Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Saturday evening…..
Phew what a week it’s been.  Five events down and maybe 1 to go.  It’s been a very mad week with a very late night dash last night down to the coast to deliver my beads to my friend Judith who’se ‘womaning’ the stall tommorrow at the Newmarket bead fair.

I had a good day today, even if it was exhausting.  I sold some beads at the craft fair to a lovely bead enthusiast, had a couple more enquiries about lampworking tuition which I’m planning to start in the new year, and I made a new glass buddy!  Woo hoo, and she only lives about 5 miles away.  It will be so nice to have someone else nearby to talk glass with and swap notes.

Here’s a few pictures Rick took today at the lovely setting of Christ’s Hospital, while I was inside at my stand.

Late Thursday evening….

So much for making Christmas cuties this week.  I haven’t set foot in my glass studio yet this week because of the 4 events I had to prepare for, that turned into 5, that is now 6 if you include next Monday, which is a possible new event.  3 down and 3 to go for this week.  Maybe I’ll squeeze a couple of hours in at the torch tommorrow if I’m cunning.

Only 1 more day to go before the Craft Fair at Christs Hospital, and 2 days to go before the Beadworks Fair at Newmarket, if you’re around come and say hello………better go get me some more of those zeds………………….

I didn’t make it down to the studio today, too many other things happening.  Maybe tommorrow afternoon, after my coffee morning.

We had frost here this morning for the first time this autumn, time to go out and wrap up the delicate plants in the garden I think.  Talking of weather I just saw a stonking video of a twister on the ITV news.  I don’t think I would have stayed around to make that video, you wouldn’t have seen me for dust, even though I would actually like to see a twister.  Dust, anyone, dust?  High in calories, low in calories?  Dust…..

I’ve just spent a merry couple of hours reorganising my many links in my firefox bookmarks manager.  Phew.  Lets just hope my p.c. doesn’t crash again and lose the lot.

I’m looking forward to getting out to my studio tommorrow to make some more Christmas cuties, I feel a few penguins and snowmen coming on, and maybe a Christmas tree or two.  All this talk of snowmen is making me wonder whether I need to get my thermals out of retirement yet.  How sad am I, I invested in new ones at the beginning of the year!

I have to torch whenever I can now, because the local craft fair season has begun and I’m going to be out selling a couple of times a week from now on.  It’s going to be a hectic week this week.  I have four events to prepare for this week, including the Fair at Christs Hospital and the Newmarket bead fair.  I’m also heavily involved in organising the Christmas Display of Jewellery for Sale at the adult education centre I attend, and we set up the display this week.  I’ve done the majority of organisation, paperwork and accounts for the last 4 years, but this year I’m sharing the job fortunately.
I’d better go lie down and get some zeds…………………zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 

Good news – I can now accept credit cards on my stall at local craft fairs, and I’m waiting to receive the credit card swipey dooberries that I saw on ebay.  We had fun making our first ever bid on ebay for these, and got so carried away with watching the final minutes, cooking dinner and getting ready for a local craft event the same evening that we forgot we had an appointment at the school.  Woops.

Tuesday Evening

I’m just about to send Rick down to the studio to get my beads out and turn the kiln off (please), he’s reading this as I type!

11 deg c this morning when I started work, but at least it wasn’t raining.  I made several more snowmen, 2 penguins, Father Christmas and a robin.  I now know why I haven’t seen many robin beads, it’s impossible to tell the brown and red glass apart when they’re hot, I await my lopsided robin….And would you believe it, my gas ran out at tea time.  My plan to always have a spare available went Pete Tong today, cos I didn’t have my spare bottle full.  Rats, I now have to rush out tommorrow morning to get a refil before I can start.

Rick just brought my beads in, oh well, you can’t even see the red breast now he’s out.

More Chihuly photos as promised

It’s wet here.
No beads made today, couldn’t face the trot down the garden. Actually the boiler man was supposed to cometh, but was a no show. Instead I pottered and made roasted Pumpkin soup for dinner. Pumpkin head anyone??????????

I toiled late into the night cleaning a bazilion beads of their bead release and am now the proud owner of a hole in my finger, ouch.
A quick spell check of the word Bazilion tells me that it does not exist, and would I like to substitute ‘Basildon, Brazil, pavillion or gazillion’?

8.5 deg C in my studio when I went out to fire up the kiln this morning, there was a distinct chill in the air. Autumn is definately on the way, if not on it’s way out. I have watched as the Virginia Creeper on my back fence has changed from green to orange to red, and now most of the leaves have fallen.

I’ve been autumnally inspired over the last few weeks to make beads in various shades of topaz, orange and red, but yesterday also turned my hand to snowmen. I have to say they turned out pretty cute. Also the accidental green on yesterdays beads wasn’t a problem, it barely notices! Rick beat me to the kiln this morning to get yesterdays work out, I think he’s as big a kid as I am.

I was on a safari roll today (more topaz), and made various tiger beads. I also sussed how to make my safari frit look like realistic animal print, it was a bit of an ‘ahh’ moment.

Monday evening.
What a joy to walk down to my studio today without getting wet feet. Bliss.
I made a few dichroic focal beads today and can’t wait to see them. Some funny stuff happened because I was experimenting with different colours and frits, also a rod of what I thought was pale amber was actually rhubarb green (a shift tint colour that changes depending on the light source, or what glasses you’re using!) only my didymiums (lampworking specs) made it look amber. Woops. Should be interesting.
Ah, but it’s those mistakes and unusual reactions that make hot glass work such fun. Also I love the anticipation of waiting for the beads to anneal then cool. Sometimes it’s like Christmas morning……wake up, get dressed, rush downstairs and out to the studio to see what the kiln fairy has for me.

OOO, and I forgot to say I made my very first post on one of the American based lampwork forums, I’m officially not a lurker any more. Take a look at Lampwork etc. if you’re intrigued by the glass bead stuff.

OOOO and some exciting news for me anyway, I bit the bullet and decided to do a bit of advertising. The publication is called The International Flame Guide and will be a bit like the yellow pages of glass, and we have put in a small ad to advertise ….me….dah dah. So I’m now waiting with baited breath for the release date and wondering how it will affect my website hits. The book will be available 1st January 2006, but will also be available to view on the net.

Hellooooooooooo,
welcome to my blog or should I say ‘My world’.
I’m sitting here typing this while I wait for my kiln to heat up. Why?
Well, maybe I should introduce myself…….my name is Sarah Downton and I make glass beads and jewellery for a living (or is that really for fun with a bit of dosh thrown in for good measure?).
You can take a look at my website sarahdownton.co.uk for an idea of what I’m up to.

So here I am, Friday noon (just), typing my first blog. I’ve been cowering indoors all morning cos of the rain that was tipping down earlier, but I’ve just squelched out to my studio (12 deg C in there) to fire up the kiln and will be popping of out there later to make beads – woohoo.

I thought I should make my debut today, or Richard, Mr Webmaster and Cybergeek Extraordinaire (otherwise known as my husband), who’s been champing at the bit to do my first entry, would loose patience with me and pretend to be cyberme (actually he has done everday but I caught him in the act and made him take it off…I mean delete it).

So what’s new? Well this blog for a start, obviously, and also I changed the blurb on the front page of my website at long last, now that I can – thank you CE (Rick – Cybergeek Extraordinaire).
There’s lots to do on my website which I won’t bore you with, but I will say I hope you’ll come visit my site regurlary as we change things and this blog again for my inane (or is that insane) ramblings on life, the Universe and everything (by the way the answer is 42).

see you soon……………………