Clare Gaylard Glass 

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. 

‘A Dove Has Spread Her Wings and Asked for Peace’ by Ukranian artist Maria Prymachenko (of whom Picasso said: "I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian.").

Highlights! Back to the workbench after a spring-clean, full posts on Facebook or Instagram. Some transcendent weather along the coast. Two exhibitions: Gold of the Great Steppe in the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge - tiny marvels. Grayson Perry The Pre-therapy Years at Sainsbury Centre, Norwich: marvels of frankness, experimentation and surface pattern. A Tiger Eye ring for Year of the Tiger and the William Blake poem, The Tyger. An egg for a Wolk Moon.

There is an App that delivers your nine most popular posts on Instagram in the form of a collage. I decided to take matters into my own hands when my most popular posts one year were photos of a tree and a passionflower - that I most certainly did not make. These are nine I have chosen and in my defence, it wasn't easy, I've had a prolific year and given myself permission to move with the seasons. To work more in a state of Flow, none of my fossil glass that spanned spring and summer is here, but you will find it on my gallery page.

I'm sorry to have been lax about my blog, it has been down more than up as Webs were bought out by Vistaprint, my main focus is now on Instagram which is all ease (gratis) and quality, I also maintain a page on Facebook and post to both very regularly. I have had this website since I built it in 2008, and am reluctant to go/move - but it could be time to switch things up. If you have followed me or returned thank you! I hope the past two years have not been too hard and that we are all in for smoother and happier times in 2022. Happy New Year and all the best, Clare

The last sunset of 2021.