Sunday 13 May 2012

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
x

19 comments:

  1. It's good to experiment and you never know what you will get. Great results!

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  2. I love experiments and you always learn something from them, so don't be disappointed in any way! It looks fab and I'm sure there'll be lots more along these lines! x

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  3. They are both great, I dont think I could be that adventurous with glass, would end up breaking it all

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  4. I love the felting - it looks like a lovely big moon to me. As for the glasswork - I would never have thought of anything like it. I like it though and you are right - you have learnt something and won't do it again :)

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  5. You have learned a lot from your experiments. The glass turned out not bad at all! Mich x

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  6. Lovely glass, I am dying to try some fused glass at some time. Made me chuckle too as I have a plan to try some wet felting this week and was going to do coasters too!

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  7. Wet felting is such fun and you end up with such clean hands, lol! I really like the hearts piece, have you thought about making them up as coasters? I have visions of you raiding Quality Street tins to get the coloured foil :)

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  8. Now these are the kind of experiments I like, always have a beautiful outcome. Well done. Hope you have a good week.

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  9. I love the felt, having a go at felting has been sitting on my wish list for years

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  10. Your felting looks great and as for the glass thats brilliant. I think you will go from strength to strength in both materials. I really like the little hearts going across good idea.

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  11. I like what you've done with the glass. I've never tried metal inclusions. But in the fall I'm going to drag my kiln out and get started with it again. I have a busy summer, but I am dying to get back to glass making. Your little piece is actually very cool. Thank you for the ideas!

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  12. Well done on your makes this last week and I think the glass looks good too, thank you for visiting my blog

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  13. If you don't try things how can you ever improve them?! Experimenting is good! X

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  14. very interesting experiments and attempts at combining two materials together, glass and metal - very unique!
    love reading about people's experiments with glass fusing and all sorts of glass techniques

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  15. I love that first picture, it looks like the moon.
    Good luck on your experiments, I look forward to seeing your future results.

    Jan x

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  16. I love the feltwork,it's lovely colours. I really like the idea of what you did with the glass,it looks like a paperweight.Love the metal in it.

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  17. That glass is brilliant! Did you manage to trim the edges or is that not possible? Excuse my ignorance! I'm going to try a bit of resin when my kit (and instruction book!) arrives. Good luck with the glass and felt!

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  18. How lovely to be playing with both felt and glass! I am very envious you have a kiln to do the glass work in, the glass looks so different, I didn't know you could put foil in!
    Jo x

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  19. I love the look of the glass piece :)

    Molly x

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