Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

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!