While at Bullseye last week for the class I took, we were shown how to properly prepare a kiln shelf for firing. I’ve been an advocate for thin fire to fire glass on, but that’s because I can be a bit lazy now and then. You can get away with it for flat work but if you plan to slump your work you’ve got to use kiln wash to prep your surfaces. Over at the Warm Glass web site they have a tutorial on how to coat your shelf with wash. The picture in the pdf file was taken at Bullseye, so this is exactly what I learned last week. I’ve been shown this procedure in the past but Nathan, our fab instructor, was so good he made me want to always use kiln wash. And since I did pick up that set of square plate molds in various sizes…but that a whole other posting.
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Designer Spotlight: Sawanita
Sawanita is an Etsy shop with a heavy focus on Christmas and winter designs, folk art and projects that look like quilt blocks.
The project that first caught my eye from this shop was this set of Scandinavian style birds. In the little picture on the front page of the shop they reminded me of postage stamps, but they’re a lot bigger and more detailed than stamps. And while they look complicated, each one only uses five or six colors.
Each design is 160 by 160 stitches, which comes out to 29 cm or 11.43 inches square on 14 count fabric. The listing includes other counts if you want to make them smaller. But I think they’d be great at that size all hung in a group as if it were one image. That’s a big project but so fun, too.
In addition to these birds you’ll find lots of pretty snowflake designs, Christmas houses and nutcrackers, some really cute ghosts, and a few lovely designs with witches that kind of remind me of woodcuts. There are also some fun nature inspired patterns including samplers of snowy owls, colorful frogs and fanciful mushrooms.
The section titled ornament cross stitch is full of colorful and intricate designs, like Quaker blocks worked in a rainbow of colors, Gothic hearts that look like some kind of ancient medal and some super colorful and detailed lanterns I shared the other day in my Ramadan cross stitch patterns post.
The shop doesn’t have a huge selection, but they’re all interesting and worth taking a look at if you’re into traditional designs with a modern twist. Check them out at Sawanita on Etsy.
If you have an Etsy shop or love to shop somewhere I haven’t featured before, let me know! You can tell me all about your favorite shop by clicking “suggest a DIY” at the top of the page.
[Photo: Sawanita]