Clare Gaylard Glass 

We drew a blank. However having seen 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' we were able to follow accidentally-found, graffiti clues to the Mr Brainwash exhibition. Which was very different to Banksy with his pared-back imagery that delivers a deliberate or deliberately-ambiguous punch, this was like watching a child let loose in a sweetshop, disturbing overindulgence and very heightened fun. These images are on and around the exterior of the building. The interior was even more-so, kids demanded a second visit and it was no hardship.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19076471

In Cambridge to see the amazing 'Search for Immortality: Tomb Treasures of Han China' exhibition at the Fitzwilliam. I lived in the heart of Cambridge for three years and did my postgraduate teacher training at Hommerton College, so a visit back is always a slightly wistful thing. Trailing six children aged between fourteen and five was a practical challenge but we were all fascinated by the jade burial suits.

There were two, each comprising of more than 2000 squares of jade, the first stitched with red thread and the second more refined piece pinned with gold wire. All of us were struck by the thorough-going, highly-crafted and complex nature of this quest to conquer or appease Death.

I take it as a good omen that I'm presented with a bouquet of roses on my return to my studio.

Rosselyn Chapel - the beauty is in embracing the hectic richness of detail - rarely a hardship for me.  An ornate jewellery box with intriguingly jumbled contents. Da Vinci code and Flying Butresses.

A rabbit warren, an Aladdin's cave, a Tardis and a treasure-chest of childhood memories.

. www.thehamiltiontoycollection.co.uk

Fairly uninhibited doodling, ideas for a Blue&White lampwork ring commission.

I am still working through a Blue&White jag, in this grey, so-called summer so for relief here are some of my photos from Thailand. Apparently boats from China used broken china as ballast and so the thrifty, artistic Thais took re-cycling to a glorious artform on their temples.

A weekend of baking, two birthday cakes (already gone) and here: three for charity and one for us that didn't quite work. If I am going to engage with a project I like it to be sizeable, I put that down to coming from a family of nine, never knowingly undercatered. 

'As I walked out one evening,

Walking down Bristol Street

The crowds upon the pavement,

Were fields of harvest wheat.'

I walked out this afternoon, without a camera, the fields were full of harvest wheat. I learned the Auden poem by heart many years ago and it is more full of beauty and complexity than many feature length films. Photo to follow if I remember to take my camera before the harvesters come.

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.

Grayson Perry's 'All in the Best Possible Taste', Amazing, though it's a brave person that would have him round to theirs for a visit. Above: The Agony in the Car Park

A schoolchild asked me last weekend how I 'get' my ideas. I have kept sketchbooks and scrapbooks since college. Some ideas and images take hold deep and fast, but others need to be recorded and digested. These books are resources, diaries and catalogues. I use ink in my sketchbooks so I can't clean up and edit too much and I tear the pictures for my scrapbooks so I can't get precious.

In the Princess Arcade near Picadilly in London you can see some wonderful Faberge eggs. These are some of my eggs.

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

Picasso's Vollard Suite is showing at the British Museum. Lots of fluid etchings with his minotaur alter ego showing a good deal of ambivalence towards the females depicted. here is mine, behaving.

I once saw an old film of Picasso painting onto a backlit screen. This permitted you to see how he mapped out his work. He never started wth the salient points but used a series of abstract lines that slowly resolved themselves into a figurative work.

I've been following artist Marina Bychkova for some years, a consummate artist who creates remarkable ball-jointed, porcelain dolls. www.theenchanteddoll.com

Yesterday was my birthday. Sweet and Sour, macaroons from Laduree and 'Savage Beauty' from Alexander McQueen with its beautiful, dark, memento mori 3D front cover.

Another reason why random stacks of vases and blue&white china might present themselves as a visual conceit. Pottery Jungle in Singapore. I took these photos on a sweltering day, the children were shown how to use a potters wheel and we all got to peer into the Dragon Kiln set into the hillside. One side of the hill was littered with discarded, unglazed ceramics and every walkway and shelter was filled with china. Monkeys ran around on the rooftops and we worried constantly about Dengue mosquitos and bone fever.

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.