Meet the Maker - Jackie from Stardust Glass Fusing

Jackie has always loved creating and says she's tried her hand at just about everything from cross stitch to encaustic art! But she truly fell in love with glass and became mesmerised by all its wonderful possibilities. Initially she began by making pendants but has developed her craft and is always learning new techniques.

Jackie has a particular fondness for dichoric glass, with its final appearance so dependant on the original cut of the glass and the way it is heated. She loves opening her kiln to see her latest results - often, she says, the results can be quite surprising. After their initial firing, Jackie cold works the glass by shaping it on the grinder before giving the pieces a second firing to finish the edges.

Jackie also makes window hangers, bowls, decorative trays and brooches - only a small selection of her designs can be seen in the picture.

Her work is available in our shop and although Jackie works from her home studio, she can often be found at the shop looking after our lovely customers so do drop in if you're passing by.

If you would like to contact Jackie, please email the shop at glosartscrafts@gmail.com

We are now on Instagram!

Well - finding myself with a quiet few moments in the shop, I decided that we should join in the fun with everyone else! Having become quite addicted to Instagram myself, I'm quite excited to be able to do it for the shop as well. And best of all I can do it live from the shop via my mobile! If you want to follow us then we are @glosartscrafts

Now - I'm also told that I can embed pictures from instagram here on our blog, so here goes the first experiment........

If it works, you should see a fabulous oil painting of Gloucester Cathedral by Tom Gowen, a new artist in the shop this month.


Fingers crossed that it works!

Yes! It did - but only after an hour of tinkering! I've also managed to add a latest instagram feed to the side bar of the blog so you should be able to see what we're up to.

So do pop into the shop if you're in Gloucester, there's always a lot to see and friendly artists/ artisans to chat to. Also, we will be announcing some very exciting news about the shop very, very soon so watch this space...............

(In case there are any bloggers out there wanting to add their instagrams to their blog and are having trouble - I used SnapWidget to create the embed code rather than instagram's own option which simply didn't work. To avoid much frustration, also change the SnapWidget html code to read https rather than http - that took me ages to figure out! Good Luck!)

Spring is in the air!

With the weather steadily improving, all of us at Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre are looking forward to watching our garden grow. It's lovely to see a bit of colour in the street, so do keep an eye on our garden if you're passing by and see how it changes over the year. 

At the moment we have some beautiful wallflowers, some muscari, some daffodils and some very hardy nasturtiums! And all of it mixed in with some wonderful willow work by our very own Helen Lomburg.

If you're passing by you might also catch Helen busy watering the garden - even in the rain! She's very keen to let everyone know that she hasn't gone mad but that the garden is very sheltered! Do say 'hello' to her if you see her.

More than just a shop!

Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre is not just a shop! Downstairs we have a wonderful space to hold classes and workshops. Many of our makers hold both regular and occasional classes here, including sewing, painting, photography, felt pot making and willow weaving.

Yesterday there was a willow weaving (or basket making) class just finishing as I arrived to work in the shop. The willow classes are run by Helen Lomburg and cater for the absolute beginner as well as those with more experience. One of her students had just finished a piece she has been working on for many weeks - she has made a crib for the expected arrival of her first grandchild!

Diane has taken her beautiful crib away with her to have it lined by another maker from the Centre - hopefully we'll have some photos of it to share when it's completely finished.

If you fancy having a go at basket making or willow weaving (or any thing else!) then please get in touch to find out more information about the classes available.

Hello and Welcome to our Blog!

Hello and welcome to our new blog for the Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre! 

The shop is managed, run by, manned and stocked by a collective of local artists, artisans and craftspeople. The picture shows only a small selection of the work we have on offer - paintings, printed art work, textile crafts, bags, soaps, jewellery, willow and baskets, clocks, keyrings, cards and postcards........the list could go on forever. We hope to be able to show you the full range of our work and our artists in our blog as well as sharing all our news and stories of life in our corner of the world.

If you'd like to find out more about us in the meantime, then please visit our website by clicking on the link above.

Thanks for reading.