Clare Gaylard Glass 

It's been an unusually wet November in Suffolk, we are all hoping for some cold, crisp days in December. Mud is over-rated. Back from Suffolk Craft Society at The Guildhall and layering teaching classes and return workshops along with work on commissions. Putting down the glass and tools for these distractions (however welcome) feels like breaking off a conversation halfway through. My mind is full of the work I was engaged with and at the same time under seige from new ideas. 

Every home should have one. While I was growing up, my family rarely missed a visit to a cathederal in any new city or country, the more medieval the better. This project danced in my head for a few busy days away from my workbench, I managed to steal a rationed hour or so at the workbench and it coalesced. I give you my portable icon that transitions seamlessly from All Hallows Eve (wearing one or two elaborate ruffs) to All Saints Day (Halo) to All Souls Day (bereft of both, to ashes you will return) second photo for scale. A video of the process on my Instagram page - with carefully chosen accompanying music of beauty. Icon has moved on.

Lots of commissions and classes that had been waiting on the end of summer, a dry and parched autumn but astonishing berries and fruits on all the hedgerows. Creating a body of work for Walsingham Gallery and Octagon Crafts in near and far Norfolk and preparing for Suffolk Craft Society at The Guildhall, Bury St Edmunds.

September was a month of glorius weather and the domestic chaos of co-ordinating three young adults and their worldly goods to return to second year of university, return to a final year of university after an internship, and a first job (after a post-graduate year and the immense spanner in the works that was COVID). I was back to the torch with my moths but then a clever friend brought a handful of natural treasures to my studio that included guinea-fowl feathers. A prompt to explore the delights of monochrome, minimalism and simple pattern. Plus an experienced nurse plucked my rejected memento-mori ring with an anatomical heart from obscurity (drawers of glass experiments and orphans) and was determined to have it.

First time at Folk East and LOTS of risk assessment - due anyway but heightened by the intense heat and dry grounds of this summer. I didn't know until the day of set-up if I would be able to demonstrate and I think for an event like this it's key to making sense of my work. So I was ready to stand down but was pleased to be able to go ahead. What a lovely event and mood, I look forward to the further meeting ups and workshops that have/will come out of it and will be in touch with folk as soon as I've sorted myself out back in the studio. I've some chores to catch up on and some commissions to complete first!

July looks a little chaotic - it was, or maybe it's me? I had a wonderful time solo at The Crafthouse in Woodbridge and want to thank everyone who came by, what a lovely place to inhabit. I gave myself a project to complete in time for the show, a chess set. Since Wearable Art is my realm it is a complete set of 32 hairsticks with ornate finials. Based around the crown and accoutrements of Mary in the Van Eyck, Ghent altarpiece. Drypoint etching above also a tribute. July saw the realising of a happy collaberation with local silversmith Andrea Wright. I had to create more work for, then hang the Suffolk Craft society Summer Exhibition for the second year - works unseen by sixty Makers in three days. Then fulfilling commissions and torching through the heat of Midsummer -  very like being back in Asia. Hoping anyone here is moving more gracefully through the heatwaves!

I will have my glass and be demonstrating at https://folkeast.co.uk/" target="_blank">Folk East from 19th -21st August 2022. First time as I have usually been away, very excited.

More Moth Wing goodness for commissions and a single,busy Suffolk Open Studio weekend.  Thanks to everyone who came by. Picking peonies and roses after 9pm in the dusk as the evenings were so long. Trailing Moth Wing Earrings for those Midsummer nights. A profile in the clouds and preparation for a solo show at The Craft House in Woodbridge at the end of the month. A joint project with local silversmith Andrea Wright.

A summer exhibition at the seaside!

Thanks to everyone who came by for Open Studios, if you missed it then next up for me is a solo show at The Craft House in Woodbridge from 29th June - 5th July, more information to follow.

Well this was the month that I lost my five year old Instagram account to hackers. They moved in fast, closed me out completely, and no protocols and appeals worked for me to get it reinstated or deleted. I thought the despair of the Burgher of Calais by Rodin (in miniature form at The Red House in Aldeburgh) was expressive of my emotions at the time. Onward and Upwards, I have two legit accounts (current and archive) both followed by the Suffolk Craft Society. Exhibiting in the Arts Centre in Wymondham provided a private view of the Abbey, for the most part closed. I was peering in through a locked door and was suddenly invited inside. A divine theme including this experience emerged on my birthday in terms of gifts. A Crown ring for the Jubilee amd  Happy and Glorious person, roses and peonies from the garden, glass moth wings and some vast Suffolk skies. 

My Instagram account for the past five years has been hacked - profile image of me at the torch.

 DO NOT ENGAGE WITH IT OR ANY MESSAGES THEY ARE NOT FROM ME. PLEASE jUST REPORT AND BLOCK.

 My new account and archive account are followed by the Suffolk Craft Society

I’ve got a profile in the Crafts Council Directory! I remember looking up Makers as a student many years ago. I shall be adding in new glass created for exhibitions later this year once I’ve unpacked back into my studio from another happy stint at the Quay. A reminder if you saw me there, that I am doing a single Open Studio weekend this June if you would like to see more.

April portmanteau post...Spring arrives at last and I have taken a case of my work to a new gallery in Diss called Octagon Contemporary Crafts. I also took a print workshop in early April with Annette Rolston as I wanted to revisit some work based on caddisfly cases and enjoyed developing it into one of the collections I took to The Quay Gallery. I was very taken by drypoint etching as it suits my love of detail and drawing style, and adds its own mood. We had a lovely time at Snape as usual, catching up with annual visitors and meeting new folk, the tidal River Alde ebbing and flowing outside our window. 

Print and Glass, Annette Rolston and Clare Gaylard. April 28th -May 4th 2022 #savethedate

My first classes of 2022 and first significant travel post COVID, three days in Barcelona never having been before. I was intensely moved by the Sagrada Familia in all it's parts but particularly the immersive colour-experience of the internal architecture. UK Mother's Day (medieval madonna and child at the Museo Nazionale) and the outbreak of war in the Ukraine. I made a small group of pieces informed by the work of Maria Prymachenko to support the work of The Red Cross.