Archive for September, 2007

Harrow again

Thursday evening

Good news for me, and hopefully you beady buyers…..I will be at the Harrow Bead fair this year after all.  My friend Francesca Cerreta has invited me to share her stall, so now I have to start preparing for it! Of course with only half a table I won’t need so much stock, and will have to decide what stays and what goes. I will be sorting out the most lush and colourful beads that I can, and hopefully making a few new sets in the next few days. Details of the fair can be found on my events page.

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In the pink

Tuesday evening

Another successful few hours at the torch today, I’ll go and get my goodies from the kiln in a  minute. Of course the lounge still looks like a bomb hit, but with good cause, we’ve been decorating our daughters bedroom for the last couple of weeks and there’s stuff everywhere…well, there always is in our house for some reason or another. At least the new room looks tidyish at the moment, and it looked extremely pink and bright this morning too. I think I may have to wear shades tomorrow (no kidding) when I go in there, it’s the sunlight streaming through the new curtains that really did it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the rooms new look, and it’s not at all Barbie or baby pink, just a deep rich shade of dark pink on one wall and furnishings in pinky purple, red and some orange….lush. I may have to sleep in there myself! The only downside is that I now have to go through everything my daughter owns with her, and decide what she keeps, recycles or passes on, and we have 6 years worth of stuff…eek, I’m not looking forward to it. Off to get my beads….I made some pink today!

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Chomp, chomp, chomp

Thursday morning

At last, after nearly 3 weeks back at school I get to make glass beads for me (well, to sell or make into jewellery). Either way…….Woohoo.  This month was supposed to be quiet but I’ve been soooo busy, either teaching or working in the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen gallery.  I have one day left to do now this month (in the gallery) until November, so I should get some more beadies made over the following weeks.  To say I am chomping at the bit would be an understatement, in fact, why am I blogging when I could be getting ready to make beads? Good point……see you!

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Buzz buzz buzz, I wonder why it does? (ode to AA Milne)

Saturday lunchtime

Don’t blink, don’t turn away, don’t blink……..well I did and my week has been stolen. It hasn’t really, but it made an interesting start to this post. I’ve been busy teaching all week in what should have been a quiet and cooler month, and hasn’t it been hot and sunny? The weather’s been gorgeous and we’ve been getting soooooo hot with 2 burners, 3 people and a kiln in a relatively small space. It looks like summer has arrived at last, mind you the main problem with that is the wasps have arrived as well. But the good news is that most flying things haven’t bothered us this week with the new all singing and dancing fly screen. We had 2 sneaky wasps find a large gap when we hadn’t closed it properly but that was all. Not bad going really, so definitely an improvement on no screen and lots of screams!

Meanwhile the saga of the unruly house continues, you should see it (or maybe not). Stuff everywhere since we decided to decorate our daughters bedroom and are now having to accommodate 8 years worth of general stuff and art in the rest of the house. We really need to have a big sort out and de clutter before it all goes back in…which it’s NOT going to do. I’m well prepared for the sort out….got my dust masks and dust goggles last weekend to cope….I have a dust allergy see? I think it may end up looking like a scene from Silent Witness if we’re not careful. Now where did I put my white disposable coveralls?

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It’s a bugs life

Friday lunchtime

Still in a spin! But I’ve installed what I hope will be one of the best improvements to my studio yet…….drum roll please………..

a fly screen!

……oh yes, don’t you just hate it when you’re in mid flow, crafting some amazing bead or pendant, and in wafts a buzzy thang on the draft, buzzes around your head, whizzes left and right in front of you, and generally harasses you. What can a girl do when she’s torching at over 1000 deg c and can’t stop until said item is finished and put in the kiln! Last year I lost several sculpted off mandrel leaves in late summer as the pesky insects came in one after the other, intimidating me and threatening to set up home in my pad. I think the wasp nest in the tree 4 metres from my door didn’t help much either. Large Kamikaze moths in the evening have also been something of a problem, diving headlong into my flame then crazily fluttering around in ever decreasing circles as their scorched wings make them fly wonky, then crawling on my bench in circles on their only remaining legs and wing. Should I also mention the dust these things make as their scales flake off, only just missing my hot glass? Maybe this could be a new inclusion to my beads, like Pixie Dust. So hopefully, gone will be the days of me screaming like a big girls blouse and struggling to resist the temptation to rush out of my studio as fast as possible to avoid the critters……enjoy the sun!

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Dizzy, I’m so dizzy (yay, we’re back on the song titles)

Tuesday morning

Hurrah! I have the house to myself again. Oh what to do first! I’m all in a spin! I’m itching to get out to my studio and make new beads, I have so many new ideas, lots of inspiration from my last visit to Cornwall, and last night in bed – well, I was trying to get to sleep and a parade of new bead designs and colours kept floating up to my eyes and then moving on for the next one. Very peculiar I must say, and a first for me, I just hope I can make them or at least attempt to draw them or even remember all of them today ‘cos they were really yummy.

Unfortunately I have lots of admin stuff to do, and a desk and work area to organise (again) but at least the house is looking somewhat clearer now. I’ve been doing lots of gradual tidying because it’s still painful to sit down for long after my stair tumble, which also goes to show that there’s always a good side to find in any problem. lol.

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