Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Thurday lunchtime

Sports day has been postponed unitl September! So I get to work at home all day, but still a bit too hot for me to make beads unfortunately. So now I’m panicking as I look at my planner and see how many days I have left to make beads and jewellery for the GBUK Bead Fair in August at Stourbridge or to make some pieces for sale on my website. I’ve decided that since the school hols are approaching so rapidly now, I should give my family a bit of a break from my business and so have decided to delay the launch of my on-line shop until the beginning of September (are you taking this in Rick?). What with family loyalties, the glass festival and getting our house and garden looking half decent I shall be taking a well deserved break (or as much of one as I can have) during August, ready to return for business in September. I can’t believe how quickly the year is zipping by!

August isn’t here yet though, so keep those emails and lampwork tuition enquiries coming. Off to get me some lunch now and hang up the washing (such an exciting life).

Tuesday morning

I’m having a cool day indoors today, not going to risk trying to make beads in this heat, at least I don’t have to this time. I’ve two lovely scars next to each other on my arm from the other weeks’ hotscapades (new word to describe foolish hot behaviour, similar to icescapades but not related to ice skating) – well if Will Shakespere can make up new words so can I.

Today I’m endeavouring to tidy my desk indoors, oh I hate this. It’s looking better but somehow I always end up with different size piles of BITS. They might be headpins mixed with odd beads, stray findings, business cards and other stuff, then piles of flyers I need to refer to, and various small stuff that I will forget about if I throw them away or put them away (only to be discovered 5 years later after clogging up yet another drawer, and been searched for voraciously several times in the interval to no avail). How do people get truely organised, do everything they need to do, and keep their pads tidy? This for me is like THE question, you know, the one about The meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything, it probably has an obscure answer like ’42’ and no one knows what on earth it means. Maybe I should just resign myself to the fact that I’ll never get a handle on it.

Anyway, they just said on the news that sunscreen doesn’t work effectively if it’s rubbed in, oh now what? Honestly, now they say it should stay in a thick layer on the skin to work properly. But you know what? Experts are also saying we’re suffereing from a lack of Vitamin D because of all the care we’re taking of our skin now…..you can’t win.

Thursday morning

On my bench, with my tea, hee hee. Just thought I’d come outside for some fresh morning (or what’s left of it) air and to compose my thoughts for the day. I didn’t realise how dusty my screen had got! I’m desperately trying to catch up with the washing, oh yes, the laundry overfloweth once more, what do I mean ‘once more’? That should read ‘as usual’. I hope the weather holds so I can get it all dry. Actually it’s a bit of a tight squeeze on the bench because my beautiful Crocosmia Lucifer has grown so tall that it’s now flopping sideways and covering half the seat. I’ll have to get Rick to help me control it with one of my bargain plant stakes that I bought at the show last week.

Ughhh, the lovely garden noises are being spoilt by the sound of the Wash-a-wheeli company that come down our close. Even though we don’t have ours done, they insist on parking outside our house with their racket, and have damaged the branches of our tree more than once by squeezing under it with their noisy van. Grrrrr. So much for a few minutes peace and quiet. Ahh, sounds like they’ve finished, and so have I. byeeeeee.

OOOO, I should add that Art In Action started today, and continues until Sunday. The lovely Di East, Dora Schubert and Amanda Glanville will all be there on Di’s stand, so pop along if you’re intrigued by lampworking and see how it’s done. There are of course loads of other crafts to be seen demonstrated, and the show is well worth a visit if you’re into art and craft.

Monday morning

A quick hello before I go to my studio and make beads. It was already 17.5 degC out there when I turned the kiln on. I’m hoping to get a head start and make beads before the scorching heat comes today.

In the battle of ‘mozzie versus me’, I prowled the upper hall last night before bed on ‘Mozzie Watch’ and managed to split a good number with my trusty pink critter splitter. The score last night was Mozzie 1, me 9. Forget the World Cup or Spring Watch, it’s all happening here. And a quick update on those old snails….I decided to try protecting my beloved Hostas with a crushed up eggshell mulch, and so far it seems to be working a treat. One poor Hosta that they munched almost the whole thing might just be recovering, not sure, but the last one they were attacking is now unfurling it’s tender, if not small, leaves. My hostas are not looking at all good this year, I did have 8 or 9 large plants, but only one large one this year, and most of the others are non-existant. That’ll teach me to put all my energy into beadmaking at the expense of my plant collection. Hmmmph.

Thursday morning

It had to happen. I knew one day it would. And today it did. Yes, I managed to grind black pepper into my porridge this morning. I missed the salt grinder completely and hit the black stuff. This is what happens when you don’t concentrate on the job in hand but stand gazing out into the garden watching the sparrows having thier little tiff on the fence. It was actually quite nice, adding a warm and musky flavour to it.

I’m in full flow now getting ready for my first solo bead fair next Sunday at Lingfield. I’ve done the GBUK ones but had all my jewellery for sale also (including my fashion range made with bought in beads from around the World), so it was really a mix of beads and jewellery. My stall at Lingfield will be selling my beautifully coloured focal beads and sets, my lampwork jewellery and various other bits and pieces including some sterling silver findings. There may also be some packaging items for sale. Better go and get on with more beads for the event, it should be lovely out in my studio as the weather is warming up again but not too much. Have a lovely day.

Monday evening

Welcome to the mad house, I have one of those really manic weeks ahead where I have far too much to do work wise. I have to get beads ready and out for the Barton under Needwood beading day (Amanda Glanville is kindly organising a stall for us again this year) and also sort my jewellery for the RAG Open Houses. This is my main problem because I haven’t started, you know how it is, everything has to be done yesterday, and of course there’s always some other job more important.

But the main reason I’m here today, is to point you in the direction of one of my oldest friends that I grew up with. She has had a major sucess and I’m so excited for her. She is a fantastic artist, and from a very young age even I could see she would be brilliant. In fact she was so good that I couldn’t see any reason to pursue a career in art and craft because I felt I wasn’t anywhere near her standard. I believed when I was younger that you had to be the best to suceed, although it helps, I do realise now that is not true. There are many places in life for all sorts of abilities, and not everyone can understand or even afford the top art.

Anyway, I digress, please follow this link to view Wedgewoods newest collection of home crockery, complete with stuningly beautiful floral decoration by my friend Mary Woodin. The pattern is called The Painted Garden after her book journal of the same name. Some of the pieces have anaemones like the ones we have on our original painting from Mary (which she painted specially for us for our wedding present). I’m going to have to buy at least one of these pieces.

Thursday morning

Yo dudes, ready for a fun filled day? I am but I’m not gonna get it, cos I have to do admin stuff and not make beads again. I so wish being an artist designer maker meant that I could do just that all day, rather than have to worry about all the other stuff that goes along with running a small business. Whoever coined that phrase ‘Small business’ must have been trying to pull the wool over our eyes. There’s nothing small about the amount of admin we have to do such as the finances, proper paperwork, keeping all the relevant tax information and in a way you can do your tax return. Then there’s sourcing componants and materials, ordering stuff (I like that bit), stock control (boo), opening packages (hooray), advertising (hiss), cleaning the inside of beads (boo hiss boo)(ooo that’s not admin, but I don’t like having to do it), and the list goes on.

Then there’s photography, the pivotall element to any web-based business. I love photography (you know fun stuff like castles, flowers, gardens and people), but I just don’t seem to have cracked taking bead and jewellery pictures without an hours setting up and using a large flash, scoopy background thingy and shading. When I can consistently take wonderful pictures that really show the subtlty of the colouring in my beads consistently and quickly I shall be a happy woman. I shall also do a tutorial to help others that are struggling with this.

Off to take more pictures for a current order. Note to self – don’t put washing on until pictures taken or tripod will wobble all over the place. In case you’re wondering…..I’ve been taking pictures using the kitchen worktop over the washing machine as it’s next to the kitchen windows and gets diffuse light in the morning. The only problem is that our floor is 3 feet above the ground and it vibrates everytime the machine spins, and I keep forgeting this fact whenever I put the washing on in the morning, then have to wait until I can do any photography, by which time the sun is making an appearance near the windows and I have to do it another time, preferably next morning, but oops, I put the washing on……..you get the picture. Maybe I should find another spot?

Tuesday morning

Hi, just a quick one today, I dont know where the morning has gone, it’s just zipped by. Probably because I was up untill midnight making beads in my studio because the day was just so darn hot yesterday. But hey how gorgeous is the weather at the moment? I’d just prefer to save it for the school holidays. Last nights session was cooler but not that cool, I had jeans and a vest on, but felt like I was mozzie feast so I’m not sure that I want to do that again. Maybe I should have taken my pink critter splitter with me? Must dash, byeeee.

Friday morning

Here we are again, safely installed on the garden bench for another mornings thoughts. I say safely because it wasn’t safe five minutes ago. This corner seems to get sunnier and sunnier every day, now I’m not complaining, as many of you who know me will know I adore the sunshine, and have a hard time staying in the shade now they know all they do about the sun’s damaging effects. Anyway, here I was, just installed on my bench, turning up the brightness full pelt and I still couldn’t see my screen. Drastic action had to be taken, I trotted back to the house, collected the parasol from by the front door, poured myself a cup of Breakfast tea and gingerly walked back down the path with tea in one hand and parasol in the other. So far so good.

These are my thought processes:- Put tea down carefully, after all there is a laptop here and we don’t want to get it wet do we? So I think I’ll put my tea where I sit well away from my laptop. Now to put up the parasol without putting anything down, gotta be ambidextrous for this. mmmm, spikey bit goes down the hole, ah, I need to bend over and undo the clamp, OK, now put spike in hole and do clamp up again without dropping umbrella bit or swiping laptop off bench, yep done that. Now to put the umbrella in the spike, oo carefull, the base is on the edge of the paving slabs at a jaunty angle and will fall over with more height. Better push it onto the slabs with my foot while I hold the brolly. OK, put up the shade, ah, it’s caught on the shrub next to me, better move it to the left, and back a bit so it doesn’t fall over. Phew, that’s done, I’ve got me a nice bit of shade to work under now. I better sit down and get cracking………..noooooooooo, I sat on my tea.

Note to Rick – it’s OK only me, my undies, the bench and the slabs got wet.

Thursday morning

The birds are tweeting, lawnmowers are humming, in the distance a holiday jet passes overhead….you guessed it, I’m in residence on the bench again.  OOh, there goes  a siren, actually I wish they’d pipe down a bit, those birds are making a racket!  The only problem with this is that it’s sooooo bright I’m having difficulty seeing my screen even with the brightness turned right up and I keep loosing my trusty arrow.  Also in an attempt to scoop some fresh bird poop off the bench I picked up a the nearest leaf to use and pricked my thumb, it being a holly leaf and all!  But I could really get usd to this.  I’ll sit here all day, blogging, surfing the net, and sipping Twinnings tea, wot  a life.  I could be a ‘Lady that lunches’, except I don’t think Rick would be too pleased.

Talking of Rick, it’s that time of year again when the mozzies come out in force and Rick does his balletict poses to keep up with them and splat the blighters.  Normally he’ll go around with rolled up paper or a magazine leaving fetching coloured splats and smeers on the wall and ceiling where mozzie goo and ink have mixed, but this year I had a cunning plan and insisted on buying a twin pack of attractively coloured plastic fly swotters in Ikea the last time we visited.  What a difference.  Even I can get the critters now, with my go faster aerodynamic (it has holes) critter splitter, and it’s such fun, it’s like playing tennis but with mozzies, well, against them, well, actually using them like balls, only they don’t bounce, or ping across the room, or make that lovely popping noise you get when you hit the ball really well.

Now you might think I’m being cruel, and I generally don’t like killing creepy crawlies, poor things, but when it comes to mozzies, especially when you have fifteen of them flitting around, it has to be us instead of them.  I just don’t want to be seen walking around with a line of red bumps where some vampiritic fly has had a five course meal with starters and desert folowed by coffee and mints.  It’s not on, you know what I mean?

Oh well, enough of that, I’d better go and pour another mug of tea and get on with some of the orders that I have, I may even take some photos….although I could have a problem there – but I’ll tell you about that another day.

Monday morning

Yay I’m back. What a gorgeous sunny day it is, I’ve eaten breakfast and had a lovely steaming mug of tea sitting on our new bench outside my studio. I’m raring to go, but think I may have to restrain myself from making beads today as I’ve lots of admin and other stuff to do for my business today, but I think I might crack and make beads anyway, yeah, why not. Oh and looking at my last entry it looks a bit like Bits and Boobs at a glance don’t you think? woops.

I’ve got such a mad 7 weeks ahead of me and lots of work to stuff in before the school summer break like summer fetes, the Lingfield Bead Fair, Rag Open Houses and various teaching dates, I’m also hoping to squeeze in a visit to the Hampton Court Flower Show with my parents and hopefully a trip to Art in Action where you can see GBUKs very own Di East at work, supported by Amanda Glanville and Dora Schubert. I think I’m going to have to do a project plan to shoehorn everything in and make sure I get some sleep some nights in the next couple of months. It’s a good job that my jewellery class has finished for another year as I don’t think I could fit that in as well, which reminds me I’ve organised a trip for the class to see the Tiffany exhibition at Somerset House also, and rats, I’ve just spotted an inset day on the calender for June also. Oh dear, it’s worse than I thought. Off to have a stiff drink and a lie down, but no, I haven’t got time!

Will she manage to recover from her faint? Will she get time to make beads? Will she persuade Rick to mow the lawn tonight (please?)? Will he also cook dinner, do all the washing, clean the house and do all the shopping for the next 8 weeks? Find out the answer to all these questions in the next installment…..coming to a blog near you.

Friday lunchtime

Another week almost over and the Whitsun half term is upon us. I’ll be taking a break from the computer and all things glassy to spend some quality time with our daughter, poor thing’s been rather neglected of late (and I think she gets a bit fed up of seeing me tapping away!) so I’m sorry I won’t be replying to any of your emails in the next week. Business will be resumed on Monday 6th June!
I’m really pleased to be able to add some more events, so please check out my events page for details, among them is the RAG Open Houses, but I’ll post more about that in June and The Beadwork Fair at Lingfield in July.

I thought I’d post my pictures of the beads I demonstrated last saturday, so just a quick snap of them, nothing fancy, and please excuse the bead poop. I’ve just been told (by Rick) that these don’t do me justice, but it’s hard to do great beads when you’re being watched and you have a shakey hand day.  I also just noticed I’m showing the shakey side of the star, rats.

Also here’s my frog for the GlassHarmony frog challenge

Sunday evening

Helloooooooooo. Wow, nearly the end of the weekend already, I’m wacked! I had a craft fair on Friday afternoon/teatime and came home to pack for one night in Dudley and the following day at the museum. Well, we got ready and arrived at midnight to stay at the Copthorne Hotel for the first time. I got a cracking internet deal, cos I wasn’t about to stay in the Travelodge again after the grotty room we had last summer (that’s yet another story). We arrived bright and early at the museum at 9:45 (well I’m very honest when I say I’m rubbish at early mornings, and we did get waylaid by a huge tray of food for breakfast delivered by room service) and helped Amanda finish setting out the display. The day zoomed by, it was such a lovely atmosphere, with lots of interested people eager to discuss beads and glass, and several locals who had popped in to see what it was all about, only to be overwhelmed by the beauty of the lampworked beads on display and for sale.

Our demonstrations were well received, I had a whale of a time making a raked star, a penguin, a fish and a slightly wonky red dotty bead and of course I had that very silly grin on my face when I finished. We were also joined by Kate Drew Wilkinson for the day who’d been teaching at Plowden and Thompsons the previous week.

After we’d all packed up and finished chatting in the car park we went our separate ways, us on a mission to find a campsite for the glass festival later on this year. 4 campsites later Read the rest of this entry »

Friday morning

It’s a sad day today. The first one of our wedding presents from 10 years ago failed this week. Poor Kitty the white plastic kettle has been replaced by a more funky brushed stainless steel version (Steve) , which now stands proudly on our worktop, matching the whole kitchen much better than the old one did. Kitty has served us well for the last 10 years, tirelessly boiling water on demand. One now wonders what tragedy will befall her, will she meet her maker (Kenwood) or will she be simply crushed amid a pile of decaying vegetation and household rubbish? One also wonders what domestic item will fail next, since almost all our appliances are coming up for their 10th birthday, looks like we need pension plans for them all. Alas poor Kitty, I knew her well.

Wednesday morning

Paperwork morning again! I’ve had 2 lovely days in my studio making dichroic beads, and now I’ve a shed load of stuff to clean, all of last weeks and 2 days this week, rats. I love making the beads, but the cleaning bit, well, anyone who knows me knows that I hate housework (cleaning you see, and dust (high in calorie, low in calorie?)). I have a tendancy to procrastinate with jobs I don’t like and consequently my ‘beads to clean’ pot of water is overflowing, just like the laundry basket I hear you say.

The good news is that the countdown to my course on Saturday has started, and I’m starting to get excited. I have to take my own favourite tools with me and am wondering just how I’m going to label them so I don’t end up with a sticky mess of chewed up sticky label or black marker pen that gets all over my hands. Now if that’s the least of my worries I’m a happy woman. (note to self…..must go and buy lurid colour nail polish.)
Other stuff that’s happening, well, if you’re eagerly awaiting my shop, I was poised the other day to open it, when Rick pointed out that I couldn’t take Paypal yet, rats. So a few more weeks delay I’m afraid while I get that sorted.

Sunday evening

Oh the joy of second chance Sunday, I’m on the sofa indulging in the 3rd episode of the new season of LOST. It’s been a long wait.

I had a very frustrating afternoon trying to get to grips with Autosketch by Autodesk, a CAD drawing package that we got free with a magazine. I thought it would be a cinch with my previous CAD experience but it all looked so different. After 2 hours farting about I gave up and had dinner and even had a quick look at Ebay for a real second hand drawing board, but a good bit of thinking later on (I always resolve problems sitting on the toilet – but that’s another story) I remembered how I used to use Autocad, and started getting somewhere. What a relief.  I’m hoping to be able to use this for drawing all sort of stuff, from garden plans to special tools.  I live in hope!  night all.

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.

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!

Wednesday eve

The Easter holiday is certainly here and I’m trying my best to give my daughter a nice time without overdoing it (tight wad!).

Yesterday we had a super trip to one of the local Country Parks with one of my friends and her grandaughter, who my one gets on well with. Today saw us driving to Worthing on a company jolly to exchange bags for my business. After making the switch we headed down to the seafront to take in the sea air and go looking for cuttlefish on the shingle. We got waylaid by the sight of a mini train chugging around a park and took a detour to have a ride. What fun, the train was so diddy and reminded me of my childhood in Bexleyheath where the mini railway used to wend it’s way around the lake in the park there too. There was also a derilict looking 50s paddling pool coloured the obligatory blue, and pedolos on the lake too. That took me back a bit too, to Danson park were we went sometimes to row on the lake, and fished for tiddlers in the stream.

We did make it to the seashore later, but alas there were no cuttlefish today, only lots of the really small seashells and fragments of different seaweed in different colours and textures. We even found some driftwood. Happy days.

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!