Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Lampwork. Glass bead making.

Options
  • 17-07-2016 5:24pm
    #1
    mel1
    Registered Users Posts: 367 ✭✭


    Hi all.
    I make glass beads. Like Pandora or troll etc.
    Is there anyone else in Ireland doing work like this.
    I'm dismayed by the lack of resources in Ireland. I have to buy everything from the uk.


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Speedwell
    Registered Users Posts: 3,809 ✭✭✭Speedwell


    Fellow crafter here sharing your frustration. I moved here from America a couple years ago (and I love it here) but there was a large craft store the size of a supermarket literally directly across the street from me and a full-service fabric store a mile south. If I had known then what I know now I would have paid to ship my boxes of craft stuff and fabric over with me. I insisted on buying a sewing machine as soon as I got here, intending to make my own curtains and home decor and some basic clothes, and my mother-in-law said, "You'll never use it except for mending". She was right. My sister-in-law said that most people she knows buy clearance sheets for home sewing. What next, printed flour sacks?

    In before "here's where to buy [craft materials/fabric] in Dublin". I don't give a sh!t what's available in Dublin, folks; I don't want to buy fabric sight unseen and I don't get to Dublin twice in a year. But feel free to share with each other. :P

    Speaking of sharing... I'm sure many of us actually do have a piece or two of fabric stashed that we wouldn't mind trading with someone else. Anyone up for a fabric swap?


  • Options
    #3
    mel1
    Registered Users Posts: 367 ✭✭mel1


    Well I couldn't make a dish cloth myself. ��
    Prefer mandrels, hammers and the like.
    I don't mind buying in uk it's the cost of post that's the killer.
    £20 for any order. ����
    Glass is heavy.


  • Options
    #4
    Speedwell
    Registered Users Posts: 3,809 ✭✭✭Speedwell


    mel1 wrote: »
    Glass is heavy.

    Sing it. I used to work in a stained glass window studio (the heavy architectural kind).


  • Options
    #5
    callee
    Registered Users Posts: 59 ✭✭callee


    I'm down in Kerry and order glass a few times a year, my delivery costs from the UK are £10 up to 30kg. Depending on you're glass supplier and whereabouts you are perhaps we can combine orders?


  • Options
    #6
    mel1
    Registered Users Posts: 367 ✭✭mel1


    Hiya,
    Sorry I didn't reply, notifications must be going in my spam file. I'll change that.
    What kind of glass do you use. I buy from tuffnels in uk but mostly buy from artyco in Netherlands now. Post is cheaper.
    What glass work do you do? 🙂


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    callee
    Registered Users Posts: 59 ✭✭callee


    I'm fusing in a kiln, never tried lampworking, beadmaking yet, using Bullseye coe90 glass


  • Options
    #8
    Lobsterlady
    Registered Users Posts: 453 ✭✭Lobsterlady


    I make stained glass suncatchers, copperfoil method. I have 2 suppliers I use for glass and foil/solder in Ireland - but limited to using spectrum as it just costs so much to ship other types of glass from UK/USA. For solder irons/grinders etc I've had to buy from the UK. I follow a few glassing facebook groups and it makes me green the supplies the US crafters have access to, and the crafty type shops for bits n bobs (HobbyLobby). Plus the piles of glass they get at yard sales, and on craigslist etc for nothing. Whenever I manage to get abroad on a holiday, my first stop is any type of shop that sells glass, beads etc.


  • Options
    #9
    callee
    Registered Users Posts: 59 ✭✭callee


    Same, the rest of the world seems to get free shipping. I often get things shipping to friends in the UK if I know they're driving over and sometimes people visiting the states bring items back. Glass is just so heavy! If anyone is looking for some glass molds you can use bisque pieces from your local pottery painting shop and drill a few holes in it.


Advertisement