Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Wednesday evening….

…..already, and half term is supposed to be a break! I’m helping run a holiday club for kids every morning this week and it’s very difficult finding time to blog and fit in bits of work…suffice it to say this is the first chance I feel I’ve had to blog. Of course this time last year we were recording songs for an album, and getting choir sounds with 4 people. That must mean my blog is over 1 year old, so woo hoo, and happy birthday (belated) blog. There’s lots of stuff happening that relates to my business at the moment (even though I can’t sit and make beads or jewellery at the moment), and I hope to reveal all soon.

On another note Rick and I had a good laugh watching one of Fanny Craddocks old cookery programmes last night. You don’t realise how far things have come until you watch the old stuff. She was very chatty in her delivery, and constantly mentioned saving money and being economical with ingredients. All the food looked grey (black and white) and it was soooo hard to be inspired by anything she presented. But the funniest of all was the way she kept coughing into her hands in turn, then handling the food she was preparing and had prepared! She was a smoker by what I gleened watching the wonderful Julia Davies in ‘Frightened of Fanny’ the other night. Classic TV.

Friday evening

Well my head down effort this week and last has paid off, and I have exciting news. But I’m not going to let you in on that yet, suffice it to say I now have a champers headache, ouch, I need to make a coffee.

I had a real panic hour or so today, as I felt I was swimmimg in treacle with all the jobs I’ve given myself to do, so I went to my trusty ‘jobs to do list’ that I started in March this year, and haven’t updated since May. I’ve updated it, and even though it’s still just as long, it was great to see I had actually completed several of my objectives this year, and had great pleasure deleting them to replace them with different jobs. Now I’ve written what I need to do in a proper list I feel I can tackle jobs one by one and make progress. I must be a real sado. Off now to get me coffee.

Tuesday evening

I thought I’d better pop in and say hi. I’ve had my head down again, desperately trying to get an important project done (not telling you what that is, in case it all goes wrong). Of course it involves glass beads and a bit of silver, isn’t it great to realise you need a particular colour glass bead and be able to pop out to the studio and knock a few out? The only drawback is that you have to wait for the kiln to heat up and then wait for your beads while it goes through the anneal cycle.

I have several jobs on the go as usual, my favourite at the moment has to be organising a batch of 30 T shirts which I’m having printed, actually this year it’s a full colour iron on motif. Previous years have been screen printed.

The bad news is that my daughter finishes school tommorrow for half term, so I shouldn’t really be working for the next 11 days, but I will be fitting in stuff as and when I can. Night all.

Friday afternoon

What a beautiful country England is. I’ve had the most lovely day today, driving through some of the nicest countryside, mainly woods from Horsham to Farnham. I thought I’d take a day off working to go to a couple of galleries I’ve wanted to visit for a long time now, and to see how long it would take to get there. It was an incredible drive though gorgeous woods most of the way, which is unusual, couple that with the season being Autumn and you have a great combination. Parts of the road cut through high tree lined banks where old knarled roots twisted over the mud and had a really old feel to them. The drive there was among patches of fog which wafted mysteriously between the trees, while the journey home saw lots of sunshine pouring through the leaves and dappling the ground in light. Awesome.

The great thing about a day out like today, is that it lifts my spirits. I feel so happy inside and really refreshed and relaxed after my hard slog of the last couple of months, especially Sunday. I came home ready to pick up my daughter from school and felt so different, like I’d been on holiday. Even the walk to school felt different, it’s so wierd, but good what 3 or 4 hours doing something you really love with no pressure can do.

Wednesday morning
Morning all. I got told off Monday for bad spelling, grammer, punctuation and all, so lets hope today’s entry is more coherant, it should be, I’m feeling a bit more with it but not completely yet.

I now have the pre-Christmas lull ahead of me, it’s the calm before the storm, and although I have my job targets set for the week my thoughts are also turning towards my Christmas panic which I always get into because of the fairs and orders I get last minute. Somehow the cards never get sent until after the last posting day, and we’re always up at 2am Christmas day finishing off the pressie wrapping. Now this isn’t because we’re greedy and give each other bucket loads of presents, but because we’re both very fortunate to have huge families on each side who all get along well.

So this year I’m thinking very seriously about what I can do now to ease the stress and prevent my Christmas day migraine that’s occured 3 times now (and boy they were real humdingers). Trouble is it feels very strange doing stuff like writting cards and buying presents so early, especially since I set myself the rule when I was younger about not starting to think about Christmas until after my birthday near the end of November.

So here’s something to change the subject back to Autumn, a picture or 2 of the Virginia Creeper that grows so voraciously on the fence at the end of our garden. I took these on Saturday morning, and they have a real rich colour tapestry feel to them.  Today, 5 days on, the mass of leaves are now more  golden yellow and orange, with hardly any dark green and only acid green shades remaining.

Monday morning

I’m back. I haven’t really been away but it feels like it, having had my head down getting ready for Harrow. It was manic last week, spending every hour possible in my studio making new beads (yipee), cleaning them (yuk) and then Saturday photographing them (thank you Rick) and pricing them up (boring). I made several new favourites last week, and it was lovely to see them sell early on in the day, always reassuring that but also a bit sad that I can’t enjoy looking at them this week. Oh well, I do have my photos. Or should I say we’ll always have photos…….we watched Red Dwarf when we got home last night, the episode called Camille where Kryton falls in love with what turns out to be a blob, then they go on to reenact Cassablanca. Sorry, rambling, but I would recommend Red Dwarf (series 4 episode 1). I’ll be putting the new boxed set All the Shows 5 to whatever it is on my Christmas list. Although I didn’t like the last one so much cos it got all posh with film type production instead of the low budget, wobbly set, naff sound I loved at the start. Not at all like Blake 7 wobbly sets that they took so seriously….but oh, I’m starting to sound like a sci fi geek.

Thursday evening

What a difference a tidy up makes. We cleared the thing called a patio outside our back doors on Saturday, and the garden looks so much better. It’s taking a long time and lots of hard work but we’re gradually getting there. Unfortunately we had a lot of ivy growing there and when we removed it we displaced 4 frogs, a whole family! It was OK cos they all bounced off under the castor oil plant.

Not so good for the numerous snails and slugs…ah ha….they ain’t gotten anywhere to shelter near our pots now. I had a bit of a euwwww moment yesterday as a 5 inch long slug slimed it’s way over the steps, I just had to perform surgery. Yuk. It’s something I really don’t like doing but I can’t let the critters lay eggs. Next week I hope to go and get some pansies to plant and get a bit of colour out the back and on the doorstep.

It’s all go here at the moment, I’m mega busy getting ready for Harrow this Sunday. I have a new bead design which I really like and has the feel of the fabrics used in the dresses and tunics in the shops at the moment. I will have a couple of sets of these available at Harrow, together with my other new designs I launched at Lingfield. Off for my evening coffee now. Night all.

Tuesday Morning

Oh yes, I’m still a bit shakey after having an unexpected dental hygene appointment. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s someone mucking around in my mouth, I even hate me mucking around in there. It was all a rush job really, cos I missed my last one and forgot this one and had to rush full pelt after they so kindly rang and reminded me! nnngggh.

Oh well, I tried thought diversion therapy this morning as I sat back in the chair, and imagined the process of lampworking. I was struggling to make a bead so imagined that I was sculpting a beautiful off mandrel autumnal leaf a bit like the one in my NEW SHOP! and it worked, to an extent. So now I’m home, and calming down (still a bit shakey – don’t like dentists) I don’t want to eat or drink anything cos I don’t want to mess up my nice clean gob. Oooo, this could be a good way to diet.

ps. 8.5 deg C in studio toady at 11am, definately cooling down now.

Sunday evening

I’m sat here at last (while Rick watches the last 2 LOST episodes – for the 3rd time (am I going to miss Sawyers character!)) bringing you news that at long last I have a shop on my site. And not only that but there are actually things in there to buy. Woohoo. Not many things but a small selection to tempt your tastebuds, after all I do have the Harrow bead fair next Sunday. So please follow the link to my shop and have a wander around, dont forget to charge your glass on the way and please come back regularly to see what’s new, now I have the shop it will be stocked regularly.  Ooh, Ricks just added the shop link at the top so we’re ready to roll.  3…..2……1……open

Friday evening

At last we can stop worrying because the roof leaks no more. We used to have a hole the size of a football in the sofit at the back, where birds would fly in and nest. Of course everytime they flapped in the hole it got a little bit bigger. The roof guy cleared out several nests front, back and sides as well as the wasp nest and we are now bird and wasp proof woopee. There are now several very confused and disgruntled birds in the back garden, Rick saw 2 this evening, one was hanging onto the wall for dear life just below where the hole used to be and was tweeting up to his matee on the gutter who was looking very quizickly down at where the hole used to be and tweeting back angrily. Very funny. I hope to bird watch from the lawn tommorrow and see if word has spread! It’s OK though, just in case anyone’s concerned about eggs and stuff, we made sure that nesting and the like was over before we had the work done.

I’ve been working like mad all day taking pictures, editing them and writing information for my new shop which is opening extremely soon, like in the next few days. So please watch this space, or rather the menu bar across the top. Don’t forget to bring your glass of champers for the grand reveal!

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday night

I’m exhausted.  The seminar in the Arts Centre in Horsham today was excellent.  We had 4 different 55 minute long sessions on various art promotion subjects, and each session managed to pack in masses of information and tips.  Now I have to let this sink in and work out how I’m going to use my new found ideas.  It was lovely to see a few familiar faces of artists I met during the RAG Open Houses, and to meet other artists ranging from painters to actors and musicians.

While I was out cavorting with the struggling artists (lol) we had the sofit at the back of the house replaced.  They removed loads of birds nests and a beautiful old wasps nest.  It’s such a relief to know that the hole has gone and no bidies (oops, typo, that should be birdies) or waspies can get in the roof anymore, and that the structure of the roof is sound.

Tuesday evening

Oh that’s too funny. The last 2 episodes of this season of Lost, and more questions! lol. Although I have to say that several questions were answered and my suspisions regarding the cause of the plane crash were confirmed, that is if anything on the show is to be believed. I can’t believe it’s all over again! Now I have to go and do a packed lunch and toddle off to bed. I’m attending a seminar for artists tommorrow about making art work (as a business that is, not making ‘artwork’) so I need to get some zzzzzzds. Poor Rick has to work from home to make tea for the roof people, although I think he’s relieved. He was hoping to tweek the TV arial this week, but chickened out this evening after he viewed the street from the eaves! lol.

Monday evening

My new shop is almost here (at last), hurrah. After having read my bloggy whinge last week Rick has been mulling over how to produce shop pages, and he’s just about got it sorted. So this week I’m keeping away from the torch and among other things will be getting my first items of stock ready for the grand opening of my shop. I suppose I should choose a day for the event, but I like being flexible so I’m not going to. I hope to open it with some of my new beads, a selection of my lampwork bead jewellery and a few choice pieces of jewellery featuring glass beads from Europe. There will also be a few of my beautiful glass leaves that I’ve been having fun making, complete with matching spacers. So watch this space……..

Thursday evening

Well I managed it yesterday. I took some brill pictures of a jewellery commission for my friend who came round last Thursday and I actualy cleaned 3 pots full of beads. Hurrah! I tried using a different bit in my cordless whizzy thang and it sped up the operation no end.

And what about the weather? Hasn’t it been fab yesterday and today. I had a lovely day making beads in my garden studio today, and thought I’d carry on into the evening since Rick’s cooking, but I ended up being chased out by several wasps and being tickled by numerous Crane flies who then committed harakiri one by one. I have to say it’s the wasps that really suck, we have a wasps nest in the tree 3 metres from the door of my studio, and they love the airflow made by the torch and the fan, unfortunately it draws them in rather than away. They also seem to be attracted by the light in the darkness. rats. So here I am blogging instead of beading. Oh well.

Tuesday evening

Autumn is definately here. It was 12 deg C in my studio this morning, although I did go out earlier than normal to turn on the kiln. I had a fun session making frit twisties and applying them to beads, I also made a few focals as I’m trying to top up my stock for the Harrow bead fair next month and probably won’t be able to work next week because we are having some work done on the house, nothing exciting unfortunately, just boring roof repairs.

Unfortunately my beads to clean pot is overflowing now, actually I have been procrastinating so long that I now have 3 pots of stuff to clean. I think I’ll be doing that tommorrow and talking some photos – what joy!

Saturday evening

I love September. I think it’s one of my favourite months, the weather’s always mild and the evenings smell so fresh. We usually get lovely sunny days, and I’ve often been on holiday camping around now. We’ve had a good session working in the garden today, rediscovering the paths, tidying up the lawn edges and weeding out the rubbish. We really need to remove most of the paths because you can’t walk down them as they’re too close to the plants in the narrow borders, and they’re not needed anyway. They only make more work for us as we have to keep them clear and edge the lawn regularly (although of course we don’t, there’s always something more fun to do!).

I was just sitting back on my bench with a mug of tea this evening as the sun set, admiring the new found paths and neatened borders when I heard a ribbit, ribbit. Well, more of a low rrrrrrrr, rrrrrrrr. rrrrrrr. We found a lovely frog sitting in a bucket of water under the fig plant. I love finding critters like that, now all we need is a hedgehog to keep the slugs and snails in check.

Friday lunchtime

Aahh, it’s so peaceful here today. I’m home alone and enjoying not having a wingey kid, or music I’m not in the mood for. It’s so quiet, I don’t really want to spoil it with some washing. At last I’m starting to catch up on things, I’m having a real correspondence sesh this morning, which doesn’t include cleaning beads, but they are waiting in the pot for cleaning, rats, I hate that bit of the art.

My leaf set that I was going to put up for sale got split up by one of my friends who came round yesterday morning to choose some jewellery. We had a lovely morning together of glass, jewellery and gem stone appreciation. She loves gemstones and we had great fun choosing stones and beads that would partner each other beautifully for some new designs for her order. Along route one of the leaves made it’s way onto a chain as a pendant, it may miss it friends, but it has a very loving new owner!

Have a great weekend.

Tuesday afternoon

Another lovely day today, and wasn’t it gorgeous yesterday? It was 15.5 degC this morning when I turned on my kiln. As we move to the middle of Setember my thoughts are turned to the Autumn, and I’ve been having fun making leaves with my new leaf press from America. There’s certainly a knack to using it and manipulating the glass once it’s pressed so that your leaves look leaf like and not like squished lollipops. I hope to put some up for sale on my site this week…..are you getting this Rick?

Tues night (late)

oh dear, how cold hearted am I? I’ve just finished watching next weeks episode of Lost on E4, where someone dies, and I don’t feel a thing. I don’t get it, I love the show, I have to watch all the repeats and get more information, but when it comes to the emotion, I feel nothing, rien, nada. Everytime some dies, I feel cold. Maybe it’s me or maybe they don’t lather on the slushy stuff like some shows do. Is it more about the mystery and the history? Oh but it getting so intrigueing, and we only have 3 more episodes to go this season. I can’t wait, but I also don’t want it to end. Off to bed now. Nightee night.

Friday afternoon

Where did the last week go? I thought I’d look at my blog to see where I am, and lo a week plus has passed…..and I’m still very tired.

Thank you to all of you who came by my stall last weekend to say hi, and to everyone who bought goodies. That means we can eat for the next month……well, the funds are actually rather depleted after all the hotel stays and Lorens course, porridge every day I think, Oh yes, I have that already.

I can’t believe we’re already nearing the end of the kids summer hols, and the house is even more untidy than it was at the start, so much for clearing it over the summer, I should have known I’d never manage it. At least the front border in our garden is looking a bit better, except for all the cat poos that are left daily in our bark mulch. Note to self…must find some sort of moggie deterant.

Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to put the Harrow Bead Fair in your diaries for October 8th.