A Fresh Week

Hope This Week Is A Better One

   After last week, which lets say wasn't the best week we ever had, I'm hoping this week will bring a little joy and will be a very productive one. This morning I'm on my torch followed by yet another afternoon in the clay room, on the lampwork side of things it's focals and a few sets that I'm producing and with the ceramics I'm trying out more ideas for the Christmas period, over the weekend I made my first couple of ceramic tall goblets and what fun that was.
   A month ago I would never have believed I would be able to make such items but as the weeks pass it all seems to be coming together, most days after working on the wheel I sit and look at the pieces I've produced and it amazes me what I'm now able to turn out. Yes there is the normal items such as kitchen ware but also now I'm starting to try the more interesting things such as the goblets and candle sticks, later this afternoon I have a few handles to fix on some coffee mugs, it's funny really as of all the items I've now worked on the plain simple drinking mug is one I've let slip by. It's not that I don't like them but just that I've been working on getting the basics such as bowls etc right, now I feel I can spend some time working on mugs, plus with resources being so limited and clay being like gold to me at the moment, it means I can practise on these smaller items without using up the little clay I have at the moment.
   I'm very much hoping I can get a few sales soon so I can obtain more clay, I have started recycling my scrap clay and it is coming in really handy, it's amazing what you can learn when you really need to.
   The barn makeover is coming on and tho it's looking rather empty it does show just how much room we are lucky enough to have here, I was so lucky to have been able to afford the materials all those years ago to build it as if it had been now or indeed the last four or five years we just wouldn't have been able to even think about it. Now we need to come up with a way of turning this dusty cobweb filled old barn into a nice clean place to display and sell beads from, a place where customers can once again visit and enjoy an hour or two having a coffee and looking through beads and maybe in the odd case giving bead making a try, I know it's slow going but I feel we have to get this done, it all part of my final try to get sales going again, I don't want to end yet another year with no future to look forward to.
   Ok back to work for me and ceramics and beads to pack ready to post this lunch time, a very damp grey fens today but a nice warm seat next to my kiln awaits me.