Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Monday evening

It’s that time of year again, the season of Open Studios. This weekend sees most of the members of Horsham Artists Open Studios group together again, this time at Roffey Park Institute in Forest Road. This is a lovely centre that we all drive past all the time and wonder what goes on in there. Well here’s your chance to have a snoop around and see the place! We are taking over several ‘pods’ and a lovely exhibition space at the back of the central building. I’m in the large room with huge glass doors and windows overlooking the gardens with loads of natural light.

I’m working like a mad thing this week to get everything made and ready, unfortunately I’ve had a couple of bad weeks, with an ill-timed cold last week, so I have lots of catching up to do. I’m very excited to have a new table top cabinet (arrived today) to display some of my jewellery, and I’m busy making  more of my popular ‘Sparkle Nugget’ bead sets and some mini sets.

I will have a feast of lovely jewellery and new beads for you to look at and buy, including my simple ‘beads on cotton thongs’, un-cored Big Hole Bead sets to fill your charm bracelets, my credit crunch range of fun earrings, and my selection of exclusive jewellery designs. I will have sets of lovely new beads, some current favourites, my usual bargain bowls and of course my £1 rummage bowl, always popular and a good introduction to handmade lampwork beads.

With free entry, please do come and see me, enjoy the show, meet other local and guest artists, watch art and craft demonstrations in the marquee, take refreshment (they have drinks available), stroll the grounds, and buy some locally produced art. You can download your copy of our guide and brochure from the Horsham Artists Open Studios website here.

Please note that I am only doing this part of the event this year as the Open Houses weekend clashes with the Surrey Bead Fair at the Denbies Wine Estate on 8th June.
See you there.

Saturday evening
It’s Open Studios weekend 1 and this year we’ve kicked off with Horsham Artists in Action @ Sedgwick Park house, a beautiful private manor house in lovely gardens, which are open tomorrow as part of the National Garden Scheme.
We had a brilliant start to the weekend last night with a very lively and well attended Private View open by the Mayor of Horsham, fortunately the sun shone, the wine was flowing, canapés were consumed and we had wandering minstrels too (the playing type that is, not the choclit ones!) and a lovely June evening was had by all. Today we welcomed lots of visitors and look forward to many more tomorrow. There is an amazing amount of talent to be seen at this show, our first large show as a collective in Horsham, with many colourful paintings, ceramics, jewellery, photography, sculpture, glass, textiles and of course my original glass beads and jewellery.
Do come and see us tomorrow, we’re all really happy to be together! It makes a change from the isolation of Open Studios and means we can all get to enjoy each others art.

If you can’t visit tomorrow then we will all be in our separate venues around Horsham next weekend, 22nd and 23rd June for the artists trail. I’m at venue 5 with Angela Jenkinson, address in on my events page Of course you are very welcome to attend both venues, we have a new video of me creating glass beads tomorrow and next weekend, and you can see me actually working the hot glass next weekend at Venue 5.

You can download your guide here at the Horsham Artists Open Studios new website.

I look forward to welcoming you to one of these events.

Tuesday lunchtime

The puddings are steaming (OK so they’re a few weeks late, but at least I’m trying again), the shopping is arriving tonight, and I have a list of jobs as long as my arm, but preparations are under way for Christmas at last.

I’ve been mega busy making beads, then cleaning, drying and sorting them, before frantically making more jewellery for our Christmas exhibition in Guildford this year. As part of the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen I’m really pleased to be in this selling event once more at the Guildford House Gallery at the top of the pedestrianised part of Guildford High Street, opposite Sainsbury. We are open every day except Sunday from 10am to 4:45pm, and Christmas Eve from 10 – 2pm.

The Garden Room looks lovely with wonderful handmade items from a selection of some of our Guild members. Browse wooden items, cushions and throws, jewellery, textile art, pottery, weaving, calligraphy, kaleidoscopes, metal sculpture, colourful leather goods, enamelling and of course my original range of glass bead jewellery. I have some new designs and great packaged stocking fillers of beads on thongs £6, key-rings £9 and uncored big hole beads from £4 (perfect for filling a Pandora style bracelet cheaply). My Cloud Beads (silver cored by hand) are also here together with a selection of heavy chains to wear them on. Why not buy a bracelet or necklace with a Cloud Bead and add some cheaper Big Hole Beads to complete the look?

I’ll be stewarding tomorrow, so why not pop and see me there.

Gifted in Guildford, Guildford House Gallery, 155 High Street, Guildford, GU1 3AJ.
Every day Mon – Sat, 10am to 4:45pm.
Christmas Eve 10am to 2pm

And don’t forget the Christmas Extravaganza at Surrey Guild of Craftsmen Gallery, open every day 10am to 5pm, even Sundays.
New pieces of work arriving daily!
I have restocked here also.

Wednesday teatime

It’s nearly here and I can’t wait…well I can’t on one hand because it’s so much fun and I love the vibe and meeting up with everyone again, but on the other hand I can wait because I always need more time to prepare and it’s very hard work. It always happens that the creative juices go into overload just before a show and then I run out of time to realise my ideas. I’ve been starved of making beads today because I’m being good and doing my newsletter a bit earlier (oh yes, gasp), so if you fancy a read and are not on my mailing list, why not click on the subscribe box on the left hand side and join it. There are perks to receiving my newsletter you know, but you’ll find out what they are when you join ;>)

I’ve gone a bit autumnal with amber colours this time, and I have some more of my Autumn Chic bead sets which were snapped up very quickly last year. But fear not, I also have some vibrant beads in greens, blues and violets. I’ve also made some penguins and some Halloween themed beads, pumpkins and ghosties! wooooooo. There are also some really yummy sets of Big hole beads ready to pop on your bracelet (these are uncored so a bit lighter on your purse).

As usual I will have bargains galore, rummage pots of beads for  £1, £2 and upwards, a few chains and a little jewellery if you feel like pampering yourself and buying something ready to wear.

I’m in my usual place this time called Stand 47. Find me near the Bead magazine stand up at the cafe end near where you enter the show.

Oh and if I’m not at my stand when you visit I’ll probably be at the British Bead Awards ceremony…..I can’t wait :>)

I am pleased to announce that my exhibition of work is in the Art Gallery in The Capitol, Horsham. I have invited my friend Katherine Haynes of Popped Bubble Designs to join me and we share the 5 cabinets upstairs in the gallery. The exhibition started Tuesday 6th September and runs until Sunday 9th October, and is open during the Capitol opening times. Please enquire at the box office if you wish to purchase anything on display.

Saturday 15th October sees the return of the Big Bead Show at Sandown Park, which is fast approaching. I’m busy getting ready for this event and look forward to welcoming you to my stall on the day. Please look out for my show newsletter when I hope to be able to offer some free tickets and show specials.

and a big woops…….this post was supposed to be my news on the front page and as such is rather formal, but never mind. The next blog post should be more fun.

Thursday afternoon

I have sore fingers. that would be down to the couple of hundred or so beads that I have just removed from their mandrels. And I still have 7 soaking in Coke as we speak. You know you can always tell how busy I am these days by the lack of blogging. I’m feeling a bit all over the place, my mind is going here and there right now, thinking about all the stuff I’ve done since I last checked in here, all the emails I’ve replied to, beads I’ve sold, places I’ve been, people I’ve met. It’s been a very busy but fulfilling few weeks. Open studios went really well, our numbers weren’t massive, but everyone who came left happy bearing Popped Bubble Designs or gorgeous lampwork bead jewellery. They were treated to Elderflower Cordial and demos from myself and Katherine.

After that I had to have a quick turnaround and prepare my work to put on permanent display at Shop Maltings. This is our new venture as a collective with the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen and Farnham Maltings. We have been invited to use the cabinets in the foyer, glass wall cabinets along a very busy corridor and a small retail space. So last week saw me preparing for that, going there to set up last Thursday (very challenging as my plan for the display didn’t work due to the different stands and the shelf depth) and then returning last Friday for the private view. My daughter and I had a lovely evening over there with drinks and canapés, then a trip to the local Pizza Express while Rick gigged in Haywards Heath with the band he’s in.

There’s always lots on this time of year, and I had been planning to go to the Hampton Court flower show this week, but you know I’m not sure I have the energy, after attending sports day this morning and parents induction at our daughters new school last night….can you believe it she starts secondary school in September! She had a great day at her induction yesterday and we returned in the evening to meet her new tutor and managed to get her kitted out with her new uniform. The first thing she did when we got home was to try it all on properly, she’s so excited and can’t wait to start….long may that last!

Here’s a few shots I took outside Farnham Maltings.

Thursday morning

How many musicians can you fit in a cluttered lounge?….lets see…..2 violinists, 1 cellist/guitarist, 1 keyboard player, 1 saxophonist, 1 flautist, 1 trumpeter, 1 bass player (that’s me) and 1 on Bodhran (to be full drums on Saturday)…yay 9! Ok so Rick didn’t have drums out but we were pretty full and enjoyed playing live music last night to practice for Saturday. I wonder what our neighbours thought! It’s OK though as we kept the volume down like last year. tee hee. We all gelled really well and it sounded great. It’ll be fun on Saturday when we have our visiting instrumentalist join us and they play through our stops and quiet bits, lol.

I know you’re amazed, and so am I, but I have yet more new beads for sale, they’re in my Etsy store and here’s a teaser….

I hope you like them, and there will be more to come in the next few weeks. Don’t forget you can click the link on the left to get there speedy fast.

Friday lunchtime

It’s the end of half term and it’s been a bit of a let down really. I had a cold at the start of the week, and now our daughter has a temperature. So all we’ve managed to do is mooch around town for a couple of hours on Wednesday. Never mind, it’s been a bit of a rest, if I can all it that. I’ve spent the last 3 evenings working with Rick into the wee hours to get the GBUK Journal looking fab. We’ve been moving all the photos around in the gallery so it looks nice, and we’re talking 80 members who submitted 255 photos between them here…OK we haven’t used all of them, but most of them. Rick spent weeks doing all the preparation for this job, taking in the photos and uploading them to the project,tweeking them where necessary and getting a general layout sorted to include everyone in alphabetical order and roughly size all the photos to suit. I feel a bit bad swanning in and making him change everything, but we both know that individually we do good work, but together we spark off each other, and push each other to produce even better things. It really is a case of the sum of the whole being greater than the value of the parts. We’ve changed the front and back cover radically, and now we’re both very excited about how the whole project is looking. All we need to do now is to rationalise the inside design to tie in with the covers and get our text colours and headers sorted, and we should be good to go to print…woop, woop.

On another note, I’m pleased to announce that I have a new outlet for my jewellery. This is the Cisswood House Hotel, (a luxurious Country Hotel, in Lower Beeding near Leonardslee Gardens) where I gave my Ladies Lunch talk in the summer last year. I have a shelf in their cabinet in the reception area, and have my glass bead jewellery for sale, including some Cloud Beads, together with some of my semi-precious pieces like my freshwater pearl earrings.

Have a good weekend.

Monday night

EEEk, almost a month has just gone since my last blog entry. Looks like I’m slacking a bit here…..OK, so I am on the blog front but it’s been all go. After a couple of months of hard preparations for my 2 exhibitions and 2 school craft fairs I can now see light at the end of the tunnel. Both exhibitions are in full swing and are going really well, details are on my home page and events page that I updated tonight. All I have to do now is to keep my work topped up with new pieces as they sell before Christmas, as both venues are attracting lots of attention, as is the Surrey Guild gallery in Milford. So if you are in need of inspiration for lovely Christmas gifts then you could do no better than visit one of the 3 venues, or even all 3 of them!

I’ve also updated my events page with some of my Bead fairs for the coming year, it’s already starting to look busy.

Today has been a bit of a weird one, as Rick stayed home still trying to get over the cold he got last weekend. The naughty boy put on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer just to have a peek, and 8 hours later we had got through half the 4th season….that’s 11 episodes for the uninitiated…..oh my…sounds terrible, but we have NEVER done anything like that before, and in my defence I did sit at the table the whole time and make 5 pairs of earrings and core 15 of my Cloud Beads. I also managed to break 2 as usual, I always break one in every 9…..I hope he goes to work tomorrow!

Monday evening

Oh dear, I’m really slacking on the blogging front at the moment. It doesn’t help that I can’t move my laptop from the desk, it seems to have turned into a desktop machine, as it crashes when I try to move it. I do need a new laptop, and I’m very disappointed that the journey to buy a new one is frankly rather boring…and I’m not talking about the drive from Horsham to Crawley. I’d been thinking for years that getting a new one would be so exciting, but alas, after a small amount of research it looks like I’ll be going with the same make of Acer again, in a boring colour. I’ve been watching all the Dell ads on telly, and have browsed their website, I’ve even fallen for one of the wacky patterns…this one…Horizontel del Infinto but honestly don’t see the point in paying an extra £75 for a pretty pattern….this is the engineer and tight wad in me! Although a quick look at the website whilst putting this link in would make it look as though the pattern is free at the moment…no I just checked it’s an extra £89! forget that. That aside, they don’t seem to have what I need for a price to match the Acer. rats. Also I’ve left it so long now that I think I may have a mercy mission this week to rush and buy a new one, rather than waiting for a custom job. ho hum.

This week I’m getting ready for another show, or rather a month long exhibition. This is with the Surrey Guild, and we’re setting up this Friday. The event is a selling exhibition at Guildford House Gallery in Guildford High street, and opens this Saturday, running until Christmas Eve. After that I am preparing for another Surrey Guild Exhibition at the Bank Gallery in Chobham. Then it’s prep for the 2 school craft fairs I’m attending. So it’s all go at the moment. Fortunately (or rather unfortunately) I didn’t sell much at the fair the other week, and so have lots of pieces made already for the Guildford show, but I do have to re-label everything and do my inventory sheets (joy of joys!)…let’s hope the laptop copes.

Tuesday night

Yoo hoo I’m back….well, I’m home but working in the Surrey Guild gallery in Millford this week. It’s been such a busy summer, with one event after another, like the Stourbridge bead fair one weekend, 3 days home to unpack then repack to go away again for a family wedding then a short holiday. It’s been all go but fun and exhausting, and I have had no hip pain in my new bionic hip, although some pain in my origianlly bad hip, rats. I’m hoping this will reduce as dependance on overusing it reduces. So what’s new? Not a lot really yet, as I am still unable to enjoy my torch because of the days out this week, although I’m hoping to get some torch time on Thursday as I’ve managed to swap one of my days. I’m getting reved up for the Bead Fair at Hatfield House on 21st September, less than 2 weeks (well, I should be but I’m unable to do anything for this yet) and I have also booked the Big Bead Show at Esher on 1st November (6 weeks away).

These bookings are all very well, but will they happen, will I be able to torch on Thursday or will we have been sucked into a black hole by then?  If you haven’t heard what’s happening tomorrow then look up Large hadron Collider. It amazes me how people are allowed to do this if it’s really so risky. Of course they say it’s not, then laugh manically, but who’s to know? I guess we’ll all know, or not by Thursday. lol.

Friday morning

I’m very pleased to announce that my work is for sale in a new gallery, well, new for me, but the gallery has been open for a few years now. Wave 7 Gallery is full of lots of very colourful pieces of work, much of it inspired by it’s location, near the sea. Actually it’s ideally placed for several beaches, Polzeath and New Polzeath, Rock, and Port Issac. Anyway, my work arrived before the half term holiday and has been on show for a couple of weeks now. If you’re in this area do go and have a look and say hello to Victoria, the proprietor, who also has her studio there making gorgeous coloured abstract mirrors (I have a teeny one that sits on my desk).