Clare Gaylard Glass 

Well all that ethereal snow lasted for a hot minute. What we do really well around here (Suffolk) at the moment is water and mud. This is my equivalent of making lemons into lemonade - experiments by request for a muted and organic palette.

Today: the tiniest hedgerow relic I’ve discovered so far. A slight gust of wind took it off my hand.

Winter’s response to my workbench spring-cleaning, sadly thawing already.

Home workbench spring-cleaning sorting and exhaust-system maintenance completed (fixed it myself) as a ritual to encourage spring. Feeling cautiously optimistic as I don’t need a new ventilation fan and there is still light in the sky at 4.30pm.

I’m 2/3 through #springcleaning just the SURFACE of my home workbench. Time to look at something inspiring from other springs: Venice 2019 and the remaining 1/3 or so of workbench.

Question: Is it really a Cocktail Ring if it’s not capable of holding an hors d’oeuvre? The opaque glass is actually CALLED Dirty Martini and the transluscent glass is Antique Green (it has a slightly stippled effect) I WAS asking myself that question when I made the ring but didn’t realise how apt my colour choices were. Cheers!

I don’t know what the berries are called but we trod on a LOT of them as kids for the great popping noise. A solidly crafted nest and plenty of welcome, late afternoon colour in the fields today.

I usually ‘spoil’ (texture) my page first AND check a pencil is the right one for the job. The pencil was sharp enough and I didn’t want to wait for the paint to dry so now I must just plough on... regrets are for the faint-hearted. More fun with marginalia from the Tres Riche Heures.

A crown for the Epiphany (posting a day late here) my favourite, glass, crown ring from 2020. Favourite actual crowns are probably those of Princess Blanche, because it is so delicate and Saint Wenseslas because it is NOT.

Practicing alignment. Jewel-like, glass, planet orbs shaped and gilded, one at a time, in the flame.

Celestial Bodies, little, gilded planet earrings emerging from rich hours spent with the Duc de Berry. Against the page for January. #tresricheheuresduducdeberry

Fun with marginalia. While I appreciate minimalism - I adore detail, digression and doodling. More Tres Riche Heures illuminated manuscript goodness.

Sometimes if you want to see the planets to align you have to do it yourself... Happy New Year! I torched these little planets yesterday and made them into Orrery earrings today. Old Year/New Year. A friend provided the perfect reading matter, disclaimer: I haven't read it yet!

This little, glass, Georgian lion intaglio has been sadly knocked about, despite my attempts to protect it. Christmas brought me a sturdier looking Victorian-era gazelle - actually in a setting. It looks Persian (to me) but is well in keeping with the glimpses of deer and muntjac we are lucky to catch around rural Suffolk. I know a lot of people don’t feel that way about muntjac - I do. Listening to the radio and making my packing with these & molten sealing-wax while enjoying the detail is ASMR for me.

I’ve been taking some time with my favourite books and this is definitely one of them. My parents had a copy of Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry and the fact that it was cloth bound, in a box AND had the sheen of gilding, made it a treasure - along with the immersive level of detail, history and storytelling. As one of seven children who probably felt similarly, I didn’t manage to aquire the actual copy �� but I found a well-used and under-appreciated (unboxed) one of my own on eBay some years ago. I feel more comfortable with objects that aren’t too pristine. A few pages, my favourites being the Zodiac, Adam & Eve and the Fall of the Rebel Angels. Anyone else have a book/s they feel this way about?

Here is to all Absent Friends. The pair were an experiment for a 50th wedding anniversary commission and their shared heart is a nod to John Donne’s: ‘My true love hath my heart and I have his,’ I wanted them to have a sense of the worn beauty of an illuminated manuscript. So Happy Christmas, Good Yule, Happy Holidays and to all the Absent Friends of 2020, wishing everyone warm, safe and well

I swiped a handful of free wreath-extenders from the hedgerows. It would have to be seaweed if nearer the coast. Not sure how that would play out...