A bit of everything as usual, classical engraving, technical engraving and a bit of golf...

Engraving in London at the Most Imaginative Bartender Award - Bombay Sapphire 2014

Hello everyone, I hope that this blog entry finds you fit and well. This year is flying by and once again it has been far too long since I last updated it. So much is happening both in my glass engraving world and in my golf world. In fact you can blame my golf for the lack of blog entries and from December this year it will be even harder to keep up as I take on the Captaincy at Halesworth Golf Club. I have been playing much more of the game this year both through the winter (which I usually try and avoid) and the beginning of summer (which is normally put on hold because of the grass pollen) ...I am tackling it with one anti histamine tablet at night.  I have also dramatically changed my diet / way of eating (Paleo) and I wonder if this may be also helping...you never know.

I will simply add a small selection of photos as usual, which are dated after my last blog entry...which was 11th January??!! What??!! That can't be...but it is!

Tudor Crystal honey pot - hand engraved all round

  

I was visiting a friend who owns a few of my works and decided to take some photos of a couple of them in situ, on the spot where they live, in a lovely well lit cabinet. It was wonderful revisiting them, my Portland Vase study, above, and Triumph of Galatea (yes the painting), below

 Family crests are very popular and I engraved this one under a crystal dome paperweight. The engraving is only about 5cm wide but the dome magnifies it hugely. Super effect.

 I have another very dear client/collector, who has many of my works and she commissioned this hand blown crystal bowl with a pond life scene.

 

 These were rather pretty, and show how the base is a super canvas for lettering so leaving the decoration uninterrupted on the bowl of the glass.

 This was an interesting commission, I had never heard of Northern Soul Dancing before and coincidentally it had just that week been featured on the Television. I believe this was a special gift for a 50th birthday. Heavy Tudor crystal bowl, hand engraving and sandblasting.

 

 Below you can see how tricky artwork can be, I took a photo of this clients ring and created the artwork for this hand engraved tankard from that. Amazing tiny detail in the original metal engraving. Yes I did ask if this was a seal ring and if my engraving should be the other way round, but the decision was that I keep it the same way as the ring.

 Sometimes simple lettering can look amazing around a vessel. This is more expensive of course, but such a lovely effect. Lovely goblets for a wedding couple.

 I received a delightful little rough sketch by email, very pixilated when enlarged and very unclear details, but after a few questions about the details I was able to create an engraving for this lady's daughter. I had great fun with it and it will mean so much more to the daughter I am sure.

 All too often I am asked if I can "rub out" an engraving that someone else has completed. Here was a batch of the most beautiful paperweights, quite large, which had been sandblasted with lettering that was not suitable for the event they were intended for. They were destined for the bin and so I suggested as "rubbing out" was not an option, that I engrave a random bit of contemporary art over each one for a very low price. Every one of the 23 pieces has a unique little bit of art that is signed and dated...and so they live on....

 

And then a simple sandblasted message on a lovely cut crystal vase .....

  

 And here is a subject I had not engraved before over my 31 years of engraving glass, I rather like the subject - Egyptian Scarab on hand blown crystal perfume bottle.

 It was soon  time for the East Anglian Air Ambulance Golf Day at Halesworth Golf Club, which I have played in for 10 years now. A fantastic day which this year raised £12000.00. I always donate the longest drive prizes and this year I hand engraved a large wine goblet with a golfer for the men and a lovely wine glass with Clematis and a bee.

 

 

The photographer was snapping away as usual, I always seem to send it into the right hand bunker when he takes the photo here on the 11th tee. 

Below is a gorgeous crystal decanter for a college presentation, sandblasted in 2 tones.

 This was recently presented to Lee Westwood as he opened the new tunnel under the road between holes at Lindrick Golf Club. I took one look at the photo and saw "hundreds" of windows!!! I decided it had to be sandblasted so went about creating the artwork in photo-shop to create the mask . After it is sandblasted I then go in with my drill and add shading and highlights and other details. The building is at the back and the lettering at the front.

 This year's Spexhall Football Club Golf day was as fantastic as ever and I am always delighted to be asked to engrave all the main prizes. The table just sparkled and looked amazing!

 I have had some tricky subjects to tackle in the past and this one was definitely one of them. It is the Da Vinci Robot, for minimal invasive surgery, stands 6ft tall and weighs 800 kg!! It is the combo of needles and spider look about it that gave me the heebie geebies but is is a wonderful piece of equipment...I believe...I'll take their word for it...eeek!

 

Another honey pot, a very popular subject. This time I had it especially hand blown by my "fav" glass blower Stephen Bradley who decided to add his special touch of colour, wow, it was just beautiful!! Lovely crystal which was a delight to engrave. My client was in USA and was thrilled with it. I ordered 2 so I still have the other blank one in my showroom if anyone fancies ...

 It has 3 bees around the pot.

Well for the time being that is it. I have a few biggies on the go, for example a set of 4 glass panels for a cabinet in a 132 year old yacht! Also a very important presentation in Hong Kong and a few engraving events in London lined up for gin, whisky and perfume.

I am often playing golf at this time of year and I compensate by working Saturdays and Sundays. It is important to phone and make an appointment if you wish to come and see me. My phone has an answer machine as I will get back to you. Remember to speak very clearly please as I have had a few messages lately which are not clear, spoken very fast, and I have not been able to hear the number no matter how often I listen to it.

My emails are glass@lesleypyke.com and llespyke@aol.com The both work but just occasionally one bounces back so it is worth sending to both and of you don't hear back from me just check to make sure I have received it.

Cheers everyone and take care. Remember you only live once, so be happy!!! ♥

A variety of engraved glass projects....

It is now the middle of June!! I still feel chilly and I wonder if I will warm up at all this year!!!  At least I have been busy, you can tell by my lack of blog posts! (although I do keep my Facebook page fairly up to date) Here are a selection of engravings I have completed (and one not quite...)

 

The first item I will mention is the Button Project that has just opened in Macclesfield. For this project I hand carved out a 3cm piece of crystal with a thin green overlay and hand engraved a simple oak design, drilling 2 little holes in the middle as this has to be a functional button. This is completely unique and I hope that if someone buys it that they sew it onto a garment. It looks good with a dark background but white will show the subtle green. I would love to see where it ends up. I suppose it could also be put in a little box frame to hang on a wall. Oh the fun one could have.

There are a large number of buttons on display and they are all for sale, I think they are about £50 each.

For more informations please visit their page, I will add the link at the end of this page.

 

I was asked to engrave a cat, so my instructions to the client was to please take some good photos, level with the cat so it is not foreshortened in the picture. Well a dog is easier to photograph but out of a large number of images I chose this one .I hand engraved it onto a Dartington Crystal candleholder.

 The above image shows a little church which I engraved underneath a paperweight and around the edge, I converted the image in CorelDraw and Photoshop and then sandblasted it to keep it simple and bold.

 I had a lovely student to teach, DR. Keith Charlton. My teaching is on a Saturday only, from 9 - 5 with lunch inbetween. It is a one to one basis and I will gear the lesson according to your needs. Please contact me for further information.

 As usual there are many awards and presentations being commissioned and these crystal blocks are lovely for this purpose.

 Do you remember my Ice Cave II ? Well the person who bought it (as a special gift)  requested the recipients initials and date of birth to be engraved underneath it in the form of jewellery hallmarks , what a cool idea!!  I blasted them very deeply.

 I had a lovely request for a crystal upright plaque to be engraved for someone's Mum. This was to sit on top of an organ which had been donated to a church in her name. A considerable amount of lettering in the front and 3 poppies at the back.

 The above was a heavy cut crystal vase for a presentation, I combined sandblasting with hand engraving for this, I love this combination of techniques.

 I hand engraved this optical crystal block with 2 boxing hares (they reflect in the block) to go into an Easter exhibition, I made a little YouTube video of the engraving of this piece which can be seen here. http://youtu.be/0XKI666b_rM It did not sell at the exhibition and is still available so let me know if you are interested. It is £390.00 including postage (UK) I will quote on postage outside of UK.

 

 The above is a gorgeous crystal jug hand blown by the Georgian Glassmakers. It was a commission from one of my regular clients. the rustic grapes (I love this subject you may have noticed)...are hand engraved (drill) all around the body. Link for the makers at the end of this page.

Every year I have several golf trophies and prizes to engrave and this was the Spexhall Huntsman and Hounds Football Club Golf Day, held as always at Halesworth Golf Club where I play, I can recommend it for all round excellence ! I worked a lot over the weekend on this job and drank a lot of coffee and tea!! I am leaning on my sandblasting cabinet in the picture above.

  

 (below) I had a client bring a delightful and very heavy crystal bowl, very old too. It was a family heirloom and destined to be a birthday gift for a family member. The lady wanted it engraved with lettering all round the rim, a combination of English, Greek, Spanish and Russian! Under the base, a family crest and some more lettering.

 The bowl was badly marked, looked like a patch of acid in one area too and so I managed to very successfully polish that out before engraving. A lovely bowl to engrave, the quality was amazing.

 Another intriguing little commission was this one, (above) the client had a very old very based glass that belonged to a long lost relative of his mother who used to drink out of it. It had broken 2 years before and he rescued the remains and after all that time managed to find someone (?) to grind and polish the base into a delightful little paperweight and then he ask me to engrave a ring of roses. She knew nothing of this plan and I would have loved to have seen her reaction.

  

....and then I was commissioned to engrave 2 little piggies on lead crystal whisky glasses....I enjoyed that!! Working like a little factory, I part engraved each one in stages to try and match them well. Hand engraving is like painting, you cannot make them identical, each is completely unique despite using the same artwork, each drill mark is as a brush stroke.

 

I spent a few days hand engraving a Selfridges recently, for Acqua di Parma, gorgeous fragrances!

 I had a commission to engrave a happy little scene of 2 squirrels on a crystal block. It started with a scrappy sketch......

 

Then I hand engraved it on every facet. On 2 of the facets I sandblasted a personal message from the client for the recipient.

 

I am busy finishing (hopefully this weekend...) this gorgeous little crystal jug. (below) It is a Wedgwood Crystal with the old Portland Vase hallmark of Wedgwood underneath which I had bought in perfect condition for a fair ages ago and had on display waiting for inspiration. It is a commission for a regular client of mine who loved the shape. The crystal is utterly gorgeous to engrave, there is nothing like Lead Crystal for a beautiful clean cut!!

 I was extremely flattered to have been featured in the latest copies of Yachting Matters and The Yacht Owner magazines. I am extremely grateful to Colin Squire the editor and publisher.

 You can see the magazine contents including this feature on pages 177/8/9. http://www.yachtingmatters.com/yachtingmatters/24/index.html

Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope that I can catch up news sooner next time otherwise there is too much to include! Please "Like" my Facebook page , if you can, for more regular updates. I know that many of you are not on Facebook which is why I have this blog.

Enjoy the sunshine!!

Links:

The Button Project: http://www.barnabyfestival.org.uk//events?tid=12&tid_1=All
Georgian Glassmakers  http://www.georgianglassmakers.co.uk/index.htm