Crafty Ladies - Bugs & Fishes

I was recently interviewed by Laura (aka Lupin) on her Bugs and Fishes blog as part of her excellent  Crafty Ladies series.

Laura's is one of the very first blogs I ever read, so it's really nice to appear on it, and it was interesting to look back over a few of my projects from the past 12 months.

It also sparked a little conversation about Blogging Vs Instagram, which has motivated me to post more regularly here again (or at least try to!).

You can read the interview here.

Eagle-eyed stained glass folks will notice I have neither scratched or tallowed my solder joints in this picture.  It was late, I needed a workshop picture, it was just me and a self timer.  I forgot.  Rest assured when I actually soldered this panel I did scratch and tallow first :)

Instagram Addiction / PicTapGo

Sorry about the blog absence.

I have no excuse, other than a slightly unhealthy addiction to The 'Gram.

But as a result of this, I am stunned and delighted to have been chosen as this week's featured photographer by PicTapGo (my mobile photo-editing app of choice).

You can have a look on their blog over here.

Hey Look That's Me

Yes, this very blog that you are reading right here has been recommended

as one of Channel 4 Homes favourite craft blogs.

If you're visiting from the 4Homes website...

Hello! 

Shop Talk - Folksy Blog

Look! It's me! On the Folksy Blog...pretending to sound all knowledgeable...

Plus, I've finally listed a few more things...

The Totally-Crazy-Once-In-A-Lifetime-Help-Yourself-To-Anything* Giveaway!

I know. Bonkers eh? But that's the deal, anyone can enter, just visit my Folksy shop, decide what you'd like, post a comment below (sorry, no anony-mouses though) telling me what it is and one lucky winner will receive the item of their choice! If it's something I have in stock I'll post it asap, and if not, I'll make it for you (you'll receive it in about 7 days for UK peeps, longer for overseas peeps).

For further chances to win, add yourself to the rest of the very agreeable followers over to your right there. If you want to blog or tweet a link (include @TheRoundWindow in your tweet so I see it) to the giveaway, that would also be another entry - just let me know in your comment. I'll draw the winning name out the hat next week.


The reason I'm doing this? I'm being featured over on the brand spanking new and gorgeous UK-based website Craftsville, who will be bringing you the best in independent art, craft, design and creativity. The lovely Michelle and Helen will be giving you a guided tour around my (newly de-cobwebbed) workshop.


*Anything?
Yes, Anything.
Anything?
Yes, Anything.
ANYTHING?
Er, yes.

Ho Hum

Just drumming my fingers, waiting for balls to get rolling, whips to get cracking and shows to get on the road - there are a couple of interesting jobs in the pipeline that are yet to get the go-ahead.

In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to this Friday's episode of Mastercrafts (9.00pm BBC2) which will follow 4 apprentices trying their hand at stained glass. The mentor who will be training them is an artist called Sophie Lister Hussain, whose work embraces a wide variety of styles and practices and is technically superb. She also shares a studio with my ex-collegue and good friend Delia (http://www.apollostainedglass.co.uk/), so I was a little green with envy that she would be rubbing shoulders with the lovely Monty Don for a few days.

I've yet to catch up on the previous episodes of this show (green woodcraft, thatching and blacksmithing) but by all accounts they make really interesting viewing.

Other newsworthy items...I won a giveaway! This beautiful paper mechanical animal set from Oh My Cavalier! (via Pikaland).


Julianna's work is inspired by ephemera, folklore and sharp-toothed mammals. This hesitant little badger just about breaks my heart.

All photos from Oh My Cavalier

Oh and I should also like to point you in the direction of It Belongs To Turtle by way of thanks to the Turtle for his kind words about my glass. A very charming Turtle he is too.

And there's more

I'm a featured seller over at Folksy! If only I'd known, I might have got some stock ready and bought in some more packaging materials! It's great though and the shop is emptying fast, so MUST get busy in the workshop and leave the bathroom painting for another time (shame, she says, it's such fun painting bare plaster).

The week so far...

World domination edges ever closer to Through The Round Window! Not one, but two mentions in the Blogosphere. First came this nice little nod from I Love Handmade followed closely by this beautiful photo on Peonies & Polaroids. That totally made my day. She is so ludicrously talented, stylish, funny, eloquent, generally-all-round-sorted and (here comes the really painful bit) only 24.

And stuff has been selling! My Items You've Sold page at Folksy is looking pretty impressive!

Random people are e-mailing me just to say they like my work! Isn't that nice of them!

Anyway, I'll stop now. Next week will probably be really quiet and I'll wonder what the hell I'm actually doing all over again. But for now I shall head towards the weekend in a little bubble of contentment.

Oh, and I've listed a couple more birds in the shop. I was pleased with the way this picture turned out.

I Heart Amazon + Last Chance Saloon

Apologies to the other Flora (who is very kind and lovely and not some freakish Coraline version of me with buttons for eyes...did I mention I saw the film recently ;o) for STILL not having done her tag. It's coming, honestly! But I want to spend a bit of time on it rather than a hastily done post (erm, like this one).

Anyway, in the meantime, look at the lovely things I have bought from Amazon!

This DVD which is some serious eye-candy...I bought it on the pretext that it was for the girls...of course, it's just for me really. The 1922 Cinderella is STUNNING (beautiful and a little bit creepy, just the way I like it!)



And I got This Book for Mike for Father's Day (he's a big fan of the grotesque and burlesque...well, he would be in his line of work). Again, some incredible images, taken with a lot of warmth and humour.



Oh, yes, and I got this card from Etsy to send to some friends who have just given birth to their first baby - a girl. A very sweet sentiment I thought:




OK - this is your last chance to enter my Giveaway! Just click on the link and leave your name and a comment. Easy!

Hey I exist!

Well, the post was written about a year ago, but I've only just found it...
have a look here



The panel was made using recycled glass from bottles, flattened out in the kiln, which makes beautiful glass with handmade qualities. The only downside is that the gorgeous turquoise glass comes from a bottle of Blue Nun...

So thanks for the link Eco-Modernist, have returned the favour.

While I'm here, I'll put up a couple of other pictures. The first is Nelly's finished Easter Bonnet (alright, alright, I did help a little bit) We did not win first prize though, much to my utter outrage ;)



And this is a rather minimalist arrangement of knotty spotty driftwood collected the other day, displayed in my most delicious of jugs.

No explosions....yet.....

The Duralex plate with the birds on has come out of the kiln unscathed, the paint has fired and the silver stain has come out a perfect shade of catkin yellow. So i'm chuffed to say the least. The gingham enamel on the birds is looking almost unbearably cute, but I'm doing just one more quick firing as it was a bit too pale. So I'll put another pic up when finished. Just got to decide what to do next with it...put a nice border around it? Lead it into another panel? Just leave it as a sweet little plate? Hmm....

My very lovely friend and colleague Delia has just revamped her website, and she's put up lots of pictures of all the painted work I've done for her company over the past few years

Apollo Stained Glass

She's based in South East London.

Finally, still in a dilemma about the Etsy name....do I go for "Through A Round Window" (which will just squeeze in under their 20 letters or less restriction) or just "The Round Window" ? Answers on the back of a postcard to the usual address please.

Hooray I'm a Genius

After much geeking about, I think I've finally got everything ticking along nicely on the web/blog front. Phew!

Just got my listing on Craft and Design Selected http://www.craftmaker.co.uk/florajamieson too, so I'm feeling mighty proud of myself.

Slight technical hitch with my Etsy shop - ThroughTheRoundWindow is one letter too long to use. Harumph. Not sure that ThruTheRoundWindow works for me....

Right, am now heading to the workshop to continue a small panel that is halfway through, and investigate some sketches to see how I can work them into glass.