Uffington white horse

It's back to glass today!  A long time ago I lived in Oxfordshire, and would sometimes visit the village of Uffington where there is an ancient chalk horse carved into the slope of White Horse Hill.  It's reckoned to be about 3,000 years old, and is a beautiful, fluid, stylized shape.  Here's a particular lovely photo of it:

(photo credit: http://www.dronestagr.am/white-horse-hill-uffington-oxfordshire-uk/)

Anyhow, my memories of this place, its waving swathes of grass and the nearby lush woodlands have inspired my next piece of stained glass.



I started with wild garlic flowers (again) at the bottom.  The technique I use for painted glass is to apply the paint as a thick, opaque layer, then scratch it back to allow the light to shine through the pattern.  It takes a long time, but gives a lovely crisp image.



Here's my worktable as I'm about to start putting paint on glass - pretty messy!  Both the green piece of glass I'm going to paint, and the (glass) paint palette are on a light box, so I can make sure the paint is really opaque.



In the middle of the window is a grassy hillside with the horse, and above that a stand of trees which are characteristic of those along the Ridgeway.  The paler green glass is mouth-blown and bubbly!



Here's the finished mini-window - about 15cm wide and 25cm high.  It's slightly hard to see, but the orangey-red glass has pretty streaks like a sunset.  It changed colour slightly when fired, which is something red glass can do.



I'm planning to explore both the 'trees on the skyline' and 'ancient Britain' aspects of this a bit more in the future - more chalk figures, and ancient sites to come!
Also, I have woken up my Etsy shop after a long sleep, you can find it here.
Vicky xx

Socks Yeah! (but not about socks)

This beautiful yarn is called Socks Yeah!  It's from Coop Knits.



I just spent out on eight skeins of this loveliness, which I've been promising myself since November, when I went to the Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate.  There, I bought Jane Crow's crochet pattern Mystic Lanterns.



I couldn't resist the colours in this scarf, and I already knitted socks with Socks Yeah!  Each mystic lantern is formed with treble crochets, edged with double crochets - a very clever pattern that looks more difficult than it is.



One more picture for now of the start of a mystic lantern - I'll update soon with some finished lanterns!  I'm planning to make a loop (or infinity) scarf, rather than the trad long version.



Also, spring is here and I found these pretty blue squills about to burst into flower in the garden!



Vicky xx

The wild bird

Quick post today, back to glass briefly.

This mini window has a bird, perched on a branch over wild garlic flowers - perhaps it's in a woodland near here, where the wild garlic will soon be in flower and filling the air with it's amazing smell!  I can't tell you the exact species of the bird - top secret - so apologies if you are 'good' at birds and are wondering what it might be.



As before, I have painted the glass, scratched the design in it (very like using scraperboard), and then it's fired at 600 degrees C and becomes a permanent part of the glass.  Each piece is then fitted together with the lead strips, which are soldered together and polished with grate-black.



More glass pictures on Flickr!

Vicky xx