"Is there any chance you are able to do splashbacks for the kitchen?"

I thought it was a joke.  A total stranger asking lil ol' me to make them a kitchen splashback? Especially as the total stranger was going by the majestic name of "Wakalouie Waka" - yep, that had to be a joke.  

However, after some gentle probing, it appeared to be an real, honest-to-goodness, I'm-actually-going-to-have-to-put-my-big-girl-pants-on, enquiry.  

And so, Project Splashback was born!

At the time of the enquiry, I had my smaller two kilns with a shelf size each of 35cm square.  It was lucky that Massive Margo was in the early stages of morphing from dream to reality.  Although she was months away, having a kiln with the girth of Margo meant I could, in fact, produce something the size of the coveted splashback!

Once that was established, it came down to design.  Now Wakalouie Waka, whom it transpired was actually an Yvette, was the most amazing client you could ever wish to have, especially for a first foray into the world of fused glass splashback production.  

She. Was. Amazing.

The only problem was the brief.  As in absence of one.

"We'll go with any style you think would look good. I'm very eclectic, hence why I want a fused glass splashback."

You would think that a description like that would be a dream!  Uh uh.  This actually made it pretty tricky for the perfectionist in me to decide what to do!  A quick telephone call that turned into a long chat later, and we had narrowed it down to "shades of green with pops of colour, and texture, and brightness" - ahhh, now we were getting somewhere!  It was also very clear by now that the easy-going Yvette was quite a fan of different and really wanted a show stopper of a splashback.

As I was tackling something bigger than I've ever made before, I decided to only use techniques from my tried and true arsenal. This way, the scale was the only new variable. The size also meant that it would need to be be two panels - they just don't make fusing compatible glass sheets big enough!  So, true to form, of the five panel options I gave her, Yvette went with the less conventional curved choice, and this actually helped by providing a base "shape" I could design to.  So a combo of texture, colour and brightness was underway!

There should be a disclaimer when you undertake something as big and spendy as this, that if the artist is lucky enough to actually manage to sleep, that they dream about splashbacks... 

Tune in next blog for The Day I Pimped a Stranger's Kitchen - Part Two!

 Well, things are hotting up in the Jill Matthew Glass camp! (and I don't just mean the flames under my fingers as I type this very first blog post).  For the past five years, I've ticked along with my two smaller kilns, but a few months ago things were kicked up a notch with the crazy idea to have a whopper of a glass kiln made for me!  Margo was fresh off the boat last week and is now keen to get Toasty McRoasty with me.  (No, I'm not changing her name to Kilny McKilnface...)

Margo's considerable girth has had the slightly unforeseen effect of moving my entire studio out of the house... and into the garage.  Previously I'd been spread over a  two floor studio space, so i'm finding it very convenient having the entire studio on one level - even if it does still need to squeeze the car in!

With Margo comes a whole lot of new opportunity for both size of glass pieces, and speeding up production time by fitting more in per firing.  She's a whopping eight times the size of my smaller kiln so the scope is amazing! She's being wired in this week - then I'll really be hot under the collar!  (she is also the exact right height for a bar leaner - beersies anyone?)