Sunny Sunday

Lazy Day For This Bead Maker

   It's Sunday, the sun is lighting up the fens and I have an easy day ahead, well that's the plan. It's a clay day for me and I hope a few hours in the garden, I must admit I'm as stiff as a board this morning so I hope by lunch time I'll be ok to get some weeding done in the veg garden. After the last few days being wet here in the flat lands it will be nice to enjoy a couple of hours pottering around in the raised beds, I have crops to harvest and ground to clear and dig over so lots to do, yesterday we had the first bait of runner beans and I must say the taste was fantastic, no shop bought beans could ever match that flavour of own grown veg.
   On the bead side of things, everything is going along nicely with lots of spacer sets going on etsy this last few days, I have sale sets to list in the ebay shop this evening and more focals to list, all I need to do tomorrow is make a few pebble sets to list on etsy, I miss making the pebbles and want to get back into producing them, ok they may not be the most popular beads but they give me freedom to make whatever I feel like design wise and when you make a living and spend so many hours making beads it's important that you keep changing things, let your mind run wild sometimes with colours and designs and to be honest with you, sales are so slow at the moment it really doesn't matter if you take the risk of making something different, in the past I have decided not to list some beads as I just knew they wouldn't be to most peoples taste, but sod it, this time it really doesn't matter, if they don't sell then it's not a problem and if they do then it means I get a few sales, in my mind that means I can't lose.
   With the ceramics, well it's been a busy week, lots of wedging, kneading and throwing on my wheel, bowls, candle holders, cups, pestle and mortars, etc etc, the evenings have been busy and I hope to do a bisque firing in the next couple of days. my aim is to list a good selection of items, I need to build up a completely new customer base just as I did when I started selling my beads all those years ago, I have to remember the customers will be so different from those with beads, with beads most buyers buy to use them for making jewellery, that's it full stop, it doesn't matter what design or colours they are bought by jewellery makers. With ceramics it's so different, some customers may like bowls, others might want vases or more artistic pieces, there are people who want kitchen ware and those who want to buy ceramic pendants or beads, it is just so much larger in range and of course mean you will attract a very different kind of customer, so I have to try and cover some of these options and I will in time find a couple that I enjoy producing and that are popular with buyers, until that day comes I'll enjoy the learning, every second of it.
   Ok I have clay waiting and two hands that enjoy feeling this natural material, with beads we don't get to handle the bead in any way through the making process, we form them with the help of steel and flame, with clay I get to feel it in my hands, my hands form the shape, nothing helps, it's all down to my fingers forming each piece and that's so very much different for me, two very different crafts but two that I find are sitting well together and I couldn't think of a better way to spend my days.
   Enjoy your Sunday and this great weather.