Chris The Chris Artist. Chris paints beautiful artwork from the surrounding areas and Hayley creates fabulous Resin artwork and jewellery inspired by the local Cornish Coast. Luckily Chris had chosen the best café (award winning @olivecocafe thankyou…delish!) and so I turned up to meet 2 complete strangers thinking I should have worn a rose in my lapel?! Sadly I was lapel-less so I took a chance and sidled up to a random man sitting on his own who fortunately turned out to be Chris and Hayley joined us soon after.

My brain is a busy one so I had brought along a list of things I wanted to ask (I feel like a bit of a duffer with the whole online selling and social media stuff as I’m new to the game) and was pleasantly surprised that they too had the same questions and doubts. As Hayley put it ‘Fake it ’til you Make it’. Although Hayley was not giving herself credit as she had lots of great media tips and advice and has her own professional branding which looks fab. Chris is already self employed so gave me good advice around tax returns, a boring but necessary part of it all. It was sound advice…pay an accountant!!

We chatted about The British Craft House website and how we were finding navigating our way around. We wondered when Dottie (our Illustrious Leader, advice giver, encouragement officer and all round good egg) EVER SLEEPS?!? She seems to be sending encouraging posts in the middle of the night!

We talked about how isolating working alone and from home can be sometimes and how fab it was to meet up with the real people behind our sellers names. We shared contacts for work in the local area, craft initiatives,the best Apps, training days, ideas for display and presentation, photography and we laughed at ourselves a fair bit. We talked about the insecurities of seeing the imperfections in our work and whether they are good enough to sell, the vulnerability of putting your work out there in front of people, the difficulty of feeling comfortable promoting (non-stop!) yourself online. And we arranged to meet again of course.

So this is my first blog. I’ve no idea whether it’s good. Or not. But I’m venturing right out of my comfort zone writing it AND putting a photo of myself online. That’s how rock and roll I am today. I’m a blogger. Boom!

Posted on 24/01/202030/05/2023 by Fiona — Leave a comment

Metal Window Box …..what will you grow in yours?

: Metal Garden Planters Handmade Metal Window Boxes

In many towns and villages around the UK you will often see this beautiful ironwork frames sitting underneath a stunning set off windows, usually the sash wooden framed ones, not your modern uPVC triple glazed designed to lock the world out. This image was taken last year, on a damp grey drizzling kind of day, the triple story house in question is undergoing a mammoth refurbishment, formerly a butchers with the thick wooden floor and huge shop windows on one side of the property, and the other corner the image you see attached, the “private” entrance to the living quarters, notice the railings at street level to the cellar, or coal store as it may well of been. Anyway the reason for my picture….. whilst this one was made from wood, I can very easily make one out of metal, to sit inside these ironwork frames? I can also make the metal boxes to sit either sit of the entrance door, to plant a clematis or ivy from.

Of course you don’t need a fancy pants iron frame to hold a window box in order to breathe some life and colour into your windows, you just need a cill – here is an image from a very happy customer who loves gazing out of her kitchen window and seeing some flowers, some colour and not just her neighbours wall

So, I do take commissions, I always try to manufacture out of the “scrap” pile to reduce our carbon footprint, so if you would like to inject some colour in your window cill, maybe grow some lettuce leaves or have some herbs on your window ledge, do drop me a line and let me help you get growing!

Posted on 06/01/202030/05/2023 by Cheryl Jenkins — Leave a comment

Gold and Red Radiance

I gain a lot of inspiration while out running with the dogs, did you know it’s actually a sport called Canicross or Canix for short? I don’t enter races, I find that I get enough satisfaction with the local trails…which is where certain tiny details in nature catch my eye.

It was while I was out on one of these runs that I passed a wonderful Cotoneaster plant cascading over the ground with it’s scarlet leaves and berries. It was quite a sight!

The tiny leaves and the number of them and did I mention the colour!? Wow! I knew that I had to make something based on this! Paired with another find of the gold centred red leaves of brambles also turning in the cold late autumn weather I had the perfect combination for something very special. Did you know that red is considered a lucky colour by some people?

This is where the Red and Gold Radiance bridal range was born.

Starting with a clear acrylic hair comb, while I mulled over the larger details of the tiara, and a number of different coloured beads of various sizes and shapes I drew together the elements that would work well together adding in extras to embellish and be a contrast against the richness of the red and gold; something to draw the eye in and to hold the attention.

Working very much in an organic way the gold centred red leaves and foliage began to take shape. Wire twisting and bending into curved stems. Stems building and a dense design beginning to unfold and grow.

Stems secured onto the hair comb by the tail ends of the wires, twisting and trimming the excess the before the finishing touch of a band of red and gold could be placed as a boarder hiding all the working and bringing the piece to a stunning conclusion.

https://staging.thebritishcrafthouse.co.uk/product/red-and-gold-radiance-bridal-hair-comb/

Posted on 31/12/201930/05/2023 by Cheryl Jenkins — Leave a comment

My first blog!

Thought I’d tell you a little about myself and then later, in a new blog, take you through my process of making a bridal hair comb.

Always interested in detail, innovation and processes I studied Aeronautical Engineering at what was then Hatfield Polytechnic and now University of Hertfordshire, obtaining a BEng degree in 1990. Oh, that seems so long ago now!

I then moved to Suffolk and worked in Cambridge as an Aircraft Stress Engineer. Simply put, I was a mathematician who worked out whether any repairs or modifications would be strong enough for safe flight. It involved sorting through paper engineering drawings to find all the relevant details and using hand calculations with complex equations for various scenarios. No computers then and no fancy computer generated models to do all the work, they were just starting to come on the scene when I left work to raise our family.

Always handy and craft orientated I found projects large and small to fit around family life but, gravitated towards jewellery making. After having a pair of amber set gold earrings repaired, which then needed repairing again a year later (gold is in fact a soft metal and wears quite easily. A small gold nugget can be hammered into an incredibly thin sheet and used for gilding) I thought I’d source the parts I needed myself. I ordered a catalogue and become inspired by all the wonderful shapes and colours. That enthusiasm and simple pleasure of creating something so complex out of a few individual tiny beads still drives me.

Inspiration from the colours and shapes of the materials has gained additional input over the years from a love of trail running with my dogs, which I found a love of when the last of our three children had reached school age and I had a little time for myself. As the seasons change and indeed as the days change there is always something new to catch my eye; nature is such a giver.

Posted on 19/12/201930/05/2023 by Fiona — Leave a comment

“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

Posted on 04/12/201930/05/2023 by Joysofglass — Leave a comment

My glass makes lovely presents for Christmas

I had my one and only Fair of the year last weekend at Sandon Hall and it was absolutely fantastic. I love it when someone sees my glass from across the room and comes across for a closer look and Smiles. That smile makes my day.
I often get ‘complaints’ that I provide too much choice….. that’s because I like to make sure I have something for everyone and for every occasion. Hope you find something you like in my shop.

I’ve been making pretty collages of some of my glass to promote the lovely British Craft House site to the world at this busy, busy Christmas shopping time so here are a couple…. to help you choose if you fancy some of my lovely glass