Inclusions

It's Handmade Monday , and this time from it's new home at Handmade Harbour where I'am sure it will be a great success.

I've been having a play and experiment with both glass and felt this week (hows that for different materials?!) The first thing I made was a coaster for my dad. I had been itching to try wet felting and finally got round to it on a rainy afternoon. My first go was a bit of a disaster, the piece of felt I made was very thin and holey and reminded me of a dishcloth. My second go was a bit better, it was thin in places but not see through at least! From this I cut a circle and needle felted some extra bits onto it to give it a bit of extra thickness, this is the pic before I needle felted the extra bits, I would have a pic of the finished one but my dad has his cup on it :)

My second experiment involved trapping foil between two pieces of glass. I had been reading a glass making book and when I got to the chapter on metal inclusions I thought 'ooo I'll give that a try' I took some kitchen aluminium foil and, using a heart shaped paper punch, made some small foil hearts. I was left with a strip with the heart holes in and decided to use this too. I added some pink glass confetti to add a bit of colour and into the kiln it went.
Next morning, when I took a look, I was both pleased and disappointed with how it turned out. Disappointed because the strip of metal foil is still poking out of the glass, a daft mistake I should have avoided (but that's how I learn I'm going to tell myself!) and the confetti isn't very bright. But pleased because it worked! I wasn't sure the hearts would keep their shape, The are really small and I thought that they would end up like a weird blob.I also love how they have changed colour and some of them seem to have little bubbles all over them... I think this is an experiment I will be repeating!

I hope everyone has had a great weekend.

LH
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