Clare Gaylard Glass 

Jayne Stansfeld of 'Magpie and Me' in Framlingam is working towards a garden and forest theme and one of her themes is: 'Everything in the Garden is Beautiful', and it is, an explosion of verdant greenery and flowers due to a very damp spring.

Wasn't all about art glass then was he? Diamond antenna.

It has been a long, slow and very wet spring, lots of grey days then a sudden extreme leap into a profusion that might be claustrophobic if it wasn't so welcome, fertile and beautiful. The motorways from here to London have bloomed along the middle strips and sides with golden rapeseed and wildflowers. Blackthorn blossom, lilac and bluebells everywhere.

I was asked for some frogs eyes for fabric frogs, having played with amphibian textures and colours on glass buttons and beads I rounded things off with a slightly unsettling ring. It is of course a dragon's eye now and not that of a mere toad.

I have always enjoyed visiting studios and workshops. I like a bit of creative disorder, the smell of woodshavings, industrial soap and oiled machinery. The low hum of an exhaust fan or a kiln clicking away. I suppose the next best thing for me is a similarly purposeful and well equipped kitchen my fingers itch and I'm immediately curious. The brochures for Open Studios will be out in about two weeks.

To go with the array of hand-spun, knitted, woven and hand-dyed wool by Jayne at Magpie and Me in Framlingham. Engaging with a two pronged mandrel (the steel tool I wind the glass on) requires a practical adjustment of ideas and possibilities. 

The garden was calling out for colour.

My anthropomorphic wave. I looked at Hokusai's 'Great Wave off Kanawaga' for many years before seeing the boats rising on it. Now I'm not sure how I coud have missed them.

Work-in-progress for a sea-themed event coming at 'Magpie and Me' in Framlingham. 

...And I am Marie of Romania.' Happy Valentines Day. My Blue Valentine. Thank you Dorothy Parker!

'The Gnostics took the serpent for knowledge and free-will rather than disobedience and temptation. I have just been sifting my 'Tres Riches Heures de Duc du Berry' and for the first time found an Eve, being tempted, by a serpent holding an apple, who happens to be half female.

The serpent (as woman) tempts Eve the corruptable female: '...It was the woman....'  

Being in Asia for so long we ended up knowing more about the Chinese Zodiac than our own. I'm a Fire Horse and have always quite liked the idea, this after all is my year! Well I just read (and hadn't known) that the Fire Horse Woman will neglect her children, waste away the family fortune and send her father and husband to an early grave. I have a LOT of catching up to do. This is a print collage I made during the last year of the horse, twelve years ago.

A bit of bright glass on a dark day.

Another piece of metalwork I made during my BA many years ago. I was looking at illuminated manuscripts, prayers and talismans and pierced the 'De Profundus' out of metal to make a necklace then wanted a wafer thin, glinting, gold bracelet. It ended up for unfortunate, practical reasons being a chunky 5mm thick with a scant layer of gold leaf that has since worn off. When people asked what the bracelet said I would say: Season's Greetings.

'Little Red Riding Hood was my First Love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss.' -Charles Dickens

Some etched organic beads. We are getting morning frost now and colour is receding from the landscape.

I'm enjoying reading 'The Uses of Enchantment' by Bruno Bettelheim, a phsycologist who published this influential analysis of fairytales in 1976. I have just finished reading the wonderful myth-punk novel  'The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making' alongside my youngest. Fairytales, folktales, Biblical tales and the myths and legends of many lands were the building blocks of our reading as children, often unabridged. I like fractured fairytales much better than sanitised ones. Introducing Red Riding Hood and Wolf.

I made the bracelet while doing my degree in silversmithing, circa 1988. As I edited the photo for contrast in Picasa I saw that there was a '1980's effect'. It seemed to flatten and heighten the image in a most unpleasant way.' The Eighties. The splendid tower ring was made by my elder daughter for my birthday this year. I re-discovered the bracelet afterwards buried in the cellar and thought it a great bit of synchronicity. I got a lot of static for making such an unwearable item, I'm pleased beyond measure to be given one.

My sources tell me that the proliferation of berries, hips and nuts mean a hard winter is on its way. It's good to see so much in the way of the way of a last shout of colour.