Inspiration Friday

This Friday a couple of websites which have been long time favourites.
1st www.t2landscapes.co.uk
Amazing Landscape Photographer stunning pictures. One of my favs' is this one.



2nd A wonderful blog full of delicious recipes and stunning cupcake designs.

The Art Of Being Perfect

I found the delicious site through her amazing recipe for rice krispie cakes see below
It's the best recipe for these I found and very tasty.

Marshmallow Rice Krispie Cakes

Ingredients

250g bag of toffee
50g butter
3 tbsp milk
115g marshmallows
175g rice krispies

1. Lightly brush a 20 x 33cm roasting tin with a little oil, (I use my 9inch brownie tin and just pack it all in). Put the toffees, butter and milk in a saucepan & heat, gently stirring until the toffees have melted.
2. Add the marshmallows. (I let them melt in, stirring for a minute before moving on).
3. Add the cereal and stir until the marshmallows have completely melted.
4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared roasting tin, level the surface and leave to set. (At this point you could top with melted chocolate as I have, next time I think I will use a mix of white and milk chocolate and create a marble effect).
5. When cool and hard, cut into squares, remove from the tin and put into paper cases to serve.

Open House

At the weekend I did an Open House to show off my products. To say I had low expectations is an understatement, for me it was a way of getting my contact and website details in to local households.
I made up a jpeg image (see below) and then I printed them as photos through an online site, they came out really well and at a good cost. I then handed them out t school and got my husband Peter to go round the village and drop the rest.
We only covered about an 8th of the village homes, so next time I will get more printed!
I had a good response and met some lovely people and sold a good amount of products with a couple of commissions to boot.
Well worth doing and I will do it again at some point but with more marketing before hand.

Glass Compatibility

Which glass can you use for fusing glass work?

Well nearly any so long as they are compatible.

Compatible? I thought all glass was the same?

No glass types vary immensely, let me tell you all about it.

When glass is heated and cooled it expands and contracts at different rates depending on the type of glass.
To be able to tell them apart glass is given a COE number. COE stands for Coefficient of Expansion.
Window glass has a COE of 84
Pyrex glass is COE 32
Effetre glass used for lampworking is COE 104
The glass I use is bullseye glass which has a COE of 90. This is the most commonly used glass in the UK I think.
Right... so as long as you use the same type you should be fine. If the glass is not compatible it could cause cracking or even shattering of the piece when it cools.

To demonstrate the stress glass is under when fused with incompatible glass see the pic's below.

This one looks okay and seems to be fused together.


In this pic you can see the stress in the halo of light around the glass the dark gap is the compatible glass.

Inspiration Friday

Things that are inspiring me this week include:



I love this song it is uplifting and has a great message, everybody needs to let their colours shine.

This is one of my all time favourite glass works.
"Growth I" by Amanda Simmons

New Products

I have just updated my earring page with new products.
Check them out here Earrings

These are a couple of my favourites.

Tools of the trade

Okay when working with glass you need three essintal tools.

1st You need an oil filled glass cutter,
these come in various shapes but the
most popular is this one a toyo pencil type
oil filled cutter.
The oil is held in the clear reservoir and it
has a wheel cutter at the end.


2nd You need a tool called breakers.
These look a little bit like pliers but have a
flatter head, the head also has a curve.
Breakers are to help break the glass once
you have cut it.


Lastly the last piece is not essential but very
very useful. This tool is called is called a Grozer.
Its great for tough corners or thicker glass.
The grozers have a serrated jaw which nibbles
at the glass.

New plan!

Hi, I have decided to make a plan about blogging to help me keep on track and get in to the habit of blogging.
So I am going to do a few basic tutorials and impart some knowledge, I will also be doing an inspiration day where I will find pic's, music, etc's that inspire me.
So keep your eyes open more posts coming your way.