I was playing here at The Glass Studio with some solo vitrigraph and I have to say I was delighted with the experience! For those of you not familiar with vitrigraph please check out iglasssolutions.com and learn all about it. Larr Cunningham and Leigh Adams have worked together in creating the Turbo Top, which excellerates the heating of the glass, and the Turbo Light, which allows you to change the height of the kiln so you can re-seed the pot or if you need to work at different heights…with them I have witnessed or participated in pulling different shapes and squiggles and swirls and rings. Very cool stuff. You get shapes and colors that just aren’t available. But then when I was up at Bullseye last May a very controlled vitrigraph experience was witnessed. Nathan Sandberg, our instructor, used the vitrigraph kiln to make a wigwag. A wigwag cane twists in one direction, a bit is pulled and then the twisting direction is switched. This goes back and forth and the effect just makes me crazy. I’ve been meaning to do this here in my studio and today I did…and all by myself. I couldn’t have been happier and I have to say, I see so many of these in my future…in both Bullseye and Moretti. Come and get’em!!
Have you read?
Designer Spotlight: Rina Stitch
Rina Stitch, a Ukraine-based cross stitch designer, has a wide range of cross stitch designs to suit a lot of different tastes.
Of their more than 280 patterns as of this writing, 69 fall under a Christmas theme, but there’s also Easter patterns, boho designs, flowers, gnomes and more.
Since it is the biggest category and we’re still sort of in that season, let’s check in on the Christmas cross stitch section. There are lots of fun, classic motifs like a Christmas tree in the back of a red truck, a snowman holding a heart ornament, bells and lanterns and gingerbread houses. There are hot chocolate mugs and lots of gnomes, penguins and bunnies in holiday situations.
One of their patterns to first catch my eye, though, was this Easter egg stitched in pretty pastel flowers. The design is 67 by 93 stitches, which comes to 4.79 by 6.64 inches or 12.16 by 16.87 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric. It uses 11 colors and includes full cross stitches, backstitch and beading. (There are beads in the centers of the flowers, which you could omit but it’s a lovely effect.)
Another fun section to check out is the lettering section, which includes letter designs made with flowers, as well as a script font you can use on other projects. You can buy letters individually, say if you want to make a project for a baby’s room or make the initials of a couple for a wedding present, or you can buy the full set as one download.
If you like the boho look, there are some fun projects here for you, too. Mountains, succulents, llamas and more can grace your walls with these fun designs. I of course love the cat in the window with plants, but that’s because the cat is black and I have a black cat, too.
Check out Rina Stitch on Etsy for all this and more, and let me know if you know a designer I should put in the spotlight!
[Photo: Rina Stitch]