The teams week on etsy

We have some lovely listings appear on etsy from the team every week and three weeks ago I started a team picks treasury to showcase the latest and greatest from members.

So firstly I had better give you the previous links before I start nattering on about this weeks stunning submissions
3-10 Jan Team Picks
11-17 Jan Team Picks

This week the listings were more beautiful than ever, everyone is picking up the pace after a long rest from last month and there was just so much to choose from.
We are leading this week with Sarah Downton's listing - Silver waters a luscious turquoise, teal, emerald and green encased in sparkling clear. Also in the treasury you will find Dawn Turner, certainly not new to the forum but her brand spanking new etsy shop was only opened last week and her fused coasters are selling out just as fast as she is listing them check them out before they are all gone again. Oh and if you haven't seen flyingcheesetoaties glass bunnies I suggest taking a quick peek, available as a paint your own or clear glass. Perfect for easter.  

Take a look at the rest of the week in 12 pictures in the treasury

Scarlet xx

Pretty Baubles

Pretty Baubles pretty baubles to wear by FHFteam, created by kitzbitz



FHFteam 2010

The Trials and Tribulations of a Newbie Lampworker!

Hello again! I am back as promised with some more "Rules" that I have discovered on my brief lampworking journey, I hope you enjoy them!

Rule number 3: You always have to have every new glass that comes onto the market immediately and without regard for the size of you bank balance. This is just a plain fact that you cannot escape. But I will let you into a secret.......this is not a problem that is only suffered by Newbs. No siree. Even the old hands still suffer from this one. You are not alone, you should never be ashamed. It is a part of the addiction, for which there is no cure. Just accept it and move on. My personal poison is silver glass, even though I have a really hard time getting it to do anything on my HH, a new one becomes available, someone makes a gorgeous bead with it, and out comes the Debit card without a second thought! (“Dinner darling? Oh, I though we should be frugal and use up some leftovers. Yorkshire pudding with limp salad and cold spaghetti will be just fine, won’t it?”) Here is a photo of an early Aurae **ahem** "experiment":

Rule number 4: You will never have enough space. This is an unavoidable side effect of following unwaveringly rule number 5:
You will never have enough tools. And I tell you this my friends, there is no point trying to avoid this rule. Everywhere you turn some friendly type is flogging something that you suddenly really have a need for, or some equally friendly type is receiving new stock from a new or a favourite supplier. These people are feeding the addiction and we love them for it!

Please remember to post a comment with your suggestion of what a lampwork addict should be, I will give a prize for my favourite!

Thanks for reading, I'll be back soon :)

You can find me on Etsy :)

The Trials and Tribulations of a Newbie Lampworker!

First, an introduction. I am Vicki, and I am a Newbie Lampworker. And I am addicted, does that make me a lampaholic? A glassaholic? A flameaholic? I’ll leave you to decide that one. In fact, leave your suggestion in the comments and I will give a prize for my favourite!
There are rules to follow when you are a Newb, apart from the obvious safety aspects of the hobby/job of course.
Rule number one is: You will always try and run before you can walk. Not that I am saying I run around my flat with a rod of molten glass you understand, it’s just that thing, when you realise that you can wind the glass onto the mandrel without big blobs of glass falling on the work surface or without burning your home down or without burning yourself, but a simple single colour wonky spacer bead is never enough. Lets face it, you’ve spent weeks looking at all the amazing and beautiful things that everyone here has produced, and you want to do the same. And it is with a certain amount of arrogance that you think to yourself “ It doesn’t look like that should be too hard to do.......” So you try it. This inevitably leads to rule number two:
There will be “faliures”.
Now, this is where it gets harder. Nothing that you produce with your own fair hands is ever really a faliure, but that can be difficult to believe when you are staring down at an enormous gob of yucky, mis-shapen, ugly glass and saying to yourself “That’s definitely not an angel, it’s more like a piece of dog p**” Well, take it from someone who has produced their fair share of p** looking beads, everything you produce is part of the journey, you learn something every time you wind that glass onto that mandrel, even if it’s what not to do next time. It’s all part of the journey. Try putting your first bead onto a piece of string, then add your second and third and so on. Your first few are bound to be entirely experimental (because of course you will be obeying the first rule), but you will see some progress, even at this early stage. Then every time you try a new technique, add the first bead to the string as a milestone marker for your journey. You will start to see just how quickly you do progress!

I have more rules to follow soon, (with pictures!) thanks for reading and happy lampworking!

You can find me on Etsy :)


www.veebeads.etsy.com

Cheaty Bicone - tutorial by Kitzbitz Art Glass

Some more older footage from me that I have finally got around to editing. It shows one method of shaping a focal sized bicone on a hot head torch. The video shows how to build the shape up in three peices and tweak and make neat the ends and holes with my cheaty little pokey method.

Jolene

Kitzbitz Art Glass

Cheaty Twistie - a beginner tutorial by Kitzbitz Art Glass

This is some footage from 2007 when I was very much still new to working with glass.
As you can see, I am working on a Hot head which is single fuel torch, propane only.
I call this the cheaty twistie method - heating only a small amount of glass to pull about an inch of twistie at a time. It is great way to get the feel of how *elastic* glass can be without feeling like you have to control with gravity a large fluid gather of glass.

Here is a bead that I made in 2007 with my cheaty twistie


It was a mile stone for me, a newbie bead I was dead thrilled with and so I hope my basic little video will help some one else along the addictive path of lampwork.

Jolene

Kitzbitz Art Glass

Who are we?

I thought it was about time I got around to introducing us properly! So, who are we and what are we all about?

The FHFTeam is a newly created Etsy Team, we are all online friends from the Frit Happens Forum. Although we are all very different in our styles - we have some things in common; a love of glass, silver and all things handmade.

Our team members are lampwork artists, glass fusers and jewellery designers. Many of us were already selling individually on Etsy, but given the vastness of Etsy we decided to group together to promote our shops and help each other.

We have lots of things planned for the Team once we all get into the swing of things. We have already mastered the art of grabbing Treasuries!!

The blog will keep you up to date with competitions, giveaways and general news on what's happening with our members.

We will also regularly feature one of our members and tell you more about them and their work.

So, that's us. Please stop by and catch up and even better - go take a look at our Team Hub