Clare Gaylard Glass 

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...

Pre-Christmas Aldeburgh, windless silver and deserted, in its own micro-climate.

Happy Winter Solstice! Hoping folks have a better chance of seeing the Great Conjunction than us - yesterday’s perfect skies have given way to clouds and rain. A little pair of glass and silver planets as a substitute.

Before ordering from my shop, some post from this week has been delayed.

A flurry of boxing up and posting, Monday is the last day Royal Mail give for first class post in time for Christmas. HOWEVER there have been delays, if you are looking for guaranteed arrival please contact me for special delivery rates. You can of course also find a selection of my glass, year-round in @walsinghamgalleryandframing along with many other good things.

Only two kings here, a pair of tiny memento mori / vanitas earrings off to mark a special event.

Not an orrery! I have a friend with a nativity collecting ‘habit’, I saw Sebastian Berge’s #minimalist #colour version at the RA shop around this time last year. I didn’t stretch to a stable, that was a last minute thing anyway as I recall... it remains to be seen if she can work out what it is, as it will arrive without instructions...

More glass celestial bodies: I have made some Blue Planet hair sticks.

Blue Planet pendant, a small glass and silver world at your fingertips, made in the flame.

Would you rather have a galaxy or a planet in your hands? The sort of decision usually presented only to an evil genius or a superhero...

You can now also find a selection of my glass at the Winter Exhibition at Aldeburgh Gallery, alongside the work of other selected artists and makers. Just across the road from @lescargotsurmer and right next door to @aldefishnchips ...

In Harleston today, visiting Old Harnessmakers to see their gem-like, winter show. Lisa Henshall has a magpie-eye for unusual and beautiful artist and artisan-made objects. One of the glass objects I have there - and the distinctive entrance which will catch your eye on the London road.

Like walking alongside (or under) falling chandeliers as it thaws. Some of the glass I have with Old Harnessmakers in Harleston where Lisa Henshall Art has curated a beautiful range of work from from local and national artists and makers.