Week 5 of the craftpimp blog ring - featured artist - Jill of Kiln Fired Art

I have a treat for you this week as it's Jill of Kiln Fired Art's turn to be featured for the craftpimp blog ring.

This post will be photo heavy as I am a huge fan of Jill's work so I want to show as many different pieces as possible.

Jill is an artist who lives in an idyllic part of Yorkshire. She can often be found painting on the balcony outside her house, sounds like a pretty cool way to spend your day.

Jill has loved to draw and paint since she was small and obviously has a real talent for it.

 Here are a couple of pieces from Jill's wildlife range, which she will be expanding on in the future. The hare bowls are just stunning and not the only pieces available with hare's on them, Jill also paints vases which are often available in her Etsy Store but you have to be quick as her work is so outstanding that it sells almost immediately.


Hand painted bowl boxing hares



Tiger painting on ceramic tile

A beautiful hand painted ceramic tile depicting a rose.

Rose painting on ceramic tile

Also available from Etsy are these flat bottles. I don't know about you but I get quite sentimental about things, I still have the cork from a champagne bottle which we popped at my wedding. I so wish I'd kept the bottle now as Jill will flatten them for you and then frame them up. What an amazing memento that would be.
Check out Jill's website here Flat bottles.

Also available are these super cool flattened bottle notepad holders.

Flat bottle message on a bottle





Jill also has a range of jewellery in her store which includes glass,  aliminium, copper and ceramic pieces.
These pieces are all available via etsy or you can visit her jewellery website for more information.



Glass pendant fused dichroic glass

Copper cuff textured leaf bangle

Porcelain heart pendant

Jill's handpainted fern bowl was recently featured on the front page of the USA Etsy Home page. That is a real achievement I can tell you and doesn't it look beautiful on there?



Jill has her own website where you can find more stunning pictures of her work along with information about the artist herself and a link to her blog.

Week 4 of the Craftpimp Blog Ring - featuring Jolene - Kitzbitz Glass

I had a week off last week from the craftpimp blog ring as it was my turn to be blogged about whoop, thank you ladies for all of your lovely words. :o) x

This week I would like to introduce Jolene of Kitzbitz Glass. I have been in awe of Jolene's blog for quite some time, not only is it full of glassy delights but the layout, picture quality and posts are all written so beautifully, it draws you in and makes you want to read more and more.

Jolene is the founder of the craftpimp forum a multi crafting community. Jolene is a very hard working mum of two who creates the most stunning glass beads amongst other things.

 I adore coloured glass I think it one of the most beautiful things you can look at. As a papercrafter though I don't come into contact with it as often as I'd like. Being a member of craftpimp means that I can easily get my regular fix when I look through the amazing galleries on there.

I also regularly visit Jolene's Etsy store for more glassy fixes. Jolene has beautiful beads available in her store, my favourite if I had to pick would be the aquarium beads. When you look at them they are multi layered with so many fabulous little elements to find within them quite extraordinary.

Aquarium bead - deep blue sea

Stunning

Lampwork Glass Bead set - Springtime

Wow just wow look at the colour of these beads.



Etched cobalt blue lampwork bead set



   Jolene isn't just a whizz with glass, she is also known for working with polymer clay, when I first saw this bead set I had no idea what they were made from, I thought they had been painted doh. The art of making polymer canes which are then sliced to make beads etc is a remarkeable thing to watch. It reminds me a bit of how they make rock only much more intricately done.

Tattoo beads scarab disc set

Jolene has another Etsy Store where she sells glass supplies. Again I'm not a glass artist but I sooo wish I was every time I look at the gorgeous colours of twistie canes, frit, murrini and glass shards. Jolene also runs a mini mo club from this store which is :-

A monthly collection of handmade lampwork bead making supplies, beautifully coordinated and packaged and delivered to your door at the beginning of each month (for however many months you've subscribed).

Twistie cane lampwork supplies

 Jolene is very well known for her mojo boxes, they are full of beautiful colour co-ordinated glassy bits for you to play with and if you're mojo is hiding away somewhere (naughty mojo) then all the hard work is already done for you.

Eternal spring mojo box

Jolene also has a jam packed website full of really useful information about the different types off glass used in lampworking. It also has a gallery with more stunning images. You can also connect with Jolene through Facebook .

I hope you enjoyed this post all about the multi talented Jolene, lampworker extrordinaire and friend.

Happy Crafting

Mel :o) xx

Challenge 19 - Jellypark Friends - What's the weather

It's been a beautiful Spring day here which is so appropriate for the new challenge over at Jellypark Friends Challenge as it's "What's the weather?"

We'd like to see any project which may depict the weather in some way.

For my card I went for a lovely summery scene as summer is hopefully not far away now whoopee, the digi is a brand new release over at the Jellypark Store and as I haven't made a digital card for a while I thought I'd make one. The ice-cream van is hand coloured, the sun, clouds, boy with kite, bucket, spade and starfish are all available as scrapbook elements over at the store.

There are 2 new release images available in the store from today so pop on over to the challenge blog to see what our fabulous design team have made with them. I get to have a sneak peak and they are pretty gorgeous :o)

Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting.

Mel :o) xx

entered into
Party time tuesdays - ptt60 - color challenge and or picture

A New Home card

Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's out there.

Just a quick post today as I've just finished my breakfast in bed yipee and now we are off out to a lovely craft place and then for lunch. Wish it was Mother's Day every Sunday, let's face it we deserve it lol :o).

On to the card, it's a good luck in your new home card.

The papers are from a gorgeous spring paper pack I bought (hoping to add to my paper collection today) The image is one from the Willow Designs, Polly Pickleberry cd which I coloured with my promarkers. I made the flower myself and the round sentiment. I'm really loving making my own sentiments at the moment.

See told you it was a quick post, have a great day whatever you are up to.

Happy Crafting

Mel :o)

Challenges entered are:-
Willow sketchie challenge - follow the sketch or use embellishments I used flowers, buttons and ribbon to embellish.

Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine Feature

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by a journalist who asked whether she could interview me for a feature in Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine. I sell my cards on Etsy and the article was about making money from your hobby. I did the interview and sent some photos of my cards, anyhoooo as I subscribe to that particular magazine it popped through my letterbox yesterday, whoop how exciting. So if you get the magazine then look out for me and my Jellypark cards.

a snapshot of the page

Happy Crafting

Mel :o) x