Gale Warnings
Well with the sound of gale warnings for this week ringing in our ears we start the week huddled next to the kiln safe and sound, the rest of the world races by without even knowing we are here and to be honest that's just how I like it.
The weekend was a warm one for us having lit the wood burner stove in the sitting room for once the house seemed normal, warm and inviting. It was the first time this winter we had lit it and boy did it make a difference, with not having any heating in the cottage apart from a few tiny electric rads that we find very expensive to run it was so nice to sit and relax without all the layers of clothes, tho we both fell asleep in the evenings haha. Just the site of the flames seem to make it feel warm, I guess we are lucky having the stove as most houses these days don't have any form of open fire.
I think the stove will be a weekend thing as we never seem to get into the cottage until around 7pm weekdays after working in the barn, so really to light it then would be a waste to time and fuel as by ten I'm ready for bed.
The week ahead is a busy one with lampwork taking up my time until early afternoon followed by ceramics until the early evening, I'm really looking forward to it, I get to work with two mediums that I love and enjoy using so who could ask for a better job.
The last of autumn is really down to it's bare bones now with only a few late flowers hanging on here in the garden, seed heads seem to hang around ready to face the cold winter ice and the berry larder puts a smile on the faces of many a blackbird. The ponds formed their first ice of the winter last week with I'm sure much more to come, I guess we are lucky so far as this time last year we had snow hanging around, not clear blue skies like we see here over the fens this morning.
I better get off to my flame, I have focals to make and wine bottles to hammer this morning, oh how different the life of a beadmaker !
Monday, 12 December 2011
Saturday, 10 December 2011
A Magical Frost
A Winters welcome
Here in the fens the world is covered with the magical sparkle of morning frost with the sun bringing out every ice mirror giving the garden a coat of crystal, so raw is winter's welcome this morning, the mild damp weather of autumn gone for another year.
It was another early start for me with cold hands I opened the barn, cold and dark yet there ready to make my day another happy one, my little glass haven where dreams and ideas are thought through and success and failure run hand in hand, my safe place where I can forget the world and her problems, lost in my love affair with my flame.
No winds this morning so still the trees are, soaking up the sun as if it was their last, most bare now with there golden jewellery laying beneath forming carpets to every path in the garden and that huge still blue sky hangs above us with not a single threatening cloud.
It's a mixed day ahead for me, beads to clean and photograph with listing to be made this afternoon and also a few hours in the clay room call with pots to throw and ideas to try out. When I started to play with ceramics I really didnt imagine there were so many avenues and options to be found in one medium, ideas fill my head and I will never have enough time to try them all, but I'm sure I'll manage to give some a go, I know some results will be unpopular but maybe a few will please some and that will make the effort worth while.
Well maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to have another bonfire this afternoon as the wind is so still so won't effect any neighbours with smoke, fingers crossed as I really need to get more burnt out the way.
Just one more thing before I get on, if Claire Sage reads this blog could you plaese email me on upwellsell@aol.com since I changed my email I lost a lot of contacts and I would like to email you to thank you Claire for Christmas card, I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Here in the fens the world is covered with the magical sparkle of morning frost with the sun bringing out every ice mirror giving the garden a coat of crystal, so raw is winter's welcome this morning, the mild damp weather of autumn gone for another year.
It was another early start for me with cold hands I opened the barn, cold and dark yet there ready to make my day another happy one, my little glass haven where dreams and ideas are thought through and success and failure run hand in hand, my safe place where I can forget the world and her problems, lost in my love affair with my flame.
No winds this morning so still the trees are, soaking up the sun as if it was their last, most bare now with there golden jewellery laying beneath forming carpets to every path in the garden and that huge still blue sky hangs above us with not a single threatening cloud.
It's a mixed day ahead for me, beads to clean and photograph with listing to be made this afternoon and also a few hours in the clay room call with pots to throw and ideas to try out. When I started to play with ceramics I really didnt imagine there were so many avenues and options to be found in one medium, ideas fill my head and I will never have enough time to try them all, but I'm sure I'll manage to give some a go, I know some results will be unpopular but maybe a few will please some and that will make the effort worth while.
Well maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to have another bonfire this afternoon as the wind is so still so won't effect any neighbours with smoke, fingers crossed as I really need to get more burnt out the way.
Just one more thing before I get on, if Claire Sage reads this blog could you plaese email me on upwellsell@aol.com since I changed my email I lost a lot of contacts and I would like to email you to thank you Claire for Christmas card, I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Late Cuppa
Yet Another Early Start
It was again an early start for me this morning, I woke to the sound of those big fen winds blowing across the rich dark fields and after laying there for half an hour I knew it was no use, I had to get up and about. So out I went to turn on the kiln and get things ready for another day of bliss working with my flame, the barn always feels so different on these dark mornings, cold and sleeping like an old giant waiting to come to life with the flick of a light switch, then it becomes such a magical place where glass and fire work together, a place that keeps us warm through all the winter and a place where worries disappear for the day.
It's another late coffee time for me today and now the sunshine fills the garden while the strong winds make the conifer trees dance, all to the sound of the lock keeper working the lock a few hundred yards across the fields, some winter boater must be passing through Upwell. Those little canal boats look so cosy with their little stove chimney's smoking away, the stoves inside keeping the boat nice and warm.
All types to make today bead wise but I also need to throw a few pots this afternoon, it's been five days since I was playing on my wheel and I have missed it, that little kid inside me who loves to be covered in wet clay needs to get out again to enjoy himself. I found some old shelf brackets in the tool barn so I managed to get more shelves up in the clay room, the more the better for standing pots and bowls on to dry, the place really seems to be taking shape now, it looks like a potters room at last.
Ok I better get back to it, things to make and dreams to dream !
It was again an early start for me this morning, I woke to the sound of those big fen winds blowing across the rich dark fields and after laying there for half an hour I knew it was no use, I had to get up and about. So out I went to turn on the kiln and get things ready for another day of bliss working with my flame, the barn always feels so different on these dark mornings, cold and sleeping like an old giant waiting to come to life with the flick of a light switch, then it becomes such a magical place where glass and fire work together, a place that keeps us warm through all the winter and a place where worries disappear for the day.
It's another late coffee time for me today and now the sunshine fills the garden while the strong winds make the conifer trees dance, all to the sound of the lock keeper working the lock a few hundred yards across the fields, some winter boater must be passing through Upwell. Those little canal boats look so cosy with their little stove chimney's smoking away, the stoves inside keeping the boat nice and warm.
All types to make today bead wise but I also need to throw a few pots this afternoon, it's been five days since I was playing on my wheel and I have missed it, that little kid inside me who loves to be covered in wet clay needs to get out again to enjoy himself. I found some old shelf brackets in the tool barn so I managed to get more shelves up in the clay room, the more the better for standing pots and bowls on to dry, the place really seems to be taking shape now, it looks like a potters room at last.
Ok I better get back to it, things to make and dreams to dream !
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Fresh Clean Frost
White Cover For The Fens
Now this is the kind of winter morning I like, cold fresh with a thick coating of frost yet that tiny hint of sunshine lost under those grey clouds. The sound of game birds on the fields behind us add to the feel, a group of five cock pheasants walking picking at the soil make a stunning picture with those wonderful colours moving between the frost coated grasses.
It's a later cuppa for me this morning as I got carried away cleaning beads ready to photograph and list this evening and I have to admit this bowl of hot porridge went down a treat, a nice warm start to the day. Yesterday was the first time this year I had to fill the stone hot water bottle that I use to keep my feet warm when working, it was the first really cold day in the barn, a sign of things to come I'm guessing.
This morning I opened the ceramic kiln to find the selection of pots I had bisque fired all safe and well so with any luck I'll get to glaze them later this week and just maybe list a couple on etsy to see what feedback they get, fingers crossed.
A good friend told us about those wheatbags you can buy to heat and wear so we are hoping we can afford a couple later in the month to wear while we work, at the moment our only source of heat in the barn is electric and to be totally honest we can't afford to use it, with the next couple of months heading our way when sales will be next to nothing as they are already, the last thing we need is to use lots of electric. I have a feeling this winter is to be a real challenge to us work wise, all I ask is that we get through it ok with the bills paid, I don't give a monkeys fart about anything else just that we get bills paid and we stay ok health wise. In a way I'm looking forward to it, it will be hard and to say I'm not worried would be a lie but we are up for it and if I have to pack up making beads then at least I can say I gave it my all, I always did that in sport and have done in work, so touch wood we get to the spring still sitting making beads and still loving every second doing so.
Now it's time to get back to the barn, the sun is out and the morning frost is melting into the garden so it may turn out to be a nice clear day, lets hope so, enjoy your day.
Now this is the kind of winter morning I like, cold fresh with a thick coating of frost yet that tiny hint of sunshine lost under those grey clouds. The sound of game birds on the fields behind us add to the feel, a group of five cock pheasants walking picking at the soil make a stunning picture with those wonderful colours moving between the frost coated grasses.
It's a later cuppa for me this morning as I got carried away cleaning beads ready to photograph and list this evening and I have to admit this bowl of hot porridge went down a treat, a nice warm start to the day. Yesterday was the first time this year I had to fill the stone hot water bottle that I use to keep my feet warm when working, it was the first really cold day in the barn, a sign of things to come I'm guessing.
This morning I opened the ceramic kiln to find the selection of pots I had bisque fired all safe and well so with any luck I'll get to glaze them later this week and just maybe list a couple on etsy to see what feedback they get, fingers crossed.
A good friend told us about those wheatbags you can buy to heat and wear so we are hoping we can afford a couple later in the month to wear while we work, at the moment our only source of heat in the barn is electric and to be totally honest we can't afford to use it, with the next couple of months heading our way when sales will be next to nothing as they are already, the last thing we need is to use lots of electric. I have a feeling this winter is to be a real challenge to us work wise, all I ask is that we get through it ok with the bills paid, I don't give a monkeys fart about anything else just that we get bills paid and we stay ok health wise. In a way I'm looking forward to it, it will be hard and to say I'm not worried would be a lie but we are up for it and if I have to pack up making beads then at least I can say I gave it my all, I always did that in sport and have done in work, so touch wood we get to the spring still sitting making beads and still loving every second doing so.
Now it's time to get back to the barn, the sun is out and the morning frost is melting into the garden so it may turn out to be a nice clear day, lets hope so, enjoy your day.
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Bottle Bead Day
Hammer At The Ready
I'm one happy little beadmaker this morning, up with the lark ready for a day making recycled beads from wine bottles. I first need to pick out the bottles I'll use then take the hammer to them giving me some nice size pieces to use, then it's play time and we will see what we can come up with.
I'm thinking ring beads, lentils with matching spacers and maybe tubes too, after that it will be just trial and error to see what I can produce, I'm really looking forward to it.
I just want to thank those who sent messages about the slider toys, I did mention they can become a bit addictive and you find yourself fiddling with them when worn, but hey, they are fun and I've been told they make great keyrings or phone charms, even used as zip pulls seems to work so give them a try.
It's just getting light here and again it's rather cold here in the fens and this may sound silly to some but when I sat down here with my cuppa looking out at the cold darkness I thought how those old tramps must find warmth in the winter, the guys you still see traveling across the country by foot or by bike, how the hell do they keep warm on these long dark nights, god we really don't know how lucky we are sometimes. Yes we all have problems and yes things are bad for some of us but we do have a roof over our heads and food on the table, we can change into clean clothes every day and we have hot water, none of which those guys have, and there was me trying to sort out christmas when really I need to start thinking of more important things and not myself.
I'm one happy little beadmaker this morning, up with the lark ready for a day making recycled beads from wine bottles. I first need to pick out the bottles I'll use then take the hammer to them giving me some nice size pieces to use, then it's play time and we will see what we can come up with.
I'm thinking ring beads, lentils with matching spacers and maybe tubes too, after that it will be just trial and error to see what I can produce, I'm really looking forward to it.
I just want to thank those who sent messages about the slider toys, I did mention they can become a bit addictive and you find yourself fiddling with them when worn, but hey, they are fun and I've been told they make great keyrings or phone charms, even used as zip pulls seems to work so give them a try.
It's just getting light here and again it's rather cold here in the fens and this may sound silly to some but when I sat down here with my cuppa looking out at the cold darkness I thought how those old tramps must find warmth in the winter, the guys you still see traveling across the country by foot or by bike, how the hell do they keep warm on these long dark nights, god we really don't know how lucky we are sometimes. Yes we all have problems and yes things are bad for some of us but we do have a roof over our heads and food on the table, we can change into clean clothes every day and we have hot water, none of which those guys have, and there was me trying to sort out christmas when really I need to start thinking of more important things and not myself.
Still Not Rich
Cold Car Boot
Well I'm still here and still making beads for the next few years, no treasures found at the car boot this morning tho I did manage to obtain some old cod bottles for next to nothing, they were meant to be for making beads but I think knowing me the thought of taking a hammer to them may just be too much and they will live alongside others in the barn.
It was a bitter wind but there were a lot of people there and after getting a coffee I enjoyed walking around hunting down that one lost treasure I long for. I always keep my eye out for any old coloured glass that I can smash and use to make beads, it's just a real shame there don't sell that well, maybe people just don't worry about recycling as much as I thought, to me the idea of using this old glass, a lot of which will end up in bottle banks and landfill sites all over the country is a great idea. I guess because you can't mix the glass like you can soft bought lampworking glass and you have to make sets which to most look plain the fact they are helping with a greener life don't matter, it's a real shame as I love making them so much and in fact tomorrow I'll be spending all day making them.
When you see beads found from sites of historical interest such as Roman or Saxon the thing you notice is they are just simple plain beads, yes they may have the odd dot or stripe on them but most are just plain. The people living then were used to plain living, they appreciated the simple things in life and any piece of bead jewellery was of great value to them a real prize that was passed down through families. Today we want the flash, the sparkle and glitter on everything, isn't that sad, I must say that of all the people I have known in my life those who love the more natural things in life, those who don't care for fast cars, big screen tv sets etc are some of the happiest people I know, they seem to be contented with their life and they don't worry about paying for those luxury items that so many of us want, yes want not need.
So I guess with this in mind making recycled bottle beads won't ever make me much money but boy I'll have some great times doing so and for those who do enjoy using them in their jewellery then I hope they make you happy also.
Ok I better get off I have dinner to cook and an evening relaxing to look forward too, I hope you have all enjoyed your weekend.
Well I'm still here and still making beads for the next few years, no treasures found at the car boot this morning tho I did manage to obtain some old cod bottles for next to nothing, they were meant to be for making beads but I think knowing me the thought of taking a hammer to them may just be too much and they will live alongside others in the barn.
It was a bitter wind but there were a lot of people there and after getting a coffee I enjoyed walking around hunting down that one lost treasure I long for. I always keep my eye out for any old coloured glass that I can smash and use to make beads, it's just a real shame there don't sell that well, maybe people just don't worry about recycling as much as I thought, to me the idea of using this old glass, a lot of which will end up in bottle banks and landfill sites all over the country is a great idea. I guess because you can't mix the glass like you can soft bought lampworking glass and you have to make sets which to most look plain the fact they are helping with a greener life don't matter, it's a real shame as I love making them so much and in fact tomorrow I'll be spending all day making them.
When you see beads found from sites of historical interest such as Roman or Saxon the thing you notice is they are just simple plain beads, yes they may have the odd dot or stripe on them but most are just plain. The people living then were used to plain living, they appreciated the simple things in life and any piece of bead jewellery was of great value to them a real prize that was passed down through families. Today we want the flash, the sparkle and glitter on everything, isn't that sad, I must say that of all the people I have known in my life those who love the more natural things in life, those who don't care for fast cars, big screen tv sets etc are some of the happiest people I know, they seem to be contented with their life and they don't worry about paying for those luxury items that so many of us want, yes want not need.
So I guess with this in mind making recycled bottle beads won't ever make me much money but boy I'll have some great times doing so and for those who do enjoy using them in their jewellery then I hope they make you happy also.
Ok I better get off I have dinner to cook and an evening relaxing to look forward too, I hope you have all enjoyed your weekend.
Treasure Hunting
Time Off For Good Behaviour
It;s a cold sunday morning and I'm off to treasure hunt at the local car boot sale, a few hours away from work and the barn hoping I can find something of interest, maybe that odd treasure worth hundreds of pounds of maybe just some pieces that may help with my ceramic work, things I can use for surface textures etc.
I find it amazing what people sell at these fairs and often see items that make me think back to my childhood even toys and games that I enjoyed as a child over 40 years ago. It's a big car boot and is busy with customers from the surrounding area, there is a good mixture of sellers with some retail sellers with their christmas stock of toys and decorations, but I like the tables which are full of what we would call " old tat", where there is a mixture of old and new to look through.
Every time I set off I tell Yvonne I'll be back with some treasure that we can sell and ease out worries haha but yet to do so, maybe this week is the week and I'll be on here later telling you of my find all excited as we will be rich, yer right !
The good thing is I get a couple of hours alone to think plus Yvonne gets a rest from me moaning about everything so it does both of us good.
I'll let you know this evening how I get on, wish me luck.
It;s a cold sunday morning and I'm off to treasure hunt at the local car boot sale, a few hours away from work and the barn hoping I can find something of interest, maybe that odd treasure worth hundreds of pounds of maybe just some pieces that may help with my ceramic work, things I can use for surface textures etc.
I find it amazing what people sell at these fairs and often see items that make me think back to my childhood even toys and games that I enjoyed as a child over 40 years ago. It's a big car boot and is busy with customers from the surrounding area, there is a good mixture of sellers with some retail sellers with their christmas stock of toys and decorations, but I like the tables which are full of what we would call " old tat", where there is a mixture of old and new to look through.
Every time I set off I tell Yvonne I'll be back with some treasure that we can sell and ease out worries haha but yet to do so, maybe this week is the week and I'll be on here later telling you of my find all excited as we will be rich, yer right !
The good thing is I get a couple of hours alone to think plus Yvonne gets a rest from me moaning about everything so it does both of us good.
I'll let you know this evening how I get on, wish me luck.
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