Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Tuesday evening

I don’t know about ‘Passing the Flame’ but I’ve been doing a bit of ‘Thowing the Flame’ today. Oh yes the new Spark lighter briefly turned my torch into a high velocity flame thrower, again. It’s only my first day of using it but I’m obviously doing something wrong. Cindy Jenkins in her book ‘Making Glass Beads’ says this about spark lighters “These tend to be a little more difficult to use than matches and may require a bit of practice”, no **** Sherlock!

It hasn’t been a marvelous day making beads. My zone was here big time and I made some gorgeous beads, but every time I went to put those focals in the kiln I managed to clonk what was next to it, or put them in too hot and then clonk the adjacent one making a blip. Oh man, sometimes you just get those days, I decided to quit earlier than I would normally on a Tuesday, before I do anymore damage to my precious works of art.

Tuesday morning

I’ve got a new toy, nothing particulary exciting, just a piece of equipment to let me light my torch flame safer than what I’ve been using previously. But you wouldn’t have thought so an hour ago. I managed to turn my torch into a flame thrower with huge flames coming at me and licking at my left hand which was controlling the gas knob! I tried again to see what would happen and the same thing happened……I’ve singed the hairs on my left hand and had a lovely smell of burnt hair lingering on my hand and in my studio for the last hour. I think a bit more practice is in order. OK so I need to go back out and light up again now, must process information and work out how to do this safely in the next 5 minutes………..

I had a good long, if interupted session yesterday, 9.5 deg C in the studio so it’s warming up.  I made some more variations on the implossion pendant theme and a couple more pendant designs.  Alas one loop broke in the kiln, but I think I’ll try and fix it next time, pendants are easier (I hope) to repair and reanneal after the event….famous last words.

I have sooo much to do around the house today that I won’t get to play with fire (it’s work Rick) and might try and take some pics for my shop which is coming next week….more on that later.

Better go and stick a wash on….oh the thrill of modern life.

Yay! Kids are back at school, well actually it’s kid and she went back last Wednesday, but still, Yay!

I had 2 fantastic sessions at the torch last week, making some new Hydraengea beads and experimenting with some more new styles and colour combinations. I absolutely love my new design, inspired by a photo I took the other week at Wisley gardens. I had such a surprise when I took the main bead out of the kiln because it didn’t have the colours I was expecting, but gorgeous sunset hues instead. I’m very excited about these, but I’m afraid they’re going to have to stay under wraps for the moment.

But today stank….I didn’t realise how low my stock of white glass had got, having only one rod left and took time to sort through my glass looking for more and working out what other colours I am low on. I’m also reinstated as the stuby queen, spending valuable time today melting white stubies together and I only managed to get 2 more rods of the scraps. I think I’ve enough scrap left for another rod if I’m lucky. So only 6 focals in the kiln today and I think I’ll have to focus on dichroic tommorrow as I don’t use much white in those.

30 mins later…..I’ve just managed to make 2 more wiggly rods of white to use tommorrow.  Phew.

Did anyone watch ER on E4 last night?

It was a bit pertinant to me to say the least. I made the decision when I started this blog not to be personal about myself, but I think I may let on about one part of my life which dominates me and makes me what I am to an exent.

Last nights episode (I don’t think I’m about to spoil anything if you haven’t already seen it) saw Dr Weaver struggle with the fact that she needed a hip replacement at a fairly young age, and discussing the inconvience of her hip problem with regard to her physical performance and how she coped (or didn’t) with her young son, her job and just bending down to pick things up (which incidentaly is very difficult when you have a very sharp pain shooting down your leg and your hip has just locked in a stupid postion for the umpteenth time that day – I speak from experience).

Dr Weaver (the one with a crutch) has what I have….CDH or clicky hip, this is what they test for when a baby is born and they waggle the legs about to see if they ‘clunk’ into a position. It was with a great deal of effort that she said she was disabled, something that I won’t call myself. I can walk, but I need a stick (when I go out), and yes my leg does keep jaming quite a lot at the moment, and no, the hydrotherapy that I’ve been dutifully going to every week for the last 6 months doesn’t seem to be curing the locking which seems to be happening with frighteningly increasing regularity, as does the sharp twang that shoots down from my hip to my knee when I try to walk with a correct posture. Hmmmm. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my condition dealt with on a drama before, strange really when it’s not a rare thing, although there is more drama to be had from a heart attack!

What I will say about it is that it’s a pain in the leg, it’s getting worse (oh dear), and the fact that walking for too long or standing on my feet cooking or doing housework or gardening for more than an hour tires me far too much. It gets really annoying after a while. I have so much I want to do, house, garden and work wise, and it just gets in the way and prevents me from doing half as much as everyone else. grrrrr. I should add at this point that I’m not blogging this for tea and sympathy, although some choclit wouldn’t go amiss! I can walk and live a fairly normal life, I just can’t do as much as other people or as much as I used to or I’d like to.
I suppose the up side of it is that everytime I think maybe I should get a part time job (or maybe return to Engineering) to help the house finances a bit more, I realise that I’d be so tired whizzing to work, then looking after my daughter after school and trying to keep some semblence of order in the house (that’s already very hard, you should see our wash basket..it’s overflowing) that there would be NO energy left for Lampworking or jewellery making, let alone the marketing side. What a shame….not..ha ha! and of course what a perfect sit down job is Lampworking! Well Hurrah!
So…if you’re wondering why I still haven’t got my shop up, or done a few other bits to my website, it’s due to exhaustion, and the enforced resting that I have to do most evenings instead of siting at my desk working on my website. It also explains why I seem to know so much about various TV programs……by the way, less than 2 weeks to LOST second series. I can always find something good from my problems!
Have a good weekend!

Hi there, I hope you all had a lovely Easter holiday. I just realised I haven’t blogged for over a week, been to busy.

We’ve been busy doing this and that, but the highlight last week was a trip to RHS Wisley gardens, where we go a couple of times a year and meet up with my parents. This time there was a lovely seasonal Spring walk to follow, which took you past the best of the daffodils, tulips, Hellibores and all the gorgeous spring blossom. So much to see and unfortunately never enough time to complete the walk, I think we only did about a third of the trail.

Woops, now there I was, happily trying to make an implosion pendant that wouldn’t for the life off it implode enough, when Rick comes racing down the garden in the rain to say bye (he’s gone out). Instead of a nice byeeeee, I get ranted at for beading with the door open….it started raining cats and cats and dogs behind my back, very hard, and I’ve managed to flood the floor of my studio and submerge the few garden tools I keep in there too. I also got the digital controller for my kiln wet. Woops.
What a sad ending to my first lampy sesh this school holiday, all I got is one measly small bead and then I cracked my pendant. I then got a poopy loopy, but the good news is I managed to repair the pendant and the loop, and cracked my punty off OK. What’s a girl to do?

Back to the house for a cuppa and a bit of choclit I think!

Tuesday Evening

Hi there. Not much glass stuff going on my way at the moment, the Easter holiday is here and I’m spending time with my daughter and trying to recover from the weekend.

My parents 50th party went very well, but I was on my feet for about 15 hours and am soooooooooo tired now. My big surprise for my parents was their anniversary cake, my mum said she wasn’t going to bother but you can’t have a golden wedding without a special cake. I had so many moments over the last fortnight when I’ve wanted to ring my mum and ask her about the cake and it’s decoration. So I just bothered my mother in law instead!

As for the flowers for the day, well my dad did those.  He’s so good at flower arranging and did a wonderful display of parrot tulips mixed with cuttings from one of their neighbours shrubs.  He also did beautiful posies of roses in plain Habitat tumbers to double up as weights for the orange and yellow helium balloons.  All of this with the tulip serviettes we chose from the RHS and the room looked very colourful.  Must be where I get it from!
 

Tuesday afternoon

Look what I made at my class last week.

I had a go at last at Cuttlefish casting. I’ve never really been that enamoured of the pieces that I’ve seen done that way in the past, but I saw someone elses work and was inspired to have a go. The thing that’s so funky about this is that you can prepare your mould, carve your design and cast it all in the space of a couple of hours unlike normal Lost Wax Casting which takes a couple of days from start to finish.

I love this shape so much that I might make a rubber mould of it so I can reproduce it using the tradditional lost wax method.

Monday evening

Monday again already. I had a fun but short sesh in my studio today, sometimes I find it really hard to get going, but that silly grin always comes to my face when I sit down at the torch. I do need to get a good session in tommorrow as it’s the Easter holiday next week and Tuesday is the only other day I get to torch this week.

I made some interesting dichroic beads today, using a silver dichroic and my new glass I bought from Creative Glass in the half term.  They turned out good, kinda rainbowesque stylie on acid.

This week we’re all getting reved up for my parents golden wedding party at the weekend.  I shall probably be knee deep in salads on Friday and have various trips to the shops for ingredients this week.  Oh well, lots of nice deserts to look forward to, yum yum.

It’s back, every night this week, repeats of the first series leading to the new second series.  Oh yes it’s Green Wing.  Need I say more.  Bliss!

Friday morning

Well after 4 days waiting at home, guess where the delivery of CD’s is….Cardiff. That’s a fat lot of use since we live about 30 miles from the Sussex south coast and the conference that we ordered them for starts this evening in Hertfordshire.

Apparently there was a mix up, no kidding. They’d mucked up on the post code, but instead of being honest about it, knowing full well that they wouldn’t be delivering here for the last FOUR days they let us stay in waiting. It wasn’t even like they could just stick it through the letter box or send it to the post office, we’re talking a pallet load here, probably 15 boxes each a foot cubed.

I have to say I don’t mind there being problems, and I appreciate that mistakes do happen, that’s life. BUT at least be courteous to your clients and honest. Keep them informed of the situation and don’t lie. I can’t even begin to tell you how furious I am about this last week, 3 days lost work for me, and Rick had to work from home yesterday.  I can’t make beads that take half an hour or more in the studio at the end of the garden if the doorbell is going to ring and I’ve got 30 seconds to get to the door before they run off.

But, lets cheer up now, I have to spend the day tidying the house, eeek. We have a kids party here this afternoon and I’ve got all that stuff to finish preparing. I suppose it’s payback for never doing housework because I prefer making beads, or doing anything else for that matter!

Wednesday morning

So here I am, third day running, waiting for the delivery of the CDs we were working on. All the time I wait I cannot get on in my studio because I would never get to the door on time. Talk about frustrated, not to mention stressed and increasingly annoyed.

This leads me nicely to courier companies and British companies who lie about when goods are despatched because they think you’ll be impressed (or fooled) that the goods have gone when they’re actually sat in a corner. Or who can’t be bothered to let you know when in the day your goods will arrive ‘Oh, anytime up to 4.30pm love’. Or who haven’t got the courtesy to tell you that even though you’ve been stuck in the house all day waiting, that actually they’ll be delivered sometime the next day….if you’re lucky.

I just don’t understand what harm a little thought for the customers would do, and surely they have some idea what time of day you’ll get your stuff, after all couriers normally have a roughly set route that they follow, eg Guildford, then Cranleigh, then Horsham and Brighton usually at the end of the day.

The only good side of this is that I’ve spent some time working on my shop pages, so hopefully we’ll have a shop here soon. (That’s got to be the 3rd or 4th time i’ve said this! and no, I’m not trying to be like the couriers!!! I’ve sorted the very boring page with delivery costs ‘n stuff, and now have the fun bit to do.)

Friday morning

Hello there. Did you miss me????? It’s been a very unproductive week that started with Monday off due to an Inset day. I had my first proper Acupuncture session Monday, well weird!

After that it all went downhill with me brewing a cold at the torch on Tuesday, sleeping all morning on Wednesday, and doing nothing all day yesterday. Now it seems I may have Conjunctivitis, why I mon (this has to be said in a Newcastle accent). So definately no torching for me at the moment.

The big news this week however is that Rick and I officially launched the new GBUK website that we have been working on. For a little peekie go to GBUK.org All this work on other stuff is why I still haven’t got anything up for sale here…………..

Wednesday

Just catching up with paperwork and stuff today, yawn. I made beads yesterday, not one of my best sessions. It was 1.5deg C in there yesterday, not as cold as Monday which was -2degC (brrrrrr). I’ve been challeging myself in my beads this month, seeing how far I’ve progressed and attempting things that I haven’t previously been able to do well. I’ve been very pleased with my efforts, but yesterdays beads suck. Oh well, I feel some some more beads on leather coming on!

Tuesday eve

Hi there. I’ve just come indoors from freezing my butt off outside, it suddenly got cold at 7pm. I had to go out to my studio and make some beads, couldn’t resist.

I had a lovely day at Spellcast Stained Glass Studio in Horsham today, with the group of Fusing beginners. I was only going to stay for a couple of hours but found myself there for the best part of the school day. Thank you very much Juli for letting me sit in, and hi to everyone I met today, especially Jo! (you know you want to melt glass!)

Late Wednesday evening

Phew, we just got home half an hour ago after a fun filled day at the Mastering suite in Rochester (Cyclone Music Productions). We spent most of the day (10 hours) working on mastering the recording that Rick and I have been working on, and are still amazed at how much difference can be made to a recording at the mastering stage. It now sounds really lush and sweet!

Fortunately me for me (but not my purse), Creative Glass was around the corner and of course I had to go and spend some dosh………

The day has also given me the opportunity to work on course notes and details, while listening very intently to the music, so I will put more info up in the next couple of days.

Monday afternoon

AAhhhh, I feel strange man. I returned home from my first taste of Acupuncture this morning, and oh I feel weird. Good weird, a bit spaced out and amazed at how good it was. It remains to be seen whether the course I’m about to embark on will make any difference to me, but at least I get to lie still and relax during the day instead of having to work or do housework, LOL.

It’s half term this week so no beady making for me unfortunately, I suppose I could go out in the evening but just can’t face the cold! I’m still working on dates and details of my courses, things are starting to come together so more news soon I hope.

Late Friday evening

Oooo I’m tired. It’s all happening at once here. We’ve just finished this evenings session of mixing music for the CD Rick and I are producing, the one we had evening recording sessions for in October. We’ve had 2 girlies singing sessions in the last fortnight and the men came and sang Tuesday evening this week. We’re now manically trying to fit in the mixing and it’s not as easy as I first thought. We’ve 3 pairs of speakers and they’re all different, giving different tones to the music!

As well as that I’ve been working on getting my shop page ready to sell some pendants and beads. We started compiling the page and sorting the style this evening. So hopefully in the next few days I should have some goodies for you to buy. Watch this space……..

Weds lunchtime

Hello peeps! Is that the time already? The sky outside today is so lovely and blue, it makes me want to fling the windows wide open, the trouble is it’s still a bit chilly.

I made beads again yesterday, woohoo. It was 4.5 degC in my studio when I started, so spring is on the way. I’m having fun playing with new ideas and colours, and trying out old techiniques to see how I’ve progressed. If you’re lucky I’ll post some pictures later. I always feel inspired to come up with new bead designs in the spring, maybe it’s because the mundane production stuff has eased off. But where would we be without the simpler bead designs? I always find it easier to design jewellery with my plainer beads, and leave the complicated and intricate work to you expert beadworkers. I’m off to grab a sarnie. bye.