Flame June 2016

Flame June 2016

Find us at www.gbuk.org

Colette Russ

Scarlet

Debbie

Martin

Joy Heather

Your new committee

Contact us: Chairman (Colette) Secretary (Debbie) Treasurer (Heather) Membership (Russ) Events (Martin) Webmaster (Scarlet) Journal editor (Joy)

@gbuk.org

Torchlight On...

by Charlotte Dakin-Norris Pages 4 - 7

A beginner's tutorial

by Joy Porteous Pages 9 - 10 Flame Off - Personal snapshots

by Heather Kelly Pages 12 - 13 GBUK AGM Page 14

Because I Can

by Debbie Dew Page 15 First Impressions: Melia, Chloe, Dragonfly

by Heather Kelly Pages 17 - 20

Upcoming Events

Page 30

GBUK membership form

Page 31

All about silver glass Page 22

Torchlight On‌ Charlotte Dakin-Norris I have had a fascination with beads, jewels and shiny things for as long as I can remember. As a child, and like a magpie, I would comb the woods and beaches for suitable treasures - pebbles, shells and feathers that I could string together. Come to think of it I still do this. I suppose this fostered a keen interest in archaeology and jewellery making, and I ended up at Manchester Polytechnic studying 3 Dimensional Design in Wood, Metal, Ceramics & Glass. I majored in metal and glass, and had an early taste of lampworking with a Bunsen burner type setup, which turned beautiful clear lead crystal glass into a horrible, murky mess. The batwash we used as a bead release was also unsuccessful. I don’t think I ever got one of my early beads off a mandrel! So I returned to fusing and silver-smithing.

However, the two disciplines merged and my silver jewellery had hand blown glass and enamelled elements, and my fused glass pieces were decorated with copper bobbin lace. I perfected a new technique that fused the threads in place by using glass enamels; preventing glass and metal compatibility issues.

Once I graduated the horrible business of having to make a living got in the way of the pleasure of making things, except for a brief spell of Irish dancewear making.

Fast-forward 15 years or so and I encountered some of Sally Carver’s beads in a shop in Nottingham. I was amazed at the colours, patterns and playfulness in her work. So I contacted her, found out about Tuffnell Glass, and I ordered a Hothead.

My parents were into DIY so I guess that using power tools never really fazed me - until I started up the Hothead. The NOISE! So I phoned Sally again and booked a lesson. This event changed my life, and I was lucky as the first Flame Off was only a few weeks after that. I never could get on with the Hothead (I only used 1 Mapp gas canister). I invested in the Nortel Minor, an Oxycon, as well as a SC2 kiln and have not regretted it.

I love glass – the amazing colour range and the speed at which you can produce a little work of art is something as a student I missed out on; the torches and the glass palette were not readily available back then. Neither was the internet. Now we have a vast range of coloured glass, fantastic tools and moulds, kilns and teachers all a few clicks away.

I have tried to make up for the early shortfall. I have had further lessons with some wonderful teachers including Diana East, Kate Drew-Wilkinson, Julie Anne Denton and Michi Suzuki plus some day classes at the Flame Off events; Sharon Peters, Pati Walton, Leah Fairbanks, Caitlin Hyde, and Irina Sergeeva. Each have taught me something new and wonderful. I think that lessons are very important, and whilst I admire those who are self-taught, it saved me so much time, frustration, and widened my perspective to join in some classes. I also got to meet some wonderful, inspiring people.

I love experimenting. I find it difficult and rather dull to keep replicating the same bead, so most of my pieces are one-off focals.

Sometimes the experiments do not work, but mostly the accidents lead me further and keep me excited about the process. I adore patterns, so often I have concentrated on this, and it still gives me huge pleasure.

I’ve experimented with enamels, murinni, fuming, silver rich glass, sandblasting, etching and grinding. My favourite pieces have been about exploring forms within glass, and about trying to perfect a technique.

Trees have also featured heavily in my work. I know that I am not the only one who takes random photos of tree silhouettes!

Attending the Flame Offs has been a fantastic opportunity for me. Apart from making some brilliant friends with whom I share a love of glass, it was a very inexpensive way to pick up top tips and get to play with different glass, tools and torches before deciding to take the financial plunge. It was during a discussion at one of these events that I first came into contact with GBUK. The society’s main focus was the promotion of lampworking to a wider community, safety and education. It struck a chord with me, and the regional meet-ups seemed like a perfect and inexpensive way to share information and skills. I was keen to highlight these when I took over the chairman role from Sally Carver. GBUK also introduced a new annual Bead and Jewellery competition (to coincide with Flame Off). It was huge fun – I have happy memories “Ohhing , Ahhing and Wowing” when examining all of the beautiful glass beads that GBUK members entered into the competitions, as well as the amazing jewellery pieces. Then there was the exhausting yet friendly chaos putting up the GBUK displays at the Flame Off. I am still grateful for all of the help we received with that!

I am very proud of the achievements that the members and committee members made. We rebooted the Journal into a yearly publication. Richard Downton’s colourful edition was crammed full of delicious glassy pictures. I was more involved with the subsequent one as my husband Ben edited it. It is a huge task and it is a delight to see the improvements that further editors have continued to make. The website has also had a great makeover; including links to social networking sites, and a new section for lampworking qualifications.

My next step? I’ve just been on a magical tour around Morocco. The colour combos there were a heady blend of reds, blues and oranges, and the perfumes were of mint, amber and rose. The silver jewellery was exquisite and I feel inspired! So, I am hoping to somehow incorporate my memories of the mountains, beaches, souks and textiles into my new work.

You have your own page in the Gallery?

Haven’t got one? Email webmaster@gbuk.org with a short bio and up to 5 photos. Send a link to your own website so visitors to GBUK.org can find you.

Photos of winning beads from past winners of our annual competitions can be found here too.

There is a members only area with tutorials and techniques - please feel free to send us any tips, tutorials or techniques to share with our members.

Do you teach?

Let us know so you can be included on our ‘Classes’ page so prospective students can find you.

Are you on Facebook?

Come and ‘like’ our page. W have lots of non-members that show great interest in the content we post - your beads will be seen by them.

A beginner’s tutorial by Joy Porteous This little tutorial is aimed at those beginning their adventure with glass.

It may answer one of those ‘How do you do that’ questions…..Enjoy!

TIPS Pull several 1mm stringers in both colours. I have used black and white but any two strong contrasting colours will work well.

I use about six 1mm thick stringer about 15mm long in the base colour and two in the contrast.

Make a barrel shaped bead roughly 12.5 mm long and 11mm across. It’s important to get your holes neat at this stage.

You are going to add quite a bit more glass when applying your design and you will end up with a round bead.

Using a contrast colour stringer (I have used black) wind a neat band around the middle of your bead.

Melt the line in gently

Don’t worry if your line is a little untidy, this design is quite forgiving.

Do not over melt your base bead or your pattern will start to distort. Work slowly.

Now place four dots evenly around the bead on one side and four dots in the space between these dots on the other side of your line.

Use your mandrel to align your dots. Use the side of the bead like a clock face, place the dots at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock.

Place your dots as close to the line as you can without touching it

Melt these dots in slowly concentrating the flame in the middle of the bead.

Don’t let the base bead get too hot, just heat the dots.

You don’t want your design to distort.

Your line will start to ‘wiggle’ See how your bead is rounding up.

Add a second lot of dots in the same place and melt them in.

See how your line has contracted and how neat it looks. Keep working slowly, only heating the dots.

Add a third lot of dots and melt in very slowly

You can add as many layers of dots as you like but three layers usually works well

See how your line has become thinner and neater.

Your bead should be nicely rounded by this stage too.

Now add some decoration. I These dots do not need to have added smaller dots in be so close to the line contrast.

Add more dots to finish off your bead.

GBUKmarket Is open for business! www.gbukmarket.org As a member you are entitled to a shop front where you may list your lampworked goods. You will need to register for a shop and wait for an administrator to check your membership is up to date before your shop is activated.

Do make use of it, share it, advertise it, drive customers to look at the only selling site devoted to lampwork from lots of sellers. (members).

Promote your shop and sell your beads – it’s there for you as long as you are a member.

Have a read through the terms and conditions to see what you can sell.

We want to promote lampwork in its many forms and uses and don’t want it to be used for other types of sales so we will be keeping an eye to make sure that’s all that’s being sold.

There may still be bugs and issues so please let us know if you come across any.

by Heather Kelly Flame Off is over for another year and I hope everyone came back with a head bursting with new inspiration and maybe some new tools and shinies. I've been a vendor for the past few years so was very happy to have the chance to spend time enjoying the event as an attendee this year, when I wasn't helping on the GBUK stall. I rented out some of the member bead selling space we offer on the stall, laid out my gremlins and jellyfish, and went off to explore. (This is a great opportunity to have your work available for sale without needing to lay out the time and money for a whole stall - take advantage of it!

We had someone looking for kitty beads but no kitty beads available).

I made sure I got some torch time, and made friends with the rather lovely Bethlehem Bravo. That's a lot of torch to grow into, and I liked the centre fire. I made a boro jellyfish each day - the second is larger as I thought I'd take advantage of the heat, but is less precise. (That's how it goes).

If you know you do want torch time and have planned your demo watching accordingly, the mornings are a good opportunity to get some in as the tables are quieter. The torches were mainly Minors, Midranges and the Hot Heads, so getting a turn on the Bethlehems may take more opportunism.

I saw Rashan Jones' demos on both days - he made a wineglass on the first and a candy dish on the second. If you're at another event with him, make sure you make a moment to see him.

Rashan is extremely generous with information and spent a lot of time giving impromptu demos, individual tuition and answering questions at the torches during the day, generally being a joy to be around.

I was inspired to get out my as-yet-untouched boro tubing when I got home and successfully made a small and somewhat wibbly wineglass. It does stand up, though! I can successfully pull points now too, which I have had issues with before. This is one of the great things about being able to see more artists' slight differences in technique when doing the same thing: it may be just what you needed to get something to click for you. Martin's technique of making two points at once does not work for me at the moment, but if I just make one at a time I can get something even and usable. Patience before production.

I came home with some of the new Double Helix Melia, and as someone who preordered my Flame Off tickets I had a voucher that gave me a rod of the other new release, DH Chloe, along with a new Effetre opaque green. Chloe wasn't for sale on its own and is a yellow-green rod with Ossa-like white flecks. I also added a couple of rods of Bella Donna silver glass, as I felt like trying out a few new ones.

Then there are, of course, the people! I met and had extensive chats with new people, as well as seeing old friends. (Di East, it was great to see you there!)

Being an introvert I don't join the dinner groups, instead going back to my room to have some nice relaxing alone time before the next day. I love all you people, you just exhaust me!

That was my Flame Off - how was yours?

GBUK AGM This year’s AGM was held at Flame Off on Saturday 16th April.

The new committee was introduced - we welcomed Joy Porteous and Martin Tuffnell but said goodbye to Ursula Mann. Russ Dew is continuing as Membership Secretary for the moment but has other commitments and would like someone to take over his role. If anyone is interested, please email Debbie on secretary@gbuk.org for more details.

Our membership is falling and ways to regain and hold onto members was discussed in detail. Several proposals were put forward and we will be following up some and looking into the feasibility of others. We welcome any ideas from members for consideration.

The overwhelming concern was the lack of interaction with members. With little or no feedback, to anything put forward, leaves the committee wondering how to change this.

If all members do is vote with their feet by not renewing and don’t respond to any calls to action then it is getting increasingly more difficult to know what our membership want to access from their membership. To this end we will be trying various new ideas and hope that members will respond and in a positive way.

One of these ways is to hold a

’

‘

class with the immensely talented who is famed for his hollow beads, beads from recycled glass and his soft glass spiders.

The class will be open to GBUK members in the first instance. Members will get first refusal on the places available. Any spare will be opened to any other lampworkers who would like to take advantage of the opportunity.

The class will be held in the studio at Tuffnell Glass in Rudston, Yorkshire on Saturday

24th

September.

More details, including the cost and course content, will be sent out via Newsflash as soon as it’s finalised. In the meantime, clear your diary for a fantastic chance to learn from our own talented member.

Because I Can…by Debbie Dew Now and again my curiosity gets the better of me and I just have to know something.

One question that’s been burning away in my head for years is …

just how many beads I can get out of a quarter kilo of glass?

Of course, eventually I had to give in to curiosity and find out .........

I started with a batch of Effetre transparent amethyst and made hollows from the full rods, leaving me with a load of ends.

Next, I melted all the ends together to give me useable lengths and from these I made spacers. I kept joining the ends and making more spacers until this is all that was left I could probably have got one more bead from it, if I had a rod grabber tool like the ones Sally and Alan Joyce make.

My final tally is 33 hollows and 53 spacers.

If anyone wants to buy a metric ton of amethyst beads, you know where to find me.

How many can you make?

Entries for the next journal, which will be distributed at Flame Off 2017, need to be in by 30th September 2016

Closing date: 28th February 2017 Themes: Song beads Japanese

A new challenge will be set in each issue of Flame. There are no prizes, but we’d love to see beads made using this picture for inspiration. You can post them up on our Facebook page or send them to secretary@gbuk.org and they will appear in the next issue of Flame.

The closing date is 20th July 2016.

Double Helix Melia and Chloe, Bella Donna Dragonfly

By Heather Kelly It's been a while since I tried any new 104 silver glass, so I thought I'd see what I made of these:

Melia Melia is a greenish teal in the rod. I started off treating this like most reduction glass. I made a lentil from 006 clear and a fat spiral of Melia around it, melted in. I reduced it (oxy down) several times you could see the colour change somewhat and it had a very mirrored appearance when being worked.

It kept that - it is very shiny and reflective (you can see my hands clearly!) with an overall green look.

The reduction is oilslick and you can see the colours when the light hits it right.

For the second bead, I did the same thing over a base of ivory. The effect is very similar, with the mirror emphasised by contrast with the creamy base.

I then tried it over dark ivory, and superheated the entire bead until I had a moving lozenge shape, then re-pressed it. This was because the description says that superheating causes it to break up and veining to happen. It's not quite what DH's site shows, but there's a fair bit of mottling going on here in both glasses. The Melia is still very shiny, but there are turquoise areas around edges and the reduction generally has more tan and salmony pink in it, and has gone as far as reduction red veins near the bottom of the bead here.

For bead 4 I used a clear core, encased in Melia, reduced the whole thing once with a little more in a couple of spots, and encased it (still using 006). I've got shiny blue and white MOP, with a flash of gold when the light hits right. The edges of the lentil have less reduction and more of the base green showing through.

That was one sitting - I went away and read up what Double Helix had to say again after that, and decided to try for more veining and for the satin surface effect. For that, they say to have a larger flame and adjust it to have four inch candles, and repeatedly reduce much further out.

The first bead was again 006 encased in Melia. I superheated it before reducing. I tried the long candles and reduced high up, and got a silver/blue looking mirror while still in the flame. When cool, it has much darker blues in it than the other beads, and the surface is broken up and mottled. (It's still shiny, it just also even harder to photograph than usual...)

I then tried superheating the next bead a couple of times, before and after pressing. I reduced with the long candles, then superheated to remove the reduction and repeated. I could see purples. I waved it about a lot in the outer reduction flame and heated just the edges to glowing, and repeated. I could see some satin areas but could not get the whole bead to do that. Then when I took it off the mandrel it cracked in half as I'd let it get too cool for too long with all the waving about! I'm showing it because you can see the satin area quite clearly. The edges that I let get hotter have deep blue, greens and some shiny veins.

Finally, I made the core of this bead Bollywood pink-style (clear, striking orange, clear), encased in Melia, reduced, put some big dots of clear down to trap that reduction and then melted carefully in. I then reduced and erased the surface over and over. I got some satiny areas and a fairly tan surface. I love the sharp reaction line around the edge of the clear dots.

Inside you can see pinks and purples from the orange underneath, and it goes quite a bright pink if you shine light all the way through.

Here they all are together.

Chloe A yellow/lime green with speckles. Firstly, a base of clear, encased in Chloe and reduced my normal way (oxy down, not that high up in the flame). It took quite a few passes for iridescence to be visible. I then encased it in clear. This gives a light sheen inside the bead which looks blue from some angles and purple from others. It is more visible in less direct light. It is still transparent and the yellow dominates. You can see the flecks.

I then decided to do the same thing but with different base colours to alter the look. This base is half black and half ivory. Again it was reduced and encased in clear, and I then twisted the centres with the clear. It doesn't look great over the ivory, particularly where there is less reduction and it goes more yellow. There is quite a nice pale pink in some areas though, with lots of shine. Over the black you get blues, ranging from deep blue to milky turquoise. The flecks give a nice galaxy effect over the black.

For my last Chloe bead, I thought it would look good over the Bollywood pink centre - I made that and encased the bead in Chloe, reduced it and wrapped in a spiral of clear, melted that in and reduced it again, which took longer to take the second time. I pinched the edges out to fins. I really like how this came out. There's a good pink colour and the flecks show well, and the surface reduction is a lovely gold. The blue end is where the orange escaped out of the end of its encasing and is a nice variation. I think it's a promising colour to add on top of some other transparents to see what kind of graduations you can get.

All the Chloe.

Dragonfly This rod is a cloudy opalino blue, which is interesting for silver glass. The first bead has a core of clear and Dragonfly on the surface, reduced. It took a while to develop a sheen and you can see different areas developing and purples showing up. This seems to develop the oilslick variations faster than Melia, once it starts visibly reducing at all.

It comes out much bluer as it doesn't have the teal base.

Reduced and encased over a clear core, it has the familiar blue to whitish turquoise range. A lot of silver glasses do this, but it's always pretty. It has deep blue on the side spot that is less reduced.

Here they both are, with a better look at the oilslick colours.

This year’s themes were:

and We received 25 entries covering all the categories apart from Beginners.

These are the winners in each category. The other entries can be found on the GBUK website www.gbuk.org

Bead set: Judith Hannington

Jewellery: Linda Newnham Focal: Joy Porteous

Scuptural: Ilsa Fatt

Details of how Linda made this beautiful necklace can be found on her blog: http://earth-shinedesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

Other: Helen Plant

‌Silver glass

All about

Silver glass is rich in silver crystals that can yield an amazing array of surface effects dependent on the way it is treated in the flame.

There are essentially two types of silver soft glass – striking and reducing.

Reducing silver glass produces beautiful iridescence while striking silver glass yields most of the colour spectrum. Some silver glass is both striking and reducing.

There are more manufacturers of silver glass than you think: Double helix e.g Triton, Ekho, Psyche Reichenbach e.g. silver brown, dark multicolour, magic Trautman Art Glass (TAG) e.g. Taxco, Fire Lotus, Dalai Lama Striking Colour Arrow Springs Bella Donna glass Effetre e.g. silver plum, silver black Gaffer e.g. Chalcedony The following tables are not means exhaustive but will hopefully provide a quick reference guide should you need one.

Quick reference guide Reducing

Aion 2 Arke Aurae Boreas Chloe Elektra 2.1 Gaia Helios Iaso Iris Melia Notos Nyx Olympia Rain Ossa Oxalis Psyche Thallo Triton

Striking

Combination striker/reducer

Double Helix Khaos Luna 3 Pandora (kiln strike) Pandora 2 (kiln strike) Terra Terranova 2.1

Clio Ekho Euros Hyperion Kalypso Kronos 2 Okeanos Terra 2 Pandora Clio

http://www.doublehelixglassworks.com/

Triton

Notos

Arke Aurae

Gaia

Boreas Ursula Mann

Bella Donna Reducing

Striking

Striking and reducing

Aqua Splash

Honey Glaze

Midnight Magic A mix of Moody Blue, Tealicious and Purplicious

Moody Blue Purplescent Royal Purple Tealicious Dragon Scale Dragonfly

Bella Donna -

a lesser known visitor to our shores

Made by the US company Arrow Springs, this silver glass is not as well known as its Double Helix counterparts, although the results can be just as spectacular. It is a bit trickier to use though and employs the technique of ‘dragon breath flame’ to achieve the best results.

A dragon breath flame is created by turning the oxygen OFF and turning the propane UP until the flame detaches itself from the end of the torch. The bead is then put in the purple part of the flame just above the ‘gap’.

Midnight Magic

https://www.arrowsprings.com/html/belladonna_glass.html

Tealicious

Reichenbach Reducing

Striking

Black reduction

Magic

Combination striker/reducer Multicolour

Silver brown

Dark multicolour

silver brown

multicolour dark, encased

Reichenbach silver glasses are unsung heroes as they are so cheap in comparison to other silver glasses that there is no reason not to try them out as a prelude to using the dearer varieties. They aren’t straightforward, silver glass of any type rarely is, but they are certainly worth the cost as an introduction to the silver glass world.

multicolour dark, unencased

TAG 104 Reducing

Striking

Striking and reducing

Cezanne

Blue Buddha

Deep Purple

Black Cherry (kiln strike) Blue Lotus Exp

Golden Emerald

Dali Lotus

Juno

Lake Geneva

Fire Lotus

Tibet

Montreaux

Green Jelly Opal

Zeus

Taxco Silver Turquoise

Oxblood (self striking)

Dalai Lama

fire lotus

Transcendental Wicked Green

fire lotus

http://www.taglass.com/Articles.asp?ID=258 Unfortunately this glass is hard to find in 104 COE but is well worth keeping an eye out for production runs.

The most well known of them all is fire lotus which gives an array of colours when cooked extremely well , cooled, then struck.

blue realm

taxco

golden emerald

coral lotus zeus

Abe’s Ivy Davinci Precision 104 Striking and reducing Abe’s Ivy Black Pearl Chagall Silver Blue Davinci 1 Davinci Double Amber Purple Garzoni Giovanna

Black Pearl

Kandinsky Matisse Red Exotic Monet Silver Amethyst Picasso Silver Blue Rembrandt Sashas Silver Silver Mist

Silver Mist

Van Gogh Caramel http://www.abrimagery.com/store/index.php/precision-soft-color-c-430_318

Garzoni Giovanni Picasso Silver Blue

Effetre Reducing

silver black

Copper green metallic Dark silver plum Silver black Silver plum Rubino

http://www.tuffnellglass.com/contents/en-uk/d16_01.html Effetre is better known for reactive rather than silver glass but it has a few that react in an unusual way and give a lustre, rather than shiny, result.

Lauscha Reducing Silver Crystal Supernova Blueberry Bluetonium Vanilla Ice

Silver Crystal

http://lauscha.heatherkellyglass.co.uk/

George Tessman Glass (GTG) Striking

Reduction

Black Nebula

Blue Angel

Mountain Honey

Green Envy Black Nebula

Black nebula - a metallic iridescence can be achieved in a dragon breath flame which gets lighter the longer it’s left there.

Mountain Honey

Shirley Giles

http://www.abrimagery.com/store/index.php/gtg-glass-104-coe-c-430_380

Neptune Glassworks Striking Blue Dream

http://www.abrimagery.com/store/product_info.php/neptune-glass-blue-dream-rod-p-101638

Did we miss any out? Let us know so we can add them in to our list.

The future of the American Glass Industry?

Reproduced with the permission of ISGB, 23rd May 2016 There have been some serious and important developments unfolding in the world of “glass manufacturing”. These issues impact ordinary citizens, employees of the companies impacted and, to a large degree, artists working in glass and related media.

The ISGB urges you to search out reliable information and educate yourself about these developments due to their likely impact on the glass market, they will affect buyers and makers of glass, and the industry as a whole.

In February of this year, glass companies came under scrutiny, as Oregon state regulators grew concerned about the levels of certain chemicals in neighbourhoods near glass factories. Although this wasn’t directly linked to glass manufacturing, it was cause for concern about potential links. At that time, several companies announced they were stopping the production of certain colours of glass containing arsenic and cadmium until they could develop systems that would better contain harmful pollutants.

Bullseye Glass, in particular, took a proactive approach and issued press releases reporting how they were responding to the environmental concerns, at great expense to the company. The press releases are on their website. http://www.bullseyeglass.com/news-releases.html While the Oregon situation was unfolding, Spectrum Glass announced that it was closing its doors at the end of July 2016. In announcing this drastic decision, the company pointed to several factors, including environmental concerns. You can read their statement here: http://www.spectrumglass.com Last Thursday, Bullseye Glass Company was issued a Cease & Desist order, despite several months of working to meet new Oregon DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) standards and apparently an anticipated meeting with DEQ scheduled for this past Friday. The order was from Governor Kate Brown. Because this new Cease & Desist order requires Bullseye to stop using lead, as well as arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, all chromium compounds, cobalt, manganese, nickel and selenium in any controlled furnace for the next ten days, their production of coloured glass has ceased. Bullseye claims to have been blind-sided by this latest government action, since they were already working to install filtration systems on their furnaces. Oregon says that elevated chemical levels at a nearby daycare centre led to this emergent action.

Public health and safety must always be top priorities. We also deeply feel the implications if Bullseye can’t continue production or survive - they'd be far-reaching in our glass community. Tens of thousands of glass artists around the world use Bullseye Glass. Some in the industry have already felt the effect on their livelihoods from the closing of Spectrum Glass and the suspension of products from Uroboros and Bullseye.

There have been some serious and important developments unfolding in the world of “glass manufacturing”. These issues impact ordinary citizens, employees of the companies and, to a large degree, artists working in glass and related media. The ISGB urges you to search out reliable information and educate yourself about these developments due to their likely impact on the glass market, they will affect buyers and makers of glass, and the industry as a whole.

This situation is on-going so please keep an eye out on Facebook and the above websites.

If you have an event you would like included, please email events@gbuk.org with the details.

4th June

Handmade Art & Craft Market, Tabernacl Chapel,Cardiff

5th June

Nantwich Bead Fair,Nantwich Civic Hall.

12th June

West of England Bead Fair,Wincanton Racecourse.

18th/19th June

Marcel Boro Pendants Class,Rudston Studios

26th June

Newmarket Bead Fair,Newmarket Racecourse.

9th July

Handmade Art & Craft Market, Tabernacl Chapel,Cardiff

16th/17th July

Adam Guido Class, Rudston Studios

24th July

The Bristol Bead Fair, Bristol.

13th/14th August

Laney Mead Whimsy Creatures Class, Rudston Studios

21st August

Hatfield Bead Fair ,

23rd/27th August

Bead Camp: Claudia Trimbur-Pagel and JC Herrel, Rudston Studios

3rd Sept 10th/11th Sept

Bead Tours, Newport Angelika Kaufmann Class, Rudston Studios

12th Sept 24th Sept

The Life and work of Stained Glass Artist Margaret Agnes Rope,Shrewsbury Musuem GBUK Class with Ray Skene at Tuffnell Glass studios

16thSept -8th Oct

Black to White and Back Again, London Glassblowing

18th Sept 1st Oct

Bead Tours, Brentwood Handmade Art & Craft Market, Tabernacl Chapel,Cardiff

2nd Oct

The Welsh Bead Fair, Cardiff.

2nd Oct

The Glass Fair, Knebworth

15th Oct

The Big Bead Show, Sandown Park, Surrey

3rd/6th Nov

Crafts for Christmas, NEC, Birmingham

5th Nov

Handmade Art & Craft Market, Tabernacl Chapel,Cardiff

10th/13th Nov

Festive Gift Fair,NEC, Birmingham

13th Nov

The National Glass Fair ,NMM Solihul

17th/20th Nov

Gloucester Christmas Fair, Gloucester

GBUK Membership Form

First name Surname Address

Postcode Trading name (if any) Telephone number Mobile number Email address Website Membership fees and methods of payment.

Membership is valid for one calendar year from the month of joining.

Overseas members: please use Paypal.

PayPal

£16.00

www.paypal.co.uk to email address: treasurer@gbuk.org

Cheque or postal order

£15.00

payable to GBUK

Bank Transfer

£15.00

Email membership@gbuk.org for details

How did you hear about GBUK? (Please tick any that are applicable) Word of mouth

I’m interested in:

Website

Networking

At a show

Learning new skills

At a class

Writing articles

On a forum

Helping on the committee

Other (please specify)

Other (please specify)

Next issue: September 2016

Do you have a tutorial or article to share with members?

Contact secretary@gbuk.org.

www.gbuk.org