Clare Gaylard Artisan Glass 

The fragment of Amethyst Geode at the centre of these images (and a lovely commission) was the seed of my exploration in glass shown around it, and more. I love a microcosm, and this journey was all the more pleasing for having been unplanned. There was a moment post-commission when I could have cleared the colours off my workbench and reverted to prior plans and chose not to. Now the trick is knowing when to stop.

Some of the smaller rings I've been making, the narrowest ones stack beautifully and have a slightly underwater quality.

This was the commission that led me astray on an ivory and amethyst colourway towards the end of last year. There is always a tension between following well-laid plans and taking a tangent, I'm happy that I cleared my workbench for this and all that ensued, but I still have business to do with water and bright colour. Plus whatever 2020 brings.

All the best for the turn of another decade and thank you for coming by. Health, abundance and happiness for 2020. Thanks to temporary resident Liz Gaylard for making time to take some of the better photos (six out of nine here) amidst personal, creative projects.

To those that celebrate, I thought I'd posted this. An old collage (lovely George Herbert and the Metaphysical poets in general) and this years wreath looking very nest-like due to needing to use ivy as a binding agent.

Colour and gold-leaf being particularly attractive on these grey days. Thanks to everyone who came by my studio and you can find my work at The Sentinel Gallery & Great Walsingham Gallery and Frame this December.

I often compare this process to trying to keep honey on a knife or spoon.

Last December I met silversmith Gabriella Lane at Blackthorpe Barn, I was fascinated by her craftsmanship and distinctive personal style. So I was delighted to find that she used one of my vessels in on of her commissions. Amongst other things she creates remarkable boxes of artefacts that have been designed to capture the recipient's life & interests. http://gabriellalane.com/commissi...

Over the creative block and at the happy stage where I don't want to put the tools down.

These really take me back to the Scottish coast - there was an amber/ochre quality to the algae and the water was a cold, clear colour somewhere beautiful between green and blue.

After a week working with of bright colours I find I have unfinished business with inspiration, images and sketching found objects from the northern Scottish coast of last summer for my 'Selkie' glass.

Getting back to the drawing board and torch after the heightener of a 'New Year' seems a solid example of 'Boundary Effect' -  a name given to the forgetfulness that occurs when crossing a threshold. The most effective response seems to be to experiment and play, making a certain sacrifice of time and materials. So it's buttons for now.

It's not a colour that speaks to me very often, but I do enjoy these.

Some winter glass - I don't know where it came from (imaginatively speaking) but since we are heading for Christmas I might say it makes me think of frost and hard-boiled sweets.

These earrings are made one at a time, in the flame, directly onto a surgical steel post. As I put the first in the kiln I have to approximate the second in size and detail from memory - an engaging challenge with variable results...

The sun was shining very brightly when I took this photo and I was in a rush - but these 'Selkie' colours are based on deep, cold waters and waving seaplants from our visit to the far north of Scotland earlier this year. I was raised in Scotland - albeit as a sassenach, so every visit is medicinal. A Selkie is a seal-person that can present as human on shedding its skin, usually for love, but will return to ...

My first day at Blackthorpe Barn's 'Best of British Crafts' today, a clear day with frost everywhere. The drive across country with the sun coming up was stunning, the medieval barn - filled with amazing things and not as cold as it might have been. The group above came from the plate below, found in the London sewers - by the simplicity and beauty of the object and the phra...