Edmonston's chickweed in glass

An unusual subject for a glass wave! When we were on Unst, Shetland we went to the Keen of Hamar and found the endemic Edmondston's Chickweed - click here for more info . It's very small and grows in a very harsh environment. I can honestly say with it being an endemic, fairly non-descript and portrayed in glass, it could well be the only fused glass wave of Edmondston's chickweed in existance! 

Prior to firing - it's always tricky estimating the amount of powder - in the sky to get a little colour but not too much.

The finished piece...

Detail...

Red-necked Phalarope: Fetlar

Following our visit to Shetland and particularly Fetlar, I decided to attempt a Red-necked Phalarope glass wave... Click here for the blog on the day. Now the Phalarope was a long way off and obscured by lovely lochan vegetation, so  the piece had to feature Bog Bean, Horse Tails and Marsh Marigold. When I found myself cutting glass rods up to form the lines in the Horse Tails I wondered why I do this to myself! Anyway here is the piece - over all I was happy with it - slightly disappointed in the fact that during the firing process the beak of the bird had drooped a little but hey ho! I'm certainly not making another one and from a distance it looks great! I also liked the slightly geometric grid effect of the verticals for the Horse Tails and the horizontal lines for the receeding layers of Bog Bean. Somehow this reminded me of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's designs. The Bog Bean was challenging - fiddly to do, but may evolve into a larger piece at sometime, as it is up there in my favourite plants ...

Shetland Sketches

I did also manage to do a few sketches and keep a diary whilst away. Most were done from the back of the camera in the evenings, as the weather wasn't condusive to field sketching and there wasn't time. So here's a selection...

On the way to Fetlar.

Keen of Hamar.

St Ninian's tombolo.

Sumburgh Head.

Jarlshof in the rain.

Being followed by Gannets on the Noss boat trip.

And some randoms....

The final post from a fabulous trip to Shetland - a selection of photographs that didn't fit in to to the blog themes....Would we go back? Absolutely! 

Reconstruction of a long house...and inside below. 

..and a long boat.

Otter.

Rust..

A 1930s potato harvester.

Arctic Tern...

Seals - so well camouflaged on the barnacled rock.

Shetland Bumble Bee (endemic).

See below...from Scalloway museum.

Jarlshof in the rain.

The Sumburgh Hotel where we stayed for the second half of the trip after Brae and the Brae Hotel. 

Gannet frenzy

As part of our trip to Noss, the skipper of the boat had a tube that went under the boat, so that he could put mackerel in it and they would appear under the water for the Gannets to dive on - quite a spectacle! Not easy to photograph as they were very enthusiastic, very close and there was a lot of splashing!

With Mackerel in mouth...

Post entry sploosh with Bonxie in the background.

And the Gannets....at Noss

 Wow...wow...wow!

I love the patterns on the juvenile gannets...

A sky full of Gannets.

I would like to say this shot was skill....just pure luck!

Noss Bonxies

 Whilst on our trip Bonxies flew with the boat ...