Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Saturday evening…..
Phew what a week it’s been.  Five events down and maybe 1 to go.  It’s been a very mad week with a very late night dash last night down to the coast to deliver my beads to my friend Judith who’se ‘womaning’ the stall tommorrow at the Newmarket bead fair.

I had a good day today, even if it was exhausting.  I sold some beads at the craft fair to a lovely bead enthusiast, had a couple more enquiries about lampworking tuition which I’m planning to start in the new year, and I made a new glass buddy!  Woo hoo, and she only lives about 5 miles away.  It will be so nice to have someone else nearby to talk glass with and swap notes.

Here’s a few pictures Rick took today at the lovely setting of Christ’s Hospital, while I was inside at my stand.

Late Thursday evening….

So much for making Christmas cuties this week.  I haven’t set foot in my glass studio yet this week because of the 4 events I had to prepare for, that turned into 5, that is now 6 if you include next Monday, which is a possible new event.  3 down and 3 to go for this week.  Maybe I’ll squeeze a couple of hours in at the torch tommorrow if I’m cunning.

Only 1 more day to go before the Craft Fair at Christs Hospital, and 2 days to go before the Beadworks Fair at Newmarket, if you’re around come and say hello………better go get me some more of those zeds………………….

Found another cool site, literally,  Snowdays hours of fun.  Make sure to enter your name and location, or you’ll never find it again.

Talking of snow (it’s the weather chat again – well, I am in England) and all things Christmasy, they’ve been filming an Argos advert in Horsham town today and yesterday, lots of people wandering around with boxes made to look like Christmas pressies, no sign of Richard E Grant though.  It will be interesting to see the finished thing.  Photo courtesy of Rick.

 I think it’s time for more Chihuly photos today………..

I didn’t make it down to the studio today, too many other things happening.  Maybe tommorrow afternoon, after my coffee morning.

We had frost here this morning for the first time this autumn, time to go out and wrap up the delicate plants in the garden I think.  Talking of weather I just saw a stonking video of a twister on the ITV news.  I don’t think I would have stayed around to make that video, you wouldn’t have seen me for dust, even though I would actually like to see a twister.  Dust, anyone, dust?  High in calories, low in calories?  Dust…..

I’ve just spent a merry couple of hours reorganising my many links in my firefox bookmarks manager.  Phew.  Lets just hope my p.c. doesn’t crash again and lose the lot.

I’m looking forward to getting out to my studio tommorrow to make some more Christmas cuties, I feel a few penguins and snowmen coming on, and maybe a Christmas tree or two.  All this talk of snowmen is making me wonder whether I need to get my thermals out of retirement yet.  How sad am I, I invested in new ones at the beginning of the year!

I have to torch whenever I can now, because the local craft fair season has begun and I’m going to be out selling a couple of times a week from now on.  It’s going to be a hectic week this week.  I have four events to prepare for this week, including the Fair at Christs Hospital and the Newmarket bead fair.  I’m also heavily involved in organising the Christmas Display of Jewellery for Sale at the adult education centre I attend, and we set up the display this week.  I’ve done the majority of organisation, paperwork and accounts for the last 4 years, but this year I’m sharing the job fortunately.
I’d better go lie down and get some zeds…………………zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 

Good news – I can now accept credit cards on my stall at local craft fairs, and I’m waiting to receive the credit card swipey dooberries that I saw on ebay.  We had fun making our first ever bid on ebay for these, and got so carried away with watching the final minutes, cooking dinner and getting ready for a local craft event the same evening that we forgot we had an appointment at the school.  Woops.

He came at last, and now we are snug and warm, good job too because it’s suddenly got cold this weekend, it was 5 deg C in my studio the other morning.

Late Thursday (more like Friday am)

Discussions at my adult education class were fun again.  Topics up for debate were how they make these spreads that replace butter – are they better than butter or worse because of all the chemicals and chemical processes used to synthesise them.  That led on to battery chickens versus free range (don’t ask me how!), and how to spot Hock burns and what they are.  I also learnt that free range chickens have tough legs and thighs (she’s a tough old bird).  We then got on to the demise of my friends tortoise that they’ve had for 40 odd years, bought in the 60’s when their son was a kid, and now gone walkabout……or was he nicked?   Apparently they’re worth a bit now.  If the poor thing has gone walkabout we hope he’s found shelter or dug a hole, that way he may survive the winter.  So unfortunately he’s missing….presumed dead (or half inched).

Did any one else spot the reference to ‘The Office’ in last nights episode of Lost? 

Tuesday Evening

I’m just about to send Rick down to the studio to get my beads out and turn the kiln off (please), he’s reading this as I type!

11 deg c this morning when I started work, but at least it wasn’t raining.  I made several more snowmen, 2 penguins, Father Christmas and a robin.  I now know why I haven’t seen many robin beads, it’s impossible to tell the brown and red glass apart when they’re hot, I await my lopsided robin….And would you believe it, my gas ran out at tea time.  My plan to always have a spare available went Pete Tong today, cos I didn’t have my spare bottle full.  Rats, I now have to rush out tommorrow morning to get a refil before I can start.

Rick just brought my beads in, oh well, you can’t even see the red breast now he’s out.

More Chihuly photos as promised

Oh wow, I’ve just watched Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart performing, njhhhhhhhhh.
Perfect end to a perfect day.

click on the photos to enlarge them.
Oh yes, we managed to get to Kew Gardens to the Chihuly Exhibition today. What a stunning show of jaw dropping glass. The colours and forms collected into his installations were beautiful and breathtaking. I wanted to see his Persian chandalier, this was suspended in the Temperate House and lit up. We were able to walk below and admire the twirling lines that radiate from the centre of each form which looked rather like masses of lily pads. My other favourite was his grouping of Macchia (Italian for spotted). They were as beautiful in life as the photos you see in his books. Incidentally they are for sale at Kew for the small sum of six thousand pounds. I think I’ll nip back next week and get one.
More pickies another day…ahhh, I’ve saved the best!

Rick found this very cool website today…….The Interesting thoughts of Edward Monkton

I had more to put here, but lost it twice so I decided it wasn’t meant to be written in any detail. It was to do with a lunchtime conversation I had with my fellow jewellery students on my adult education course. One of the retired class members posed the question of whether we thought some evil people were just born that way. Suffice it to say the conversation went to seedier matters and several unsavory characters were discussed. The words ‘Dr, moors, patios and Acid’ come to mind. It was all very bizare.

It’s wet here.
No beads made today, couldn’t face the trot down the garden. Actually the boiler man was supposed to cometh, but was a no show. Instead I pottered and made roasted Pumpkin soup for dinner. Pumpkin head anyone??????????

I toiled late into the night cleaning a bazilion beads of their bead release and am now the proud owner of a hole in my finger, ouch.
A quick spell check of the word Bazilion tells me that it does not exist, and would I like to substitute ‘Basildon, Brazil, pavillion or gazillion’?

8.5 deg C in my studio when I went out to fire up the kiln this morning, there was a distinct chill in the air. Autumn is definately on the way, if not on it’s way out. I have watched as the Virginia Creeper on my back fence has changed from green to orange to red, and now most of the leaves have fallen.

I’ve been autumnally inspired over the last few weeks to make beads in various shades of topaz, orange and red, but yesterday also turned my hand to snowmen. I have to say they turned out pretty cute. Also the accidental green on yesterdays beads wasn’t a problem, it barely notices! Rick beat me to the kiln this morning to get yesterdays work out, I think he’s as big a kid as I am.

I was on a safari roll today (more topaz), and made various tiger beads. I also sussed how to make my safari frit look like realistic animal print, it was a bit of an ‘ahh’ moment.

Monday evening.
What a joy to walk down to my studio today without getting wet feet. Bliss.
I made a few dichroic focal beads today and can’t wait to see them. Some funny stuff happened because I was experimenting with different colours and frits, also a rod of what I thought was pale amber was actually rhubarb green (a shift tint colour that changes depending on the light source, or what glasses you’re using!) only my didymiums (lampworking specs) made it look amber. Woops. Should be interesting.
Ah, but it’s those mistakes and unusual reactions that make hot glass work such fun. Also I love the anticipation of waiting for the beads to anneal then cool. Sometimes it’s like Christmas morning……wake up, get dressed, rush downstairs and out to the studio to see what the kiln fairy has for me.

OOO, and I forgot to say I made my very first post on one of the American based lampwork forums, I’m officially not a lurker any more. Take a look at Lampwork etc. if you’re intrigued by the glass bead stuff.

Saturday evening…
Of course we didn’t get to Kew today. Something rather more important came up and our plans had to change.
We did however manage to get the all important stepping stones laid down which lead to my studio at the end of the garden. So hopefully no more muddy boots and squishy lawn when it rains. I get to try them out for real when I will parade gleefully down to the studio Monday morning to turn on the kiln before a fun days play at the torch – yipee!

Hi there. Welcome back to the more appropriately named bead log. So much for half term being a break, I think I’m more exhausted from this week than normal. I’m looking forward to a rest when my daughter goes back to school next week.

We had another successful recording session last night, and just need one more session to get the tracks down, then it’s the final mix, a bit of mastering and we should be able to go into production of the new CD. I just love all this recording stuff, not as much as Rick, who whiles away many an evening tinkering on the computer with Sonar, but I really enjoy the recording and production process.

We’re thinking of going to Kew Gardens tommorrow to see the Dale Chihully Gardens of Glass exhibition. It just remains to be seen if we can get up early enough to go, we’re all so shatterred!

OOOO and some exciting news for me anyway, I bit the bullet and decided to do a bit of advertising. The publication is called The International Flame Guide and will be a bit like the yellow pages of glass, and we have put in a small ad to advertise ….me….dah dah. So I’m now waiting with baited breath for the release date and wondering how it will affect my website hits. The book will be available 1st January 2006, but will also be available to view on the net.

Well, I got my skid lid on Sunday, lovely flatering one in a sort of lilac purple shade, perfect for me as anyone who knows me would tell you. Actually it was the only helmet that fitted so the colour was just a coincidence, cool. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

This week is half term so I’ve thrown caution to the wind and not done any beading yet. Instead I was up till the wee hours last night with CE and some musical friends of ours, crammed into our back bedroom, otherwise known as the recording studio/CE’s office/spare bedroom. The aim was to finish off a recording we started 1 1/2 years ago, my, how time flies. We had great fun achieving a full choir sound and small baroque quartet with just 4 female and one male singer, a keyboard, cello and recorder. The wonders of modern technology!!!! Needless to say I’m a bit spaced out today but looking forward to our next session tommorrow night.

I’m lounging here on the settee enjoying a nice glass of white wine and enjoying a fab evening of music courtesy of Robbie Williams and the Fashion Rocks with Swarovski Crystal. What a stunning show of fashion and what a catwalk too… no, I mean it! The catwalk was a river of crystal under sheets of glass. I want one! Actually I’m wondering whether I can do a bit more with the crystals I own, after all I do have a bit of a vested interest being a crystal user myself (ooo,that sounds a bit sus!) …. should I customise the new push bike I bought today with rows of Aurora crystal along the wheel spokes so it sparkles as I ride along in my effort to get fit? Thank you Rick (CE) for so nicely pointing out how many beautiful women there are around (well there would be, IT’S A FASHION SHOW). We did notice that several of the male artists were rather distracted during their performances by the gorgeous babes strutting their stuff along the catwalk (no reference to a top make of glass press here!).

I have the unenviable pleasure of going out tommorrow to choose that most essential item of fashion for cyclists – a helmet – woohoo, not. I’m so looking forward to riding my new bike, but I just dread the helmet thang. When I bought my first bike 25 years ago we never had such stuff, and I have to admit I’m not really looking forward to donning said safety item. Ah well, better than losing my head, so to speak.