Vintage Hollywood Glass Bunting

I love this one!!
Available here!

Pretty Fabulous Things pt 4

Apol Lejano-Massebieau AKA LaPommeStories creates stories, fairytales, and 'imagined histories' using collage, embroidery and found objects such as postcards. These one -of-a-kind Art books and pages are just calling to be touched, cherished and collected.
She also makes soft sculptures for kids and adults which you can find here and also check out her beautiful french blog

Charmed

This week I moved my old table from the cutting room to the centre of atelier/gallery floor so as to have a pretty display area for a stack of cupcake boxes, cookie jars full of little stars and other bits and pieces. Anyway, in order to lift it I needed to empty the drawers and cupboards underneath, and in amongst a pile of miscellanceous odds and ends I found a stack of hoops I bought last year for my glass charms! My old charms were made with metal and swarovski hearts but I stopped making those to concentrate on stained glass pieces.



So here are my new champagne glass charms - gift boxed sets of 8 charms (6 is too mean). I have them in a sweet mix of pink and red which I will list online later this week. The blues and teal/green set is available in my Etsy shop here.

Going With The Flow

The opening of my new atelier/gallery proved to be a bigger success than I could have ever dreamt of!

Ok...so that's another story entirely :).....The picture above, reminiscent of a scene from Powaqqatsi , was taken near the entrance to the ice cave at Mont Blanc. We made the visit there last week - big mistake - August is the month of tourist chaos in France - we queued to see this attraction for nearly 4 hours (an hour and a half just to stand in a line for the train back!)



The cave or 'grotte' is carved out of the 9 mile glacier every year and open to the public May to September. To get there we took the train up the mountain and then a gondola down to the glacier.




There are 300 steps to reach the entrance to the cave



Inside, ice sculptures emerge from the walls, it was kind of difficult to figure out what some of the shapes represented as the pieces had started to melt over the course of the summer but just to be in the cave was fabulous anyway!


a 'sofa' carved out beside an ice table



I was disappointed that they still use a St Bernard dog as a photographic 'prop' in the cave - not much of a life for that poor creature during the summer months, and pretty unnecessary :(



The cave was awesome but if I was to do it again I'd visit May or June to avoid the
crowds!

Titania - a new bunting

A garland fit for a fairy queen :) As usual, this is a one-of-a-kind, signed garland and you can find it in my Etsy online shop here - or see it in person by contacting me to arrange a visit to my atelier :)


My glass got a lovely mention on HandmadeOxford's blog this week! thank you ladies :)

Pretty Fabulous Things pt 3

This week in my little series of beautiful Etsy shops is Larimeloom. Based in Northern Italy, this family run business offers handwoven and handspun gorgeousness. I want absolutely EVERYTHING!!!! Please check out their pretty fabulous shop :)

The Chateau at Le Touvet

Earlier this week I visited the beautiful chateau at Le Touvet with family. It's not far from our house (about 20 minutes) but this was only the second time I'd been there. It was a mega hot day and the black roof tiles sparkled in the bright sunlight - pretty pretty pretty :)


The house has been owned by the same family for 500 years (or thereabouts) and is listed as an historic monument.

The towers at the front of the chateau are medieval and one is used as the family chapel.

a painting in the chapel

Only rooms on the ground floor are open to the public as the chateau is still a family home. Because of photography restrictions I was not able to take photographs of the interior but you can find some photos at the link below.


The gardens were restored between 1997 and 1999



you can find more information about tours and events at the chateau here

Pretty Fabulous Things pt 2

I discovered Rudman's shop only a few days ago and had to look at everything there! I adore the drama of her neckpieces - the colours and form and the detailing. Please check her shop out!

Ready for Cutting

This is some glass I've put together for a new art deco inspired panel - provisionally entitled "Gatsby". When I'm choosing colours I'll put them against the window adding and taking away glass until I find the right balance.

I then moved these to a slightly safer place (the floor!) and I've decided that they'd make a beautiful garland too. So again I place ribbons against the pieces to find a good match. The little pink flower ribbon I bought in Lyon last month - it's so pretty and perfect for these glass colours. The satin ribbon I've stained with tea and coffee to try and mellow the colour - I've no idea why I bought such a garish yellow in the first place!! I may leave it this colour now or try painting it, we'll see. I do get obsessive with certain glass and at the moment it is this wispy champagne in the right of the picture. It will make totally gorgeous flutterbys too....and some earrings....

Anyway..the glass will sit like this, in it's pretty chaos until I've time to do the panel - hopefully in the next couple of weeks :)

Pretty Fabulous Things pt 1

A weekly series spotlighting some Etsy shops that give me goosebumps and make my credit card twitch.



First up is YasminSivan, an Israeli glass artist who makes fabulous lampwork buttons . The buttons have pin backs so you can wear them as brooches - I want one for my black velvet winter coat ....I'm just having a little difficulty in choosing just one! You can find other works by Yasmin at her online gallery

I'm Exposed!!!

In the wonderful VickiDiane's series of 'exposed' treasuries :) For those who are not familiar with the concept, Vicki asks Etsy artists to step in front of the camera so that people can put a face to the name and work. It's been great fun!! ooh ...and that's me in the top left corner with a garland!



The treasury will still be running for the next couple of days..check it out!
Artists of Etsy Exposed part 7

Christmas Stocking

Yes...the title was supposed to be a pun (of sorts)

Anyway for the last few weeks I've been panicking a little about xmas stock - have I enough supplies? Should I be stating a deadline for commissions? I know I don't have enough stock in my atelier and by December it's too late to sell online and try to guarantee xmas delivery but I should still be busy enough with offline Christmas sales in December, especially if I decide to do another xmas market.

I can't decide if I should just spend my time creating and not listing online for the moment as the summer is a quiet time or get my online shop stocked up now instead of listing in a frenzy in September.

So I think I've decided to keep listing and avoid a September sitting all day at the computer trying to upload photographs! but I might change my mind about that tomorrow....