Clare Gaylard Glass 

My studio will be open on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th December, 11am- 4pm for demonstrations, exploring and sales. Visitors most welcome. Flameworks, Unit 2, Yew Tree Courtyard, 21 Framlingham Rd, Earl Soham, Suffolk, IP13 7SG

All Saints Church is a lovely little medieval church in some need of maintenance. This weekend is the annual Art Exhibition/Fundraiser so the work of local artists on display and for sale from 11am - 5pm on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th September. I have been developing my 'Telling the Bees' glass.

Was drawn up by Lorrette E Roberts - an illustrator widely published here and in Asia, so my barn has had the five star treatment...

'Eastern Promise', our art exhibition is showing at The Quay Gallery, Snape Maltings until 5.30pm Thursday 12th May. We have had four days of magnificent sunshine and welcomed many visitors already. A new Henry Moore statue looks out over the reed beds and the widening river along all the usual reasons to visit this uniquely cultural and historic venue.

I'm part of the A1120 Artist Trail, a downloadable map is available from the Suffolk Open Studios website. Serendipitously, the artist who created the map: Lorrette E Roberts also lived and worked in Asia and her work was familiar to me from our time in Singapore. What are the odds on us ending up in rural Suffolk in adjacent villages?

Nineteen Suffolk artists creating across a wide range of media are exhibiting this weekend at Great Glemham Village Hall. Opening this Friday evening 7-9pm and then 11am-5pm on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th Feb 2016.

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Some of Mr Turner's sketchbooks.. from the Turner Bequest. We went to see the 'Late Turner' at the Tate late last year. What I didn't know (not having seen the Mike Leigh film yet) was how prolific he was, that a sketchbook and any mark-making implement were like extensions of his hands. Apparently other artists reported meeting him on holiday and being put to shame by his passionate, constant creating and recording.

To a new studio/workshop! Many reasons but amongst them the following conversation: 'Do you teach lampwork glass classes?', 'Not at the moment but leave me your contact details.' 'I did that THREE YEARS AGO!'. Plus numerous requests for sales hours, the option of renting torch time and etc.

Last time I taught flamework was in Singapore. My current studio in an ancient house has been lovely but not entirely practical. The idea of a purposeful working environment has a charm all of its own, So that's what I'm working on at the moment. If you are interested in learning lampwork then please leave me your contact details, I'll be getting back to you in around three weeks!

Only one more weekend of Open Studios to go but I think the award for 'Most Disgruntled Trailing Spouse' is probably in the bag. While his wife having watched me flameworking, examined my glass a weary and bewlidered gentleman gestured round my studio and said: 'We see this stuff everywhere we go, who buys it all?'

It was clearly a cry from a troubled soul so I answered it gently and said that for some people a link or relationship to the creation/creator of a object, and an ancient craft had a particular value of its own. 

My unusually tidy workbench. The jug of water is to quench tools or receive glass that has gone badly arwy. The stainless steel pot holds vermiculite, it permits small pieces of glass to cool slowly. I usually put my glass straight into the kiln, left to room temperature the core will continue to heat and expand while the surface will chill and contract, the glass will split. The funnel shape at the top right is my fume extraction system, I'm exhausting carbon monoxide, thoroughly.

Thanks to everyone who came by, silversmiths, engineers, jewellers, students, parents, holiday makers, supportive spouses and innocent bystanders. Thanks for putting on the safety glasses, leaning in and asking questions. It was a pleasure to meet you. Three more weekends to go.

Would you like to see the process? Largely unchanged over hundreds of years, immediate and rather alchemical. Send me a note via my 'Contact' page and I wil let you know when I am having Open Days.

This was my last Suffolk Open Studio weekend for 2012 but I am happy to take studio visits and do demonstrations by appointment. I am very absorbed in and convinced by what I do, so showing the process and where I take it is a pleasure. I'm not sure you ever stop being a teacher, for better or for worse. I enjoy imparting information and delight in the curiosity of (and interaction with) a varied audience. Visitors bring their own gifts in terms of insights but also exhibiting courage in arriving with little direct knowledge but great interest. You can go a long way with that attitude, I have.

I had a hiatus of about a year before getting my studio set up here, a very long year. I have now had the pleasure of settling back into my work and feeling a bit less like the Emperor's New Clothes. I have an affection for this photo, it was my last studio in Singapore, look at the quality of the light! Monkeys used to come on fruitbowl raids along our line of houses, the heat was tremendous: a torch, forty degrees outside, a kiln running and no air-con. When the air-con men came to do a service they designated my studio 'Your junk room' there's a cutting down to size for someone who works small already.

Now I am seeing and feeling four seasons in one day- well I did miss Autumn and Winter in Asia. Thanks to all my guests and visitors, new and returning, what a pleasure.

The last time I saw Jill was in Singapore, I was teaching a workshop in the intense heat, two torches and a kiln for a heightener and NO air-con. About as far from an English summer as you can get so it was a delight to have Jill walk into my open studio holding a sculpture assembled from her very determined and deft days work in Asia two and a half years ago. Jill is a textiles artist but also the sort of artist who can't help but create things with things. Everything is a potential canvas, and although I specialise in glass now I fully share that feeling, stopping short of engaging in graffiti or tatoos..... but still enjoying those artforms.. Jill I am waiting for a photo! Cx

I have gone down the rabbit hole in favour of blue&white recently, here is a sampling. I scavenged a lot of blue and white china seconds while we lived in Asia and have a completely mismatched collection. The colours are so pure and cool in combination. I frequently drank tea at the amazing (and completely blue and white) Agalico tearooms in Bangkok, worth a virtual scoping out (google) if you can't get there in person.

The Suffolk Open Studios season starts with an exhibition at Blackthorpe Barn from 26th May to 4th June 2012. The exhibition contains the work of over Suffolk artists working in a wide variety of media. For more information please go to www.suffolkopenstudios.co.uk

I am artist #67 and following the exhibition my home studio will be open to the public for two weekends in July: 16th/17th & 23rd/24th if you are in the area please drop by for a look around and the chance to see me at the torch.

The Showcase at Blackthorpe Barn, Bury St Edmunds opens tonight. When I saw that it was a medieval barn I imagined a rough exterior and a gallery interior, actually the interior is pretty medieval too so it is a big difference from my last few exhibitions in purpose made galleries.

In June 2011 I'll be taking part in Suffolk Open Studios, a collaberative organisation run by artists. My studio (and those of many other Suffolk based artists) will be open each weekend in June so its a relaxed chance to engage with artists in their creative environment.

You can find my artist page, dates and directions at www.suffolkopenstudios.co.uk no new work there, it will be in my studio this June.

A calavera I like:

 “The English man is a skeleton

 so is the Italian

 and Maximilian;

 the Roman Pontiff,

 all cardinals

 kings, dukes and councilmen

 and the Head of State

 in the grave are all the same:

 only a pile of skeletons.”

I finally decided on 'Multiplicity' as a title and this is 'Framing Angie's' unique frame. A combination of spontaneous pleasure & hours of labour and applied skill.  A good metaphor for the benefits of art-enrichment. I forgot to measure it before framing so it will probably go down in the catalogue as 'Very Long'.