Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Tea Time Thursday

In case you haven’t already twigged, I have new beads in my Etsy shop, yay! Some designs are completely new, others, like the Grass and Sky Jupiters have been waiting impatiently for me to take the time and make them into a lovely set, and now I have (although they are still new in regards to never having been seen in those colourways). I have another set (Terra Firma) inspired by the lovely work of American beadmaker Kim Neely, whose inspiring book of colour recipes I bought last year to help kick start my creativity and get me out of the rut I felt I was in. I have been exploring using silver glass (mainly Double Helix) and all the effects that I can get from it in simple beads but needed the push to take it all a bit further.

Here’s a peek at some of the new sets……

I am pleased to announce that my exhibition of work is in the Art Gallery in The Capitol, Horsham. I have invited my friend Katherine Haynes of Popped Bubble Designs to join me and we share the 5 cabinets upstairs in the gallery. The exhibition started Tuesday 6th September and runs until Sunday 9th October, and is open during the Capitol opening times. Please enquire at the box office if you wish to purchase anything on display.

Saturday 15th October sees the return of the Big Bead Show at Sandown Park, which is fast approaching. I’m busy getting ready for this event and look forward to welcoming you to my stall on the day. Please look out for my show newsletter when I hope to be able to offer some free tickets and show specials.

and a big woops…….this post was supposed to be my news on the front page and as such is rather formal, but never mind. The next blog post should be more fun.

Friday afternoon

The Beadwork Fair – Sunday 28th August, The de Havilland Campus, University of Hertfordshire, AL10 9EU  10am to 4pm

I have been persuaded (thank you Paul), to do this bead fair this Bank Holiday Sunday. As you know I normally do the Stourbridge Bead Fair, but decided to take a break from it this year and enjoy the summer, but due to one thing and another and not attending the Ardingly summer fair in July due to my mums’ sudden death, I thought maybe I should take the plunge.

So I will be at this event, this Sunday, with my usual mix of handmade lampworked glass beads, sterling silver chains, New Designs of Cloud Beads and my range of contemporary jewellery. There are many new £1 bargain beads to be had, together with some old favourites.

I hope you will come and say hello and make the effort to attend this fair, being a Bank Holiday Sunday of course means the traffic will be minimal for a Sunday. Go on, you know you want to!

Monday 20th June

Hello peeps. It’s a been a long time hasn’t it? I’ve been really busy over the last few months doing a City and Guilds course, and I’m now eagerly awaiting my letter to tell me I’ve passed. I was really surprised how long all the homework and class preparation took, especially towards the end of the course. Anyway, that’s over now, and I have got my life back, sort of.

Horsham Open Studios started this weekend, and we have had a lovely first couple of days with so many visitors that we didn’t get time to eat lunch until 3:30pm on Saturday. Thank you to everyone who came this weekend, you made it really special for us, and we look forward to welcoming more of you next weekend. I have a cabinet full of colourful jewellery, with some new designs, lots of beads to choose from, my fun earrings (using sterling silver) and lots of big hole beads starting at just £3 each to put on your Pandora style bracelets (they don’t have silver in them). I also have other small bits and bobs to choose from, including my ever popular £1 rummage dish. Here’s a couple of photos to tease you.

I have several new tuition dates listed on my tuition page. The next available date is a 1 day Beginners course, Weds 29th June, 10am to3pm. Special rate of £79, class size of 2. Contact me to book your place now.
As always I have other availability if these dates do not suit, drop me a line for my list of dates to choose from.

I have one new listing on Etsy and will be adding more during the day, just follow the link on the left.

Saturday evening

Hey there, I am still alive. So Big Bead came and went in a haze of work, then Flame Off, and then the school Easter hols, followed by THE wedding of the decade. Thank you to everyone who came to say hello at the Big Bead show, we had a fantastic day and were so busy that we were still serving customers 40 minutes after the show closed and I didn’t get a proper chance to go shopping myself, apart from the odd snatched minute or two before was summoned back to my stall.

Enough of that though, today the most bizarre and freaky thing happened. We almost had a re-enactment of Hitchcocks’  ‘The Birds’. I saw movement outside the back door, a couple of minutes later I opened it to cool down and noticed a pair of birds hovering around a shrub and squawking really loudly.  I looked down to see a cat holding down a bird on our lovely gravel sitting area, shooed it away and the bird fortunately flew up into the tree above. The cat scampered off and jumped the 6 foot fence nearby. Sounds OK so far? I kept watching while the 2 starlings kept chirping alarm calls and flying from tree to tree to next doors roof and then back again, all the while followed by a little Coal Tit. So far so good. Well, this went on for a while, and I kept watch to see if the bird was injured and make sure the cat didn’t come back. After a while of this, the birds moved to the holly tree over my studio, directly in front of the kitchen, and some blackbirds and blue tits joined them, still chirping alarm calls. Very sweet, they were acting like a pack, and sticking together.

Then, one of the starlings did a loop down at my eye level, from the tree towards me standing in the doorway, and then back again. I thought it was maybe sort of coming to thank me. How sweet. Yer right. A few minutes later the same bird came storming out of the tree, straight at me in the door, and hovered, flapping it’s wings and  squawking very angrily at me for a few seconds. Ah, OK then. Then a couple of minutes later it did it again. OK, so now I’m getting worried, this is no lovely thank you, but a full on hate campaign. eeeeeeek. Rick’s also in the kitchen watching this, and decides that it’s time to shut the door in case we end up with a bird in the house.

He then ventures out after a bit to see if it’s OK, and nothing happens, but when I try opening the door and standing there the bird twitter campaign starts again. I thought maybe I would be stuck indoors all day, but I stayed in and away from the door for about an hour, while Rick decided to placate them with some food. Phew, and there I was thinking it might end up like the day we were chased indoors by marauding bees when we attempted a honey glaze on the barbecue several years ago. Now there’s another story. They we all banging against the windows trying to get in, hundreds of ‘em!

OOO, and I have a few new beads in my Etsy store, including these…….ciao.

Tuesday evening

Big news today…….I have booked my space at the spring Big Bead Show at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9AJ. This huge show is on Saturday 2nd April and is well worth a visit. I’d be resisting booking, but the lovely Maria at Bead magazine said she’d squeeze me in if I wanted to come. So here we are, all of a sudden getting revved up for the big one. It’s great news for my mojo as all of a sudden lots of ideas for new beads are flooding in at last. Long may it continue. I hope you will all come and see me here, I will have some free tickets up for grabs later too.

Here’s a little sneaky peek at what I’ve been up to lately. At last I’ve had time to practice the skills I learnt last April at Flame Off with the hugely amusing and talented Sharon Peters, and have found some time to design some of my own characters. Here’s a green one…..

Friday lunchtime

Lampwork Classes – I have one new space on a 1 day Beginners  Beadmaking course, Tuesday 3rd May, contact me now for more information and to book your place.

I’ve popped some repeat sets on Etsy and a new whopper set of amber, ivory, black and brown beads. Here’s a taster including some of my new ‘Didy sets’.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks as I’ve enrolled on a 10 week course down in Goring and so went to have lunch on the beach after the session this week. After my food I had a walk along the path down to where we often go in the summer with friends. It was very different with the mist and cool spring breeze, and people wearing coats to walk their dogs. The sun was shinning very brightly and dazzling my eyes as it reflected off the pools of water on the sands where the sea had receded away from the shore. It was very peaceful and energising although a bit windy, my hair was a complete state by the time I got back in the car to come home.  It was a treat to have a change of scenery and a chance to reflect on the mornings’ proceedings and life in general. Here’s a few snaps that I took with my new Canon Ixus 130, including the ones I shot after I had rolled backwards onto my back through trying to crouch so low….I meant to do that.

Friday afternoon

Valentines day has been and gone, and now we have the first half term of the new year upon us and Pancake day yet to come. We celebrated in style with a romantic candle lit dinner for 3 on Monday, which included using the chocolate fondue set I bought last year, and I made Nigella Lawson’s ‘Love Buns’ as a surprise. I couldn’t get the heart sprinkles she shows in  the book but bought some red edible glitter to use instead. The theory is that I can use it for Christmas decorating too. The only downside was that the icing was rather sickly, so I think I’ll stick to making a royal icing with freshly squeezed lemon juice again like I did last Friday. I’m so into baking at the moment, which is rather unfortunate as I just want to eat everything I’ve made, so I have to pace myself somewhat. I really wish I didn’t like cakes and puddings so much, but I won’t be hypnotising myself to give them up, like I did with crisps last June….I haven’t eaten a single real crisp, which is no loss really….empty calories.

I have yet more neads on Etsy (that should be beads, but well, maybe I should stick with neads as bead addicts need beads). I had another new set to put up for sale and went through the whole process until at the last moment I realised they were different from the photo I was using! I think Rick will have to do some more photography for me, especially as I have a real surprise of some really new beads that I’ve had in mind to make for ages and got my first chance to play with the designs this week. All will be unveiled later.

I have another new tuition date, a Beginners 4 hour taster session on Thursday 10th March, 10am to 2pm. There is one place available on this course. Contact me now to book your place, and come and have a lesson making glass beads.

Oh and here’s a photo of my Glitter Love Buns, I swirled in some red food colouring to some of the icing (I only made half the quantity and that was plenty), and unfortunately the whipped topping never set as it was supposed to.

Friday afternoon

Phew, feeling a bit jaded but very happy. Anyone heard of Zumba? (links to You Tube)  Cos that’s where I’ve been this morning. All my life I’ve hated exercise classes, especially aerobics, but I think I may have actually found some exercise that I like. I adore dancing and have been given the all go by my hip specialist to do Latin American dancing so I thought Zumba might be right up my street. I was so excited yesterday when I booked it, and fortunately I was not disappointed. I’m definitely going again, and need to buy some new jogging pants as my existing ones are 3 sizes too big, yay!

More sets on Etsy, some are new designs, others are repeats and variations on a theme.

I’m off to do more washing (boo hiss boo) and make some cup cakes for tomorrow (yay).

Thursday evening

Here’s a couple of photos of some of the new beads I put on Etsy yesterday. I had a mega blitz and went mad putting 5 sets up for sale on Etsy in a sitting, and then uploading bead photos to Flickr and joining lots of groups there. I also madly ordered a brand new oxygen concentrator that I’ve had my eye on for several months…since last April to be precise.

Today I’ve been having a bit of a paper clear out. Very boring, extremely tedious, and unfortunately necessary every so often. I’ve managed to get rid of a 2 foot pile of paper from my work area, and while going through the oddments came across a major task list from 2 years ago. It was brilliant! I was able to cross off every single job except one, I had actually achieved all I planned back in 2009. Ok so it took 2 years but I’d done them. The main and exciting reason I stayed indoors today, was because I needed to welcome the courier with my new super doopah wizzy powerful oxycon that should have enough wellie to power the bigger Nortel Midrange torch that I’m hoping to get in April, or even just give my existing torches more power, hopefully like using tanked oxygen. It arrived successfully and is sat on the carpet in front of me waiting to be carried down to the studio tomorrow.

I should also announce that I have responded to several requests to sell pairs of beads suitable for earrings so I have a new section in my Etsy shop called Didy Sets. This is my new range of mini bead sets, these contain 2 or 3 beads and are small enough to be used for matching earrings and a pendant or simply to add to a charm dangly type bracelet or similar.

Here’s what I have for sale so far

Monday evening

Hellooooo there, thank you to all my friends, customers and students who came to say hello yesterday at the bead fair. You all make my bead fair days so special, it’s great to catch up with you all and share news and coo over beautiful beads and bits.  I’ve spent the day recovering from all my preparation efforts from the fair, as I had 4 full days bead making and spent all Saturday stringing up sets, pricing stuff and packing up. Of course we celebrated the day with a lovely curry when we got home, yum yum.

So now all I have to do is finish my accounts (ha ha) and get my tax out of the way, then I can start on my new efforts for this years business. I’m hoping to spend some time developing some new designs and hopefully some new colour combinations, although I will be continuing my favourites, as they are so lovely. I’m looking forward to spending time playing with new ideas without the pressure to stock up for an event, I just hope my mojo doesn’t go go.

Here’s some snaps of the bead fair from my stall, and ‘the boys’, sorry Jim, you’re out of focus….

Monday lunchtime

More new beads on Etsy! OK., so I’ve only listed repeat sets of my most popular designs, but hey, that’s what I planned to use Etsy for. To get to my shop click on my name in the widget on the left or click  here.

Also I have another new teaching date on my tuition page, Tuesday 1st February is a one day beginners course. Just drop me a line now to book the last place and learn a new skill for a new year.

I’ve been thinking for a while about adding another category to my blog, one where I review what film, TV series or more exciting, the latest book I’ve read. I’m not sure how good I’ll be at reviewing something without giving the bulk of the plot away, but it could be fun to try. Just recently I’ve actually started reading books again. It’s been a long time coming as I used to read like a mad thing when I was at school (I had oodles of time then) and when I commuted on the train to work, but since I bought my first car and moved away from home (that would be around 1985 I think) I have let my fiction reading slip completely. I’ve read at least one book a year on holiday and that is all for the past few years, conveniently the new Harry Potter books came out in the summer, but since picking up Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight series I’ve gone potty for her books and reading in general. So much so, that I’ve made a new year resolution to keep reading fiction throughout the year, and also to try to take up some of the others things I used to do before lampwork glass bead making took over my life. I was going to start with my first review today, but I’ve already written enough and my accounts (yuk) are calling. Toodles.

Wednesday morning

Well hello there. Bet you thought I’d gone. It’s about time I re-surfaced really. So what’s new and what’s been happening? The past few weeks have been full of teaching, half term ending with the Big Bead Show, and a week long stint of stewarding in the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen Gallery in Milford. To say I’m exhausted would be very true. The Big Bead Show was an excellent day out, we saw lots of friends, regular customers, lots of new customers and lots of students came by to say hello and to show off their new lampworking equipment or glass and tool goodies. Thank you to everyone who came and made our day really special.

My week in the gallery at Milford was an interesting one. I started off by cleaning my cabinet and all my jewellery in it, that took 2 days, as every time I was about to do something someone came in and I had to stop. But it all looks nice and shiny and new again now, together with the new pieces that I made while I was there. I also spent a day hatching a cunning plan to sell more in the gallery, and spent all of 2 days at home busy making lots of big hole beads and little project sets to sell. I have designed new packaging to sell these new pieces and spent Friday and Saturday packaging up my smaller items to sell and display in the gallery. It would be fair to say I worked a 16 hour day from Monday to Saturday last week, no wonder I’m officially pooped.

So, if you are in the market for a beautifully made individual  Big Hole Bead with no silver lining (I’ve called them Sky Beads) pop on down to the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen Gallery and have a look in one of my wicker baskets. I have singles, pairs and trios available to buy, already gift packed for a perfect stocking filler, prices from £3 up to £10. I also have my handmade icicle hanging decorations, these look lovely on a tree or hanging in doorways or anywhere else that they will catch the light. My other stocking filler is a pretty handmade lampwork bead with 2 plain coordinating beads on an adjustable cotton thong necklace, again gift packed, making the perfect stocking filler at only £5.

I have a couple of new tuition dates on my tuition page, one of these is my last teaching date for 2010 on Wednesday 1st December,  drop me a line now to reserve your place on either of these courses.

Friday 8th October

I’ve finished………all the Twilight Saga books, yep, that means I’ve actually read more than one book this year, so my total is 4, and what fab books they were. I was so trying to pace myself, but found that I wanted to just keep picking them up, especially the last book, Breaking Dawn. I couldn’t keep away from it for long and found myself totally absorbed in the world of Bella and Edward. I’ve now also watched both films…..ooops, Rick, I didn’t mention that last night……and I have to say that even though they were good, I don’t know whether I would be itching to read the books if I saw the films first. I’m going to try and keep up the reading momentum if possible and the first book on my short list is Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I also have the next one in that series that I picked up in barely read second hand form for 20p…..bargain.

So today sees me doing lots of little jobs around the house and for my business, rather than making beads as I’d hoped. I started the morning by baking some of Nigella’s Banana and Chocolate muffins (actually called banana and butterscotch but I used choclit instead as she suggests). This was my first foray into muffin baking and didn’t go too badly, even though the muffin tray dips were far too big and the cases floated around in the dips in a sort of square shape because they had been in their box for far too long. I’ve now filled the house with the lovely aroma of baking and have even washed up! And there are now only 2 soggy bananas left instead of 5.

New beads are available in my Etsy shop and I have another new date for tuition, another silver glass course on Weds 20th October, same description as the previous date.

So here are the details for course places:-

***1 place on a 1 day silver glass and sparkly bits course Thurs 14th October***

***1 place on a 1 day silver glass and other intermediate techniques Weds 20th October***

On these classes we will be covering – using silver glass, dichroic glass, sparkly stuff , encasing, presses and shaping, long tubes and flame know-how – or as much as we can get through on this massive list in one day!

Email me now to book your place.

Friday morning

So tomorrow is the day…the day when we get our glassy bits from our glass-blowing taster last month. I’m so excited I can barely contain myself. I have to keep myself from bobbing up and down when I think of it. More importantly though, tomorrow is the GBUK Bead Fair at the Loyd Lindsay Rooms, Ardington, Oxon. The fair starts at 1pm and goes through to 5pm and will be amazing. It will be bringing together lampworkers from around the UK, both seasoned veterans (like myself) and exciting newcomers. Days like this are always very sociable, so we’re looking to forward to spending time in the company of our friends and have lots of good natters.

Of course I have some new beads, I’ve been playing with my new hand shaped nugget which I love  and have strung the faux bo beads shown below into lovely sets for you to buy and use. I’ve also been playing with animal print designs in amber colours, as these are all the rage this season.

But now I have to show you what the spiders have been getting up to on the hedge outside our front door (photos taken 8am Tues 21st Oct)……

Ah, I should add that I have a new course vacancy….

***1 place on a 1 day silver glass and sparkly bits course Thurs 14th October***
On this class we will be covering – using silver glass, dichroic glass, sparkly stuff (see my tuition page), encasing, presses and shaping, long tubes and flame know-how – or as much as we can get through on this massive list in one day!
Contact me now to book your place on this jam packed day.

Friday morning

Just thought I’d pop in before I get down to making beads again today to give you a quick glimpse at some of the luscious beads that I will be selling this Sunday at the bead fair in Vinopolis, central London. Obviously they’re still on their mandrels at the moment, and the photo’s not marvellous as I did a quick snap on my phone, but you get the idea. I’ve really got to grips with the faux boro technique after months of playing with it, and I love the range of colours I’ve managed to coax out of the glass. I’ve also been playing with rubino and Opal Yellow – a colour that looks really drab (In my opinion), but reacts well with other colours.

So don’t forget, this Sunday, The Beadwork fair,  Vinopolis, No.1 Bank End, London, SE1 9BU. 10am to 4pm.  I’ll have lots of luscious beads (new designs), more bargain in my rumage pots, and my usual supply of silver chains and cables. See you there.

Friday mid day

Have you see the date? 10/10/10….I had to post today just so I could type that. Hee hee. Where has the last week gone, I know, it’s just zipping away and I should stop commenting on it. I was going to do lots of bead stuff today but so far I’ve done washing, made the workmen outside mugs of tea (they’re doing the path down our road), I’ve sorted getting the tree root out from the front garden….you know, the one that got left when we cut the tree down last spring in an attempt to save money? The one that  has now ended up costing as much to cut down ourselves and remove the root as it would have done to have it done professionally? And I got up early again. It’s been really good so far with our daughter going to secondary school as we’re all up much earlier and by the time 9:30 comes I’ve got lots done. The downside is that I haven’t managed to pull back my bedtime yet and I’m feeling rather jaded now with the extra hours and all the extra work/housework…yep that too, that I’m doing.

Yesterday I had the enormous privilege and pleasure to go down to Arundel and help judge the entries for the British Bead Awards organised by Bead magazine. I met Elizabeth Cornish, Jasper who was filming (Oh yes), the new editor Chloe, and Helen O’Neill, the official distributor for PMC in the UK (not to be confused with Art Clay). It was a fun day and very informative as we chatted about our relevant field of expertise and shared looking at the wonderful entries. The film will be showing at the Big Bead show at the end of October before being shown on Bead TV, and the winners will also be revealed at the show at the awards ceremony. I can’t wait!

Monday morning

So the schools went back on Thursday, and this year we had the great pleasure of seeing our daughter start at Secondary school. She looked so smart in her new uniform that I was bursting with gooey feelings (very unlike me). After the obligatory photos on the doorstep in the same place as the ones we took when she was 5 and starting primary school, she was picked up by my friend. As we wandered back into the house after her departure we both groaned and panicked because in the excitement she’d not returned into the house to collect her brand spanking new gym kit. WOOPS. It was a very mad dash after several rushed phone calls to get her kit to her before she walked the final few minutes to school from her friend’s house. I’m not one to run around her but you seriously can’t start a new school without your gym kit and it was partly our fault.

Of course going to big school means she starts earlier, as she has to be at school earlier and it’s further than the 3 minutes (literally) around the corner that we are used to. Which also means that she comes home later too.  The upshot of this is that I get a bit more time to work during the day, and so far, even with 2 days under our belt, it seems to be making a difference. I made a record 99 beads on Thursday (a record for me anyway) and seem to be using the time productively so far.

My other big news is that I had an ab fab weekend at Stourbridge last weekend. at the International Festival of Glass. We left last Friday and attended the Bead Fair on the Saturday and Sunday. We had an enjoyable meal out at the Chinese on Friday with friends, a very raucous meal at the Curry House on Saturday evening with more nutty glassy friends, and a quiet one with friends at the hotel we stayed at on Sunday. But the best part of the weekend (which was already super brill) had to be Monday, when Rick and I had a chance to try our hand at glass-blowing. I’d noticed that the taster session on Monday wasn’t full and amazingly when we enquired there were still 2 places on the 4 place course.  So at 2pm after a very rushed lunch we entered Hot Shop no.1 and had the best time ever. The 4 of us took turns after being shown demo of what to do. We made a snowman to get us used to the basics, then swiftly moved on to blowing a bowl and then made a classic paperweight. It was so much fun I can’t tell you. I’ve been wanting to try ever since watching Norman Stewart Clarke and I have to say I loved every minute, I just want to do it again now!

Here’s a couple of photos and a link to Rick’s Flickr account where you can see all the photos from the weekend, The Bead Fair, meals out, Bienale and our glassblowing.

Friday eveing

What ho! yes, I know, it’s a fairly corny greeting, but that’s what I got just now when I listed in Etsy this evening. Yes, I have some new beads, one set so far, but I’ll add some more in the next few days once Rick has gotten (I know, very American, it’s the books I’ve been reading) around to watermarking the photos and working his magic on them. It’s been a while since my last confession post, and even longer since I updated the front page of my website by adding news. During the interval I’ve had such a long rest that I don’t know that I can really be bothered to do any work and I feel very guilty when I do because our daughter is at home during the day while the school holidays continue. I’ve been manically juggling making beads for the Stourbridge bead fair next weekend, making beads for my jewellery range to stock a new outlet (I’ll let you know where when I’ve sent the package), and I have 130 beads to make by next Thursday for my regular buyer. It just never seems to let up.

On a fun note, during my break I’ve rediscovered the joy of reading. A friend recommended Stephenie Meyers‘ Twilight books and I’ve been steaming my way through them. I read the first one in 3 days so I could vet it for my 11 year old daughter, and because I was so hooked. I then realised I need to slow down and enjoy them, so I decided I had to pace myself to 2 or 3 chapters a day while I read New Moon, and now I’m on Eclipse, struggling to keep to less than 3 chapters a day. It’s been a while since I was so addicted to my books, it’s been like that for all the Harry Potter series, and I miss not having my yearly book from JK Rowling. I’m just wondering what I’ll do when I’ve finished Breaking Dawn……probably read The Host, as I got a copy when I bought the 2nd and 3rd books in Asda. Hee, hee.

Well, I’ve just spent too long looking at Stephenie Meyers website, I really don’t know where I was when all the fuss was going on, but I hope to be up with the latest developments from now on.

Thursday afternoon

I have sore fingers. that would be down to the couple of hundred or so beads that I have just removed from their mandrels. And I still have 7 soaking in Coke as we speak. You know you can always tell how busy I am these days by the lack of blogging. I’m feeling a bit all over the place, my mind is going here and there right now, thinking about all the stuff I’ve done since I last checked in here, all the emails I’ve replied to, beads I’ve sold, places I’ve been, people I’ve met. It’s been a very busy but fulfilling few weeks. Open studios went really well, our numbers weren’t massive, but everyone who came left happy bearing Popped Bubble Designs or gorgeous lampwork bead jewellery. They were treated to Elderflower Cordial and demos from myself and Katherine.

After that I had to have a quick turnaround and prepare my work to put on permanent display at Shop Maltings. This is our new venture as a collective with the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen and Farnham Maltings. We have been invited to use the cabinets in the foyer, glass wall cabinets along a very busy corridor and a small retail space. So last week saw me preparing for that, going there to set up last Thursday (very challenging as my plan for the display didn’t work due to the different stands and the shelf depth) and then returning last Friday for the private view. My daughter and I had a lovely evening over there with drinks and canapés, then a trip to the local Pizza Express while Rick gigged in Haywards Heath with the band he’s in.

There’s always lots on this time of year, and I had been planning to go to the Hampton Court flower show this week, but you know I’m not sure I have the energy, after attending sports day this morning and parents induction at our daughters new school last night….can you believe it she starts secondary school in September! She had a great day at her induction yesterday and we returned in the evening to meet her new tutor and managed to get her kitted out with her new uniform. The first thing she did when we got home was to try it all on properly, she’s so excited and can’t wait to start….long may that last!

Here’s a few shots I took outside Farnham Maltings.