Clare Gaylard Glass 

From our time in Thailand, have I said this before? Apparently broken China was used as ballast by trading ships, then up-cycled into splendid mosaic if it reached Thailand.

My mother would have liked these.

.... got out and made glass sweets.

Told by John Fowles but more remarkable for the extraordinarily fluid, monochromatic illustrations by Sheliah Beckett, who I find died recently. I had a copy of this book as a child and managed to extract permission to colour it in. I did so poised between joy and a sense of vandalism.

My daughter made me 'Death of Rats' last year, inspired by the hilarious 'Reaperman', Sir Terry will be sorely missed by our immediate and extended family.

Some Roman Tomb test pieces I made on a gold leaf kick a couple of months ago. They haven't worked their way into a full story but they will, if you flamework you will see they haven't been cleaned properly yet, but just look at the colours.

A post-medieval, English posy ring for a man's hand: 'I like my choyce' engraved inside. Pleasingly understated and right to the point.

A Victorian-era, French ring with discreet text behind the rosy panels.

A bit of an open secret this one, I'm going to have to dig around a bit more for its provenance. neither discreet nor understated,......I'd wear it.

We do manage to hit Camden Market on the good days. This time in quest of DMs and a bowler hat, neither for me.

I'm madly envious of the range, depth and beauty of Chiara Bautista's drawings. She in a maverick Mexican artist with her own iconography, recurring characters and enigmatic story-arc, and an immense and growing following who adore her work but can't buy it as she simply posts it to her facebook page along with the links to the lyrics or music that have triggered the image. https://www.facebook.com/chiarabautistaartwork

'Magpie and Me' in Framlingham has a collection of 'Love Letters' by different artists. My 'Q' for Queen of Hearts and my 'E' for Eve.

This Piper/Reyntiens collabaration is quietly resplendent in Aldeburgh Parish Church. stunning colours and lyrical lines that don't do the other windows in the church many favours. The church looks out onto the sea and Britten and Pears rest in the graveyard. LOvely place.

Not sure why I haven't seen this amazing image a hundred times before, it is a gloriously scarlet and abundant tribute to the usually washed-out 'Virgin Queen'. we came across it at the Tate while looking at DR Brian May's (yes that other Queen) 'Poor Man's Gallery' of Victorian stereoscopes. Well worth a look at the stereoscopes, but this painting was an excellent relief for my aged and confused eyes.

Tiny planets: experiments for a commission. A scaled, night walk around our solar system, I'm only responsible for the earth, which comes in at under 1cm! More of which later.  

My youngest was a blown away by the recent, revisionist version of Maleficent, so her big sister got out the acrylics and duct-tape and got to work on the makeover of an old  Barbie for Christmas. As a tall, thwart, dark-haired child, I had time for Maleficent even in her unreconstructed state. All kinds of fun.

But I need to keep my studio ventilated, hence the gloves. Some warm colours.

Is an unexpectedly, large, light, unconventional and user-friendly gallery-space in St Helen's Street, Ipswich. Some of my glass is there alongside a wide range of multi-media art. There are new exhibitions every month and the energetic, welcoming and creative curators.

On the right he splendid and (to my eyes) pleasingly, robust crown of King Wenseslas. The acerbic Empress Maria Theresa called it a 'fool's cap'. I've been happy making some considerable handfuls of glass rings, the sort of ring a dying monarch might press into the hand of a faithfull retainer or co-conspirator. Reliquaries, heft, fading splendour, Byzantium, I was thinking. An artist friend palmed a half-dozen, rolled them around in an assessing hand and quietly murmured: 'Gaudy'.

Came and went in an orgy of pumpkin carving and uncanny-valley face-painting. I have had this on my file for Valentines Day but always forget to post it. It is less noir than the infants we launched into the town. The Lovers of Valdaro.

A monochrome cornucopia of the elaborate, unabashed and splendid. We hit Austria, Germany and France this summer and these are fountains in the grounds of 'Mad King' Ludwig's replica of Versailles on lake Chiemsee. He only spent a night here before being assasinated and reading between the lines he may have been taken out before he could thorougly bankrupt his people.