Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Friday evening

Another lovely autumnal day today.  It was certainly cold when I got up this morning so winter is on it’s way at last.  I did one of my days in the Surrey Guild Gallery today and had the pleasure once more of my favourite drive over the downs through the woods between Dunsfold Aerodrome and Millford. The trees looked splendid in their orange, green and yellow leaf tones, and occasionally I drove through a leaf flurry or two, which was very much like a mini snowstorm of colourful swirling leaves. Lush. My cabinet is now restocked with lots of goodies, perfect for Christmas pressies, so do go and have a look if you’re passing.

Back to the drive today…..I’m going to get on my soapbox now….maybe I should have a new feature called ‘Sarah’s Soapbox’, it could be a bit like Annabelles rant on Virgin radio in the evening! What’s it called? ‘That’s so rubbish?’ Hmmm.  Anyway, what’s with all the 40 tonne lorries and JCB’s going along the single track road with only a few passing places and lots of wiggly bends and little hills and steep banks? Why are they driving along a road that plainly says ‘Unsuitable for heavy vehicles’ and ‘single track road with passing places’? The frequency of these huge beasts that struggle to go up the hills and around corners at the same time, forcing normal cars (that’s us) to back up the road several hundred yards, seems to be increasing every time I take this leg of the journey, and to say that it spoils the route (and wastes my time) would be an understatement. My friend reckons that it’s all down to the dreaded sat-nav, where haulage companies are using  new found short-cuts  and not engaging their brains before they take said  new routes, as she has recently been having the same problem on a couple of other single track roads she takes. That’s so stupid! hee hee.

Now I’ve got that off my mind, I must dash and clean some mandrels and get a dipping them in preparation for teaching again tomorrow. Have a good weekend, see y’all.

Thursday lunchtime

Je suis tres content merci. I’ve had a lovely 3 days on a glass course and I’m smiling from ear to ear and feeling very content with my world. After 5 years beadmaking and experience I decided it was time to push the boundaries out once more and increase my skills by learning some flameworking. You may be wondering what the difference is….well, flameworking is the term generally given for items that are not necessarily made on a mandrel (the mandrel makes a bead with a hole).  So flameworking can be anything from goblets to sculptural animals and fish, dragons, the human form, you name it, but generally not beads. Most of these items tend to be decorative, or pendants that can be worn from a chain or similar. I already do a small amount of flamework with my leaves and heart pendants, but now I’m revved up and raring to go on all sorts, so tomorrow when I go out to my studio to make dichroic focal beads to sell as pendants I’m going to be struggling to stay on track!

So a huge thank you to my friend Julie Anne Denton who was such a good and inspiring teacher, and an excellent artist. Do go and check out her website.

Friday tea time

We’re nearing the end of the half term hols, and you’ve guessed it, I haven’t done half of the things I planned for the week. Partly because we (my daughter and I) have been going to a kids club every morning, her to take part and me to help, apart for today when I laid languishing in bed this morning with the stupid cold I seem to have acquired yesterday. We have managed to do some baking together, lovely Rainy day Biscuits from Nigellas’ ‘Feast’ and we even got around to decorating them too. I’m really enjoying the challenge of colour mixing with the food colours available, another bit of fun for the mistress of colour (that’s me by the way), it reminds me of the lovely time I had this summer colouring numerous sheets of aluminium.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, we did do all the things I’d planned up to and including Wednesdays activities, I just think my daughter’s going to have to wait a bit longer for her handmade pink cushion covers to go with her new bedroom, sneakily made from the bottom of her curtains that I also have to shorten, and I’m going to have to tidy my bedroom when I can fit the job in. All that’s left to do today is to find bits to help make one of the 2 Halloween  outfits that my daughter need for the 2 parties she’s going to, this should be fun!

Thursday morning

I went out last night! I never go out, or at least hardly ever. We went and scoffed Pizza with a group of friends and then I stayed out and went to the flicks, yay! We saw Atonement, and I have to say ‘what a film’, it was a work of art, much nicer than the location of the pizza place and cinema.  It’s been ages since I last saw a film (I think it was Narnia) and I really love watching films on the big screen, but last night the whole leisure park felt so alien and bright. All the restaurants had bright lights, obviously to get you in and out really fast, and they all seemed so American and ……I hope I’m not offending anyone here, but you would have been forgiven for thinking you were not in England.

Don’t get me wrong, it was all good value and tasted nice, but where was the identity? What I mean to say is, everything has gone so global now, you see pictures on the news of people in other countries, and you’d struggle to tell where they are, and the same fast food places are seen the world over. Maybe I’ve just moved on in my culinary and cultural expectations? I like the differences you get when you travel around, and I like towns and shopping centres to feel different, but all the same shops are everywhere, which is obviously great for the chain of shops that is doing well, but one shopping centre or town centre could easily be confused for another. It’s the shopping mall and out of town stores thing.

Anyway, I am pleased we have a good cinema in Crawley, we used to have to travel to Brighton, or Lakeside to see films before Richard Branson stopped over in Crawley one night on one of his many trips to visit his Virgin offices (I followed him in to the Virgin Airlines office once, boy he was tall and walked extremely fast, which was unfortunate for me because I was going to tap him on the shoulder and say ‘gi’s a job’ only I couldn’t keep up and probably wouldn’t have been able to reach his shoulder) (that was a long bracket) and decided to go and see a film, only to find that we didn’t have a decent cinema, so decided he’d build one.

Talking of tall celebs I’ve seen on my travels, Chris Evans, he’s one, and he walks fast, also Jonathan Woss (sorry….Ross) and he talks a lot, I had to wait 20 minutes for him to stop yakking so I could get served in a fabric shop in Soho once. Trips to London are good places to see celebs if you like doing that, we used to spot at least one wild one each trip.

I’ve rambled on a bit this morning, but in true Sarah stylie I still have a shed load of ‘stuff’ to do (don’t I always?) so I’m going to get on with it and try to get past my cheese induced headache.

Monday evening

The school hols are well and truely here. We’re one week in and I’m still not on holiday even if my daughter is. My work and emails are so stacked up, but fortunately even my mum doesn’t think I’m a failure, she reckons I’m behind because of my daughters pneumonia earlier on this year, and I have to say I think she’s right. All those days spent in hospital and at home caring for a convalescing child meant that I didn’t get any torching time in, and when I did, well, remember the kiln problems? Also my mind was on more important things, family health means so much and can’t help but take priority. Still, I’m much less stressed now, having finished my do’s for now, although we do have the GBUK bead fair looming at the end of August.

The design fair at Winchester is over, we went down on Friday as I was stewarding and made a family day of it. The city is lovely, I didn’t see much, but what I did looked nice. Also the work in the show was lovely and I saw several items that I could have spent my money on. Thank you to every one who came to see my work and those of you who came to say hello to me on Friday, it was lovely to meet you.

Tuesday evening

We have our book! We decided to live dangerously and go to Waterstone’s at midnight for a bit of fun. It was an interesting experience, with youths in cars slowing down to shout funny stuff out of the window at the queue. We waited 1 hour in the cold and dark to collect our book, with a small witch at our side, and when we were given our book in a black plastic bag and asked where the posh orange paper bags were, the manageress replied ‘we have to save some for the people coming in the morning that couldn’t come tonight’. I’m sorry, but what’s that all about? Surely if we make the effort to stand in the cold and dark at midnight we should reap the benefits, not the lazy dudes who couldn’t be bothered, or who didn’t care less, or just couldn’t make it. It’s a shame if they wanted to get there but circumstances were against them, but we were there! Tch. lol.

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.

Monday afternoon

Phew, I need a rest. I started my art clay course this morning and only got back an hour ago because the traffic was so terrible on the M25. I decided to leave the motorway and take the A25 but that wasn’t any better, so I left that route and went the very scenic way through Ide Hill, Edenbridge and Lingfield. 1 hour and 40 minutes later I got home. It makes you realise how the motorways have changed the way we all live now, and how easy it is (when the traffic is good) to travel long distances with ease. This journey normally takes me 55minutes, and the first 20 minutes were a breeze. Still, I got to see some more of the beautiful countryside as I drove up and down the south downs, as it was really high up when got to Toy Hill.

I will post a picture of what I made this morning when I’ve finished it, it was all a bit of an experiment morning, getting the feel of the clay and how to manipulate it. The wire I stuck on with slip didn’t stay on the whole length and I have to solder about 1/4″ to make it secure, as I do the bail that I put on the back. I also have to clean up the edges and barrel polish it. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished article, but I’m really not sure if I like this medium or not, or if it’s any easier than doing normal metalwork with silver.

Friday evening

Do you ever get those days or weeks where you’ve been busy non-stop, and yet when you look back to see what you’ve achieved you can’t work out you’ve been doing with your time? I have to say this week has been one of those. I’ve hardly made any beads, although I suppose odd little jobs have been done. One of the fun things I had to do yesterday was go to my friend Ediths house to see where we are locating our work for the RAG Open Houses. It was great to all sit around with a mug of tea, wander around the garden and discuss our plans.

Our work is going to be inside and outside of the massive summer house, with a relaxing area outside to sit and enjoy the garden, and we also plan to do demonstrations of our discipline, so if you fancy seeing how my beads are made, do pop along and have a look. I’m not sure what days I will be demoing but I will put details up here, so stay tuned. I will of course be at the Lingfield Beadfair on the first Sunday, and may well be doing the headless chicken dance the day before if previous events are anything to go by. Have a great weekend.

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.

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!

Wednesday morning

It’s been a manic few days. I’ve been busy with preparing for and doing a couple of informal sales of my work. Both these mini events went well and now I’m gearing up for the Beads Day at Broadfield House this Saturday. This will be my third time at this event, selling my beads and jewellery together with those of other GBUK members and demonstrating glass bead making the studio. This has always been such a lovely day and we’re all looking forward to it. There are several bead stalls arranged in the various museum rooms and the museum is well worth a look around. Open 10am – 4 pm See you there!

Tuesday night

Woops, I didn’t mean to leave it so long to blog, it’s not like I’m short on stuff to say, but we have been busy. By which I mean that we had a weekend away (and muggins had to do all the research and looking for a place to stay before we could go anywhere). Another wedding anniversary gone and the memories of a fab weekend in Tetbury between Cheltenham and Bath linger on.

It was just the sort of weekend a gal wants, country drives, oldie world villages, loadsa Georgian architecture, lovely meals out and a man on a pink unicycle in a pink t-shirt and a pink tutu, juggling knives. (Now why can’t Rick do that? he has the skills, and the equipment…..well maybe not the pink gear……but yes he can juggle……balls, clubs and fireclubs, and can ride a unicycle…what’s he waiting for?) Oh yes, the west country and Bath in particular has everything a gal could want to see and do.

Sunday evening

It’s bluebell season again, and whilst enjoying one of my ocassional drives to the Surrey Guild Gallery at Milford I had the pleasure of seeing huge swathes of bluebells making a purple haze under the trees along the way. I also nearly suceeded in killing 1 grey squirrel, 2 sparrows, 2 blackbirds (the birds were having a mid afternoon snack, tea break and general old crows meeting on the road) and one pheasant. I also had the dubius privaledge of hearing distant guns shots probably from game shooting. There were numerous other patches of pretty spring wild flowers and I had to turn off the stereo and listen to the birdsong as I drove along. Ahhh bliss.

I can now report that my cabinet of jewellery at the Milford Gallery is now replenished with some new pieces including my ever popular Porthmeor pendants and a new style of bead earring to match.

Wednesday morning

What a lovely crisp wintry morning (and doesn’t wintry look odd spelled like that?). There’s frost everywhere and the sun is shining making it sparkle. Again I’m glad I don’t have to travel far today like I did yesterday, when I went to the Guild shop to do another days duty. Honestly that dratted auto-piloty thing and not really twigging about where I was going yesterday saw me pootling up the road towards Guildford for 10 minutes in totally the wrong direction for the road I normally take. I suddenly realised I was going the wrong way as my brain was working out the rest of the route and I had to stop and see if I could get back on track easily. Fortunately for me there was a short cut across country which took me through Ewehurst and Cranleigh, which I was quite pleased about because I’ve never seen Cranleigh and my curiosity has been very piqued by all the signs that you see on the road that say ‘Cranleigh, England’s largest village‘.

I have to say that after driving through the place, It’s gotta be a town, it’s so big. Anyway, what is the definition of a village or town? Surely if it has a big church, used to have a hospital and has a largish supermarket and a couple of pedestrianised shopping squares it counts as a town? In modern day terms it must be a town if it boasts a ‘Costa coffee’? Wikipedia says a town can be a village that is larger than surrounding villages and has a regular market, and is also a community that doesn’t survive on mainly agriculture – well I passed signs to what looked like a large industrial estate. A village can also decide to call itself a town by it’s Parish Council calling themselves a ‘Town Council’. So I reckon it should be called a town, but they want to keep themselves as the largest village. And why not, if you’ve got a uniqueness, flaunt it!

Friday evening

Well hello there. I’ve had a much needed day off today. It started with getting my hair cut in Tony and Guy, always a pleasurable experience that one, especially when they do the head massage thing with the conditioner. I then had a wander round town and came upon a new coffee shop. I had to go in and have a look, and lo and behold it was Scott and Sargent our fabulous cookware shop which just got even more fabulous and got a new name – Steamer Trading Cook Shop. Now when Rick asked what I was doing today and I said ‘going into town’ there was a sharp intake of breath. ‘What’s that all about?’ I asked? To which he replied ‘well I never know what you are going to come back with’. Oooo, he’s just just come home, so he’s about to find out, but I’ll tell you lot first….

1. Funky silicone brush with stainless handle and purple brushy bits.

2. Funky orange lighter

3. Metal pastry cutters – big tin with lots of sizes

4. 2 fabulous white oven dishes, designed to make a humble meat pie look like Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson cooked it.

5. A raspberry coloured hooded fleece to wear while making beads in my studio and a new pair of thermal socks.

Wednesday evening

I was going to blog this morning but we had naff connection all day, so here it is now, trouble is I’m absolutely shattered……..it must be all the thinking……I’m doing my business accounts…..yes, I know, I said I wasn’t going to be doing it last minute again. I really must work out a reliable way to achieve this, I can’t bear being away from my torch and not melting glass for so long.

I was womaning the Surrey Guild shop yesterday, after my usual lovely woodland drive, which was very different yesterday – I’ve never seen so many broken branches and ripped trees before, all debris from last weeks strong winds. I even saw a tree trunk freshly split in 2 down the middle lengthways (top to bottom). Of course strong winds are natures way of pruning the trees and bushes.

Today we awoke to a fresh blanket of snow, and of course it looked beautiful. Rick took several pictures, but I haven’t downloaded them from the camera yet because my hard drive is stuffed full to the gunels, needless to say computer speed is not very good at the moment. I was so pleased that I was at the shop yesterday and didn’t have to cope with driving up remote lanes in the snow. Ooo that reminds me…..

I have new stock in the Surrey Guild Gallery including some heart pendants perfect for Valentines Day.

I must go an get me some zzzzds now, I’m getting desperate to finish my paperwork and need to be fresh if I’m going to get most finished tommorrow. The problem is I’ll be so glad to see the back of it that I won’t want to sort how I’m going to tackle next years (which is this current year). maybe I’ll go through and do what I can while it’s all in my head, like I considered doing last January but didn’t….nah…too easy.

Monday evening

Today, 22nd January, has been officially described by scientists as the most depressing day. But hey, I had a good one, hope you did too. It was lovely to leave my class at 4pm and be able to walk to my car in daylight…..spring is on it’s way….even if they are forecasting snow to kill all the confused flowers that are coming out so early.

Tuesday evening

Pooped again! It was one of those lovely day out days today where I drove to Guildford and back. I had an appointment to meet the lovely ladies who run Aluisa Beads, Guildfords’ first and new bead shop. It’s a lovely shop selling everything you need to start making your own bead jewellery, and they also stock a selection of my beads now! So pop along and have a look if you’re nearby, then take time out to explore the other shops in Guildford.

It was a truely beautiful drive across Surrey Hills, and I have to say the countryside made my heart sing once more. I think Surrey is a really nice county, and reminds me of Dorset, even though it’s so close to London. I have driven through winding lanes and caught views along valleys that so evoke the feeling of glaciers cutting though the land to carve out the curving shapes. Put that with some of the nicest architecture around and now I need to come up with some bead designs that complement those thoughts.