Flaming Nora

My Sea Glass shop is now open for business on Etsy.  I've created this lovely sea glass hearts in wooden frames in the colours of the rainbow. See all my sea glass creations on Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SunSeaGlassArt ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

The joys of living on the coast are endless. And one of the things I enjoy the most is collecting sea-glass and interesting stones.  Here are two pictures from my collection and you can see a few more pictures here . I originally created the sea-glass stars as Christmas tree ornaments - there's a picture of them here all lit up and sparkling .  Now, they're hanging in our conservatory, catching the sunlight and looking magical. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

To the National Glass Centre on the banks of the Wear in Sunderland for a glass coaster making class.  Now then, I'm a writer, I'm a blogger. I get creative with words, it's what I do; it's who I am.  What I'm not is an artist so bear with me when you see some of the pictures below. If some of my artwork looks a bit rough and ready, that's because it is  While I can weave words with ease, I haven't got the slightest bit of artist within.  I don't do design, I can't create in that way, I ain't arty. And so that's why I was like a kid with a new toy taking part in this glass class because it was way out of my comfort zone. The photos below are all mine, taken on the day with permission from the tutor.   Here we go with the tools of the trade needed to get started - cutting, tracing, preparing, slicing. We started by designing stencils to work with. To help prepare in advance, I'd already found some stencils online that I liked and p...

To the flicks this rainy weekend to see the new Ken Loach film, The Angels' Share. It's wonderful and I can't recommend it enough. Broadly, it's a comedy about friendship and love, whisky, kilts and violence. If you enjoy watching This is England on telly, you'll love this movie. At the end of the film, the audience broke into spontaneous applause. I can't remember the last time that happened at the flicks.  And then to the National Glass Centre in Sunderland to see the final year glass and ceramics degree show. There was some amazing work, most of it well above the maturity you'd expect at undergraduate level. Gorgeous glass from some very talented Sunderland University students. View it until June 22nd . Miss it at your disadvantage.

Being a huge fan of glass art, I was more than a bit pleased to stumble across a contemporary glass exhibition this week in central London. It's on at the Contemporary Applied Arts Centre in Percy Street and the exhibition's called Remarkable Glass . There was one piece by artist Anne Claude Jeitz that had me almost in tears, such was the beauty and delicacy of it. I love glass art, me.