I was checking out some of the questions over at glasscommunity.com’s forum and came across a good one that I bet a lot of kiln formers/fusers have trouble with. Sometimes as I look around etsy and other sites where people sell their fused pieces I see the same situation. To me it looks like the piece was fired either too fast or too hot or both. I think this was the situation with the piece pictured at the site. I don’t necessarily want to post this picture since it is their “problem” piece. I’d rather show the solution since I want to show things in a good light. If there were before and after pictures that would be different. Have you had the problem of the sides pulling in when you’ve fired a piece? Doing a dog bone kind of thing? You’ll need to ramp it up a bit slower, fire it cooler and you could hold it longer, especially when slumping. Check out the answers to this persons question. It may help you with one of your fusing/slumping projects…
Have you read?
Designer Spotlight: Bella Rose Craft
The designs from Bella Rose Craft look like they would be good for beginner cross stitchers and others who like relatively simple and small designs that are quick to finish for gifts or decor.
I’ll mention up front that this Etsy shop based in Indiana has no organization whatsoever. There are two categories: kits and patterns. So it’s a bit of a treasure hunt to find what you might be interested in.
As mentioned there are lots of minis and small looking projects with simple lines and minimal colors. There are holiday projects, animals, summer motifs like palm trees and beach umbrellas, a bathtub with a rubber duck, some text based designs (like hoppy spring and merry and bright), some biblical and religious designs, flowers, bunting and more.
On a site like this its difficult to pick something representative of the whole page, but I liked this bees and beehive design, so it’s the one I picked to share. This one illustrates a lot of my general points about the patterns from this shop. It’s small (2.79 by 2.57 inches, or about 7 by 6.5 cm on 14 count fabric), it looks like it’s all whole cross stitches and probably uses only six colors, and a couple of colors are only used for a handful of stitches.
Of the 300 plus cross stitch patterns available as of this writing, 140 are also available as cross stitch kits. These would be great to give as gifts if you’re trying to get someone interested in cross stitching. The kits include the pattern, fabric and floss, and you can choose to have it include a needle or not. The hoop is not included but the patterns explain what kind of hoop is shown if you want to get one to match.
So if you’re looking for cute, beginner friendly patterns for yourself or you’re trying to be a crafty enabler for someone else, check out Bella Rose Craft on Etsy.
[Photo: Bella Rose Craft]