WELCOME!

My name is Cathryn Throup, and I'm addicted to hot glass! I have been making jewellery for more years than I care to remember. Five years ago, I bought a kiln, and began making fused pieces to include in my jewellery designs. Shortly after that, I met Ray Skene from South Wales, who introduced me to the wonderful delights of lampworked beadmaking. I hope you love my glasswork as much as I love making it!

Funky Cow Online

You may like to visit my website www.funkycow.co.uk

What is Lampworking?

Lampworking is a method of glass work which uses a very hot gas-fuelled, oxygen-enriched torch to melt glass rods. The molten glass can be wound onto steel mandrels to create beads, which can then be decorated using a number of different techniques.

What is Fusing?

Fusing glass is the process of using a programmable kiln to melt pieces of specially-formulated art glass and fuse into one new, unified piece of glass. Colour patterns & designs developed by the artist are retained by carefully controlling the kiln firing schedule. Temperatures of up to 900 degrees centigrade are used to fuse different components.

What is Dichroic Glass?

Originally developed for the space industry, the amazing brilliance of Dichroic glass is achieved by vaporizing metallic oxides onto glass sheets in a controlled vacuum. The main characteristic of Dichroic glass is that it has a transmitted colour and a completely different reflected colour. These two colours shift depending on angle of view. With its vibrant colours and the play of light, Dichroic glass is an exciting medium. A glass artist can ‘paint’ with glass, capturing the iridescence of a butterfly’s wing or a peacock’s feather.

What is Annealing?

All my beads and fused glass pieces are properly annealed in my digitally-controlled kiln. Annealing is the process of 'soaking' glass at a high temperature, and cooling in a gradual and controlled way. This makes the bonds within the glass very stable, resulting in very strong pieces, which with care, will last centuries! Many mass-produced, imported beads are NOT kiln annealed, and may break and crack easily.