Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Tuesday morning

Yay, we have our glass! Photos below…..using the phone again. Fortunately my pieces were better than Ricks,  I would have been gutted if they weren’t, but it’s not a competition and I did have the best position going last in all the exercises so I could learn from what the others did. Although it was obvious that my experience did help, being able to constantly turn the punty, knowing what sort of speed to turn it in response to how the molton glass was moving,  and having a better feel for how much pressure to apply to the glass etc..I’m just itching to have another go now, it was so much fun, especially the bit where we took a gather, there was something rather special and exciting about dipping the punty into all that tremendously hot glass. It really was like collecting honey on a spoon or one of those ridged wooden honey handles, but VERY hot. hee hee. I have to admit the blowing part wasn’t my favourite bit, and that I really loved making the paperweight, I just wish I hadn’t gone for more blue powder and twisted it so much, or the colours would have been purer. It appears that the blue and yellow react in the same way that they do in a bead, by creating black/dark grey where they touch.

Don’t forget that I have a couple of tuition dates available, one for this Friday 1st October, so if you fancy having a go making beads (in a much more accessible hot glass process) then don’t delay, and contact me now.

***1 place on a 1 day beginners course on Fri 1st Oct***

***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 , 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!

Oh dear, I’m going to get lots of flack from Rick about these photos, apart from the fact that I haven’t shown his pieces, oh yes, these are all mine, different views.

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.