Clare Gaylard Artisan Glass 

Glass ring, I'm not quite ready for full-on spring colours and apparently neither is Spring. We had snow, sunshne, sleet and hailstones today. 

Would call them Truffula Trees. Clematis Tangutica.

I was about to clear the decks on my home workbench after a solid weeks' work and thought I might as well do a candid photo first. It gets much messier than this but I have to change my colour pathway - plus when it gets to this stage I loose small things and risk burning myself. Which I can put up with for quite a while.

The trees and hedgerows are noisy with nest building.

Shout out to my inspiring sister Eleanor Brown, writer and poet whose latest work is due out on Bloodaxe Books this October. I'll also mention that the cover  illustration by Liz Gaylard. https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/white-ink-stains-1223

Sifting images and updating on more recent work.

I've been making tiny glass buds, leaves and raindrops as springtime elements to slip onto earrings, I think that three is the magic number.

Just had a great couple of days catching up and swapping tips with old friend Claire Underwood in her London workshop. We did our art foundations and BA Hons (Jewellery and Silversmithing circa 1989) together and even lived (at different times) on neighbouring streets in Bangkok. Our incredibly different styles and approaches keep things lively. Claire's work (shown below) is colour-rich, detail-oriented and currently very kinetic.

In natural light, a night sky on your finger.

Well it's looking like Spring - but in England that doesn't mean anything. This weekend find some of my glass alongside the work of other Suffolk artists at Great Glemham Village Hall, IP17 2DH Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th Feb from 11am-5pm.

This is not the mist of early dawn, it's tear gas. We took child #3 to Paris to do a weekend's drawing at galleries and museums and ended up both staying and being in the epicentre of the current protests. We retreated from riot police on this bridge and got a dose of tear gas while passing underneath. We moved around barricades, protests and metro closures all weekend. Child #3 said it was the best holiday ever.

I got out some (usually avoided) pink glass to make something for Valentines day - as I have recently had scant time at the torch and it seemed a good excuse. What rose to the surface was a set of three rings - Octopus, Tentacle and Eye, if that's not romantic I don't know what is.

In a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower. Thank you William Blake.

....made cunningly. Of elements....' John Donne Holy Sonnets

I get told off for not wearing my own stuff - so with a bit of time but not enough for immersive work, I decided to make myself some things. Warm amber glass with hints of gold leaf. The last couple of storage heaters in our house go off/out today - then tomorrow afternoon we find out if the new  central heating operates in an ancient house.

Probably looking exactly as it has done from medeival times. I tried to get the castle in but decided not to gild the lilly. It's been a chilly week to gradually lose all heat in the house.

'First Frost Glass' - ice outside and indoors it's pretty cold too, we are in a ten day process of having our ancient heating system replaced. My torch will be one of the few warm places when I can get to it. These are calmer than I am.