Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Saturday evening

Harrow Bead Fair, The bead event of the year is tomorrow, Sunday, and I’m packing my luscious new beads and goodies at the moment. Details of the Harrow Bead Fair are on my events page.

So we have to get everything ready tonight, including our lunch and drinks, although I think we should do the flask in the morning ‘cos the water will get too cold. tee hee. It’s the usual last minute scramble here, I did try to get well organised, I even didn’t make beads on Friday, but progress got somewhat hampered today due to the fact that we had a prior commitment which meant we were out all afternoon and evening and only just got home a short while ago.

I’m looking forward to meeting new people and seeing old friends again, it’s great having a stall because loads of people come and say hi. So if you’re reading my beadlog and coming tomorrow, do come by and make yourself known, oh and don’t forget your elbow pads, the crowds were 4 or 5 deep last year. See you tomorrow.

Thursday teatime

What a day, it started off so well, was rubbish in the middle and for the last couple of hours has been good again. So what’s that all about? Well, after watching Nigella Lawson on Monday I was inspired and decided to get organised with our meals, so by 10am I had this evenings meal all ready in a bag, marinading, so I could just tip it out onto a baking tin. It was after this that things went downhill. My beadmaking was average to say the least today, nothing went right, even the simplest of spacer beads, which I decided to make because everything was so rubbish, turned out average. Somehow it just wasn’t happening for me in the studio today. Oh well, it’s at times like this that it’s better to go and do something else.

I’ve managed to plough through cleaning all the beads I’ve made this last couple of weeks, and they’re drying as we speak, ready to be put into sets for Sundays bead fair, or made into my popular ‘shades of’ series of jewellery. Part 2 of this evenings meal is also ready to go in the oven when it’s time, in fact I’ll just go and do that now……done. Oh I can’t wait for dinner, we’re having Nigella’s roast Lamb Shanks with Delia’s roasted roots, and some fresh veg. Yum. Off to tidy my desk now and clear the table.

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.

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!

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!

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?

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!

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.

Wednesday morning

It’s been a while hasn’t it, did you miss me? It was a real struggle for me not to post over the past few weeks, and yet before I started my beadlog I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to keep it up. Still, here we are towards the end of the school holiday, and I’m in a rather delicate state! Not through being in the constant presence of an 8 year old, but due to the mishap I had yesterday lunchtime when I managed to slip and bump down all but 5 steps on a very steep carpeted staircase at a friends house. Woops. Needless to say I’m still feeling a bit shaken and am wondering how I’m going to cope with all those jobs I need to do today and this week. The house still looks less than tidy, due to lots of trips, the Winchester exhibition, GBUK beadfair, the course I did last week and general stuff that needs putting away. Oh well. Some things never change.

I’d like at this point to say how lovely it was to meet everyone who came to say hello at the bead fair this weekend. It was good to put faces to names, and we all had a very enjoyable day. I’m not sure what other bead-fairs I will be doing next year, I’ve applied for a few but need to hear back from the organisers. I will post details on my events page when I have them.

Friday lunchtime

This will be my last post for a little while. I’ve been banned from doing any work or web updates for a few weeks as I’m supposed to be taking a break and concentrating on house stuff and our daughter. So please bear with me regarding contact forms. You can still send them in, but it will be a while before you get a reply.

IF you fancy a trip to France the exhibition in Sars Poteries started on the 30th July. This now runs until 15th October. Details on my events page.

At the end of the month, 26th August, we have the GBUK 4th Annual bead fair, in Stourbridge. Again details and a link to the website can be found on my events page.

Have a lovely August.

Thursday lunchtime

I keep thinking it’s Friday! Probably because normally that’s the day I tidy up (yes, I know, you thought I didn’t do that), fill the car with stuff for recycling at the dump and generally try to get some sort of order (I say ‘some’ because things are never completely ordered here…..talking to other artists and creative people, they seem to have the same problem). I shouldn’t really tell you this….but there’s stuff EVERYWHERE…..on the floor, the setees, dining table, desk, hall…………………………packages arrived for me to make my jewellery and beads, got unwrapped and have stayed where they were dumped, until today. ‘BLITZ the place’ is my battle cry! Well I’d love to do that, but can you really honestly see me managing it? lol. On telly the other day we saw a really appropriate quote – ‘I tidied up last week, but you missed it’, ha ha. Still, I can see the carpet again in a few places, and the numerous cardboard boxes complete with flo-pac and bubble wrap are gradually being flattened and stuffed in the car.

Of course all this tidying activity is only possible now because my desperate deadlines have passed at last. Phew, that was a really hard slog this time. You can see my efforts at Winchester Cathedral at the Contemporary Art, Craft & Design Fair that starts Saturday 21st July and finishes on Sunday 29th July.

Friday morning

Whatcha! The last 3 days I’ve had a ball. And how’s that? Remember all those things I had to stuff into July? Well, I managed 2 of the 3 days on the Art Clay course, and I didn’t get to the Hampton Court flower show, but I have just completed 3 consecutive days on a course colouring anodised aluminium. It was so much fun, even though I’d done it before several years ago (I hadn’t realised just how long ago until I pulled out my notes to get some dying ideas). Of course I was just getting really revved up with ideas and loads of inspiring stuff to try when we had to finish. Looks like I’ll have to book it again if it runs next year.

Today I have to source and buy materials to make up a demonstration area for making glass beads. I hope to be demonstrating at the Open House and Garden tommorrow, so I’d better get cracking.

Monday morning

At last, a day off. I’m enjoying a leisurely morning on the settee with my feet up and drinking loads of tea. I’ve been working flat out for the last 3 or 4 weeks now and I’m very much in need of some R & R, unfortunately our housework has been AWOl also for the last 3 weeks and is in need of some effort (actually it’s in need of masses of effort). The house truly looks like a bomb exploded, and the kitchen’s even worse, the main problem being that the dishwasher broke down and it all has to be done by hand at the moment. If I hate housework, I hate washing up even more, it’s such a waste of time, and there’s always something more important or fun to do. So unfortunately my day isn’t going to be a complete rest (even though I’m also struggling with a cold) but will be interspersed with washing clothes and the occasional bouts of tidying up unless I keep getting woozy cold induced wobbles. Now, if the new Harry Potter book was out already I could be sat here reading that instead……

Thank you to everyone who came and said hello yesterday at the Lingfield bead fair, it’s so good to see old friends and students and to meet new ones. This is what really makes these days so enjoyable for me, even if the drinks machine in the restaurant did break down for the second year running…do you suppose they say this because they want to go home early, or do bead ladies and gents drink more tea?

The Open Houses and Studios has also got off to a good start. Saturday saw Claire stone carving most of the day, while I sat and made up some of my earrings and phone dangles for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I hope to be making glass beads in the garden next Saturday and maybe Sunday morning, so please pop along to see how it’s done and say hello. There will also be some watercolour painting and textile work being done next weekend (but not all at the same time!). This is such a good opportunity to see collections of work in a very informal environment and there are several venues around Horsham and Worthing that are also taking part, so make time next weekend for a tour of the West Sussex studios. Festival Brochures are available around the county in Tourist information centres and libraries, or you can download one from this site Artists and Makers. The information postcards around also feature a necklace by yours truly.

Tuesday Morning

I thought I’d stick my head in and quickly say ‘Hi’, in case you were wondering where I’d got to. Things are very hot here at the moment while I’m rushing around getting ready for Open Houses which starts this Saturday and the Lingfield Bead fair, this Sunday. My cabinet of goodies for the Open Houses is coming together nicely but needs to be ready Wednesday evening to put up Thursday morning. I’m also trying to squeeze in some beadmaking for Sunday. I hope you’ll come and say hello at one of these events. Mush dash!

Monday morning

The kiln is on and heating up as we speak. 17 deg in my studio (well, the kiln actually) again today, but it feels cooler as ‘it’s spitting’ (run for your lives). I managed 4 torch sessions last week, and have cleaned ALL the beads already..however Rick very kindly pointed out that the first batch I did weren’t done properly…how annoying….and I’d been trying out a new faster method before you start getting worried that I don’t clean my beads properly, cos I do normally. So the upshot is I have a hundred odd beads to clean again, urgh. I was doing so well as well.

Today I’m planning to make some lovely dichroic focal beads, so that should be fewer to clean. lol. I have ssoooooo much on over the next few weeks, and only 6 weeks of school left and I’m already stressed. This year so far has been a bit of a funny one with our daughter being seriously ill and me not being able to work and more importantly attend and sell at the few events I’d hoped to at that time. So now it’s doubly important that I make the best use of the opportunities in the next few months, which have all come along at once, like buses. Mind you I seem to remember it being like this last summer too. Now, how can I squeeze in those visits to the Hampton Court Flower Show, Tate Modern and the V&A?

Thursday Morning

So far so good this week, I’ve been able to have 3 long sessions at my torch to make lots of beads, and I’ve cleaned most of them. (I know!) It’s a struggle to balance making beads to sell at fairs and in my shop, and to make beads for my range of jewellery, but I’m happy no matter what! Now I need to find time to make the jewellery….hopefully all the dinners I’ve been cooking in the evening this week will buy me some production time from Rick while he cooks.

Now for the hot gossip…what about Katie on the Apprentice last night? Now that was a turn up for the books, she actually looked genuine after Sir Alan said she was through and with her discussions with him after the offer. I’m pleased Christine is through, I’ve been routing for her for a long time. As for those interviews….they were enough to make anyone squirm. It was amusing to observe the looks of confidence on the candidates faces as they arrived for the day, and to compare the look of devastation and worry after their gruelling.

It amazes me that in the 3rd (or is it the 4th?) series of the Apprentice that some of the candidates appear not to have watched any of the previous series, or if they did, that they failed to learn some of the key points about Sir Alan and how he likes things done. Who in their right mind applies for a 12 week long interview away from home without doing any research about him or the companies? And who applies for a job without considering that a relocation would be a probability? It just goes to prove that however smart people think they are, there will almost always be things that let them down, we are all only human after all.

Monday morning

Half term is over, daughter is at school, washing is on, kitchen’s almost tidy and the sun is shinning…all is well with the world. Now I just have to get really revved up to work hard as I have 2 major bead fairs, 1 minor beading day, 1 carnival, RAG Open houses and the Surrey Guild exhibition at Winchester Cathedral to prepare for, all in the next 7 weeks. I’m also going on a short Precious Metal clay course (already getting excited) and then a colouring anodised aluminium course (my third time) in this time frame. Phew. It always gets like this in the J months. Of course some of my preparations can be carried over from one event to the next, depending on how much I sell at the previous one, but I do like to produce some new designs for the summer events, both jewellery and beads, and this also takes more time than doing the same old same old. I also plan to make a new posh piece of jewellery, and need to mull this over while I work…..hmm, I wonder if I could squeeze a day off at the Hampton Court flower show too…..I’ll have to work on that one.

So….I’d better get on, the washing is beckoning me to hang it on the line (rotten stuff).

Oooh and while I remember, apologies to everyone who’s sent me emails in the last couple of weeks, my service has been up the spout, and Rick only just managed this morning to retrieve the ‘however many gigs of mail’ that has been sat waiting on the Talk Talk server for the past 2 weeks. We have now changed provider for my emails so normal service should soon be resumed (as soon as I get through the backlog).

Wednesday morning (1 week later)

Whoa, a whole week later, what happened? Oh yes, Whitsun weekend, and we’ve been away in our newly fixed caravan for a few days. I think I need a holiday now just to get over the packing and I would say unpacking too, but the floor’s still covered in ‘stuff’ that needs unpacking and putting away. I love going away but I really hate all the preparations beforehand and the tidying away when you get home. There must be some solution to this dilema? Obviously staying in hotels is one of them, going abroad on package holidays is another – only 1 suitcase per person and a bit of hand luggage – sounds good to me. It’s the camping thing that makes life complicated, this must be why it’s a relatively cheap holiday, because of all the effort involved.

I remember preparing for holidays abroad, this was fun because it consisted of shopping…. for sun lotion, toiletries and bikinis, also film for my camera (we’re going back a bit here….scarey isn’t it?) and a good pocket guide book. Maybe I also needed some new t-shirts, sun tops and flip flops, oh and a new suitcase. Whereas now it’s ‘have we got enough chemicals for the toilet?’ and ‘that saucepan’s going a bit rusty’ and ‘have you packed enough tea towels?’. Blrghhhhh.

I must have gone wrong somewhere along the line, I’ve gone from 2 weeks at the end of May and 1 week in September, both abroad, to 2 weeks in the UK in a caravan of all things. I suppose at least I put my foot down about using a frame tent, now that was humungous and took all day to pack up the last time we used it. Some people may say we got too complicated in our use of the tent and should have stuck to sleeping on carry mats, eating cold baked beans out of the can and sitting on the floor, but arthritis soon put an end to that type of camping for me (which is also why we’re now in a caravan).

So, the piles of ‘stuff’ are still lined up along the lounge floor, the kitchen still looks like the remains of a bomb has hit, and I have visitors arriving for lunch in 5 minutes………I’d better get on! see ya.

Friday teatime

It’s been a fairly sunny day here today, and is now staring to cloud over, we just hope the weather holds for the party we’re having before Mike Frantz leaves for Holland and Germany. What can I say about Mike? He’s a friendly, kind man, who has done loads for the bead making art glass community by taking the time to forge links with the Italians so that we can enjoy a beautiful range of the finest venetian glass. He’s been awarded the ISGB 2006 Hall of Flame Award – ‘this goes to a person whose contribution to the world of glass beadmaking as well as the ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers) has left a long lasting legacy worthy of recognition’.

We enjoyed having Mike to stay for 2 nights, and he showed us many goodies that he’d obtained along the way, including some very valuable Murinnis that were stunning in detail, various samples of glass that he’d obtained from Effetre and Murano and a few select designer beads. He generously gave me (among a few other things) about 1/4 lb of a brand new colour from effetre to try first and some interesting goldstone which is shaped like a ribbon. It sure makes a change for us in England to have the first chance of trying a new colour or product.

And this is what I made with the new green called Grasshopper…….including the wigwags that I talked about yesterday…..the blue one is grasshopper free.

Thursday evening

Another week has passed since I last blogged, and guess what…I’m whacked out. We had a great time at Broadfield House on Saturday and then came home to get ready for Mike Frantz’s visit. Mike owns one of the 2 largest beadmaking supplies companies in the world called Frantz and knows so many beadmakers. He regularly flies to Venice from Washington state in America to visit Effetre who make the glass that so many of us love. I’ll write more about Mikes visit another day as he stayed with us for 2 nights, but today I’ve posted up some photos from our day at Broadfield House.

I should also add that today has been a first for me as I spent a few hours being one of the first beadmakers in the world to try out the new colour from effetre. It’s a minty green colour that Mike is going to call Grasshopper and is very close to a shade that I mixed myself in February. My beads from today are annealed, cooled and cleaned and await Ricks photographic treatment. I also made several wig wag canes today using this colour and may put up a photo of these tommorrow if you’re lucky, that’s if I can move my arms tommorrow, all that wig wag twisting has made them ache like mad. Ouch. I also get to try out the goldstone ribbon that Mike picked up in Venice, that’s what I’ll do on the morrow what ho!