1st Blog Birthday Giveaway.

Finally!

It was to have been my 100th post giveaway but I wasn't organised enough. However, my momentous first post ever was on 27th April 2009 and as it's now 29th April 2010 I'm only 2 days late for my blog's first birthday, and as anyone who knows me (not that I've told many who know me about my blog!), a mere 2 days late for a birthday is a pretty good achievement for me.

I started my blog to promote my leaded glass business. That was a complete shot in the foot! Any spare time I now have is spent blogging and crocheting (which I discovered through blogging) and my "business" has been left to languish (along with the housework!).

Anyway, on offer is a leaded tealight holder which I have managed to find time to make recently. I've made two designs to choose from...

...a robin (not just for Christmas!), or...

... a sailing boat.

The leaded glass piece is slotted into a little wooden holder which has a recess for a tealight candle. The lead has been left in it's natural finish but polished to a shine.

A word about my leadwork...

All my leaded items are decorated using the stained glass overlay method. This differs from traditional cut stained glass in that coloured films are applied to a single piece of glass, and adhesive lead is then applied on top (in traditional stained glass, pieces of coloured glass are cut to the required shape and the lead is used to hold then all together). For the small items I make I find the overlay method to be a good medium. It also means that my designs are not as restricted as they would be using the traditional cut glass method (a method which I have used in the past having completed two years of stained glass evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art). However, personally, I would not recomend the overlay method for exterior use (I just don't think it would last as well, the manufacturer's guarantee for exterior use is 10 years "with an estimated life expectancy in excess of 25 years"), or for large areas of window decoration (the effect is just too flat and you don't get such beautiful light transmission as you do with real stained glass). It is, however, ideal for the mirrors I make as it allows them be created using a single sheet of mirrored glass thus keeping the reflected image undistorted. Instead of plain film I like to use those with marble effects, wisps and lustres which have added depth of colour and interest. I use natural lead and am therefore able to solder lead joints which gives a quality finish to the leadwork. The lead is either polished as-is for a natural lead finish, or treated with a patination fluid before polishing which give the lead a darkened antique finish.

So there you go!

Also in the giveaway will be...

Some nice dark coloured tealight candles (white ones stand out too much against the wooden holder), otherwise available from good old Ikea.

One of my beaded bracelets, and...

...a pair of fridge magnets that I have made.

All you need to do (if you've managed to get this far!) is...

1. Have your own blog
2. Comment on this post and let me know...
(a) Whether you'd prefer the robin or the sailboat.
(b) Which colour of bracelet you'd like.
(c) Which two fridge magnets you'd like.
(d) Whether you prefer milk or plain chocolate (can't have a give-away without chocolate can we!)

That's all, except to note here how much I do appreciate all the comments any visitors leave on my blog. As I said, it was to have been a crafty business blog but has developed into a cycling, crochet, baking and garden blog, which I don't really mind at all!

Oh, and you have till midnight a week today to enter, good luck!









.