A sorry sight

I have just picked up my new restoration commission, an old Alter box, which has really seen better days! I have ordered some lead and I am working on matching the colours, but as the owner informed me, “..anything will be better than whats there at the minute..” and I cant help but agree!

I will start getting down to work on it in a couple of weeks, hopefully there will be less daylight showing through when I have finished!

I have also finished, sold and sent this piece of Heacham beach for a wedding present, it is engraved with L & B and the date of their wedding.

I have also made and sold a large leaf window hanging, with 5 strings of 5 leaves, going from light green through to dark red. This is a 40th birthday present and I really hope she likes it, especially as the other part of her present is a stained glass lesson with me in my studio! I have started teaching now, more news of this to come later!

Last but not least, I am trying to list an item a day for the rest of the month on Folksy. There is a group on Folksy called the July Jesters who have been doing this all month and I have been inspired to join in, lets hope I can keep up!

I am hopefully having a stall at Torquay Carnival this weekend, on the Sunday (yet to be confirmed) in the marque, so look for me there if you are around. To which end, I need to get making more stock! I took lots more stock to Otterton Mill this week so that they can give me a larger display in the upstairs gallery. Which is lovely, but it has left me a bit low on stock! Right enough chatting, back to the workshop! OH, one last thing, the boat sculpture is still there! It has weathered its first week of high winds and rain, thank goodness!

Launched my boat!

Despite a wild night I got my sculpture up last night, in its spot, just to the left of Teignmouth Pier. It was a truly wild night for weather, lashing rain and gales and I had to really battle with the elements. However, it was still there when I went to finish it off today and I have got the Kaleidoscope in place too, so I really have completely installed it! The clouds broke for a brief moment for me to take a couple of photos……….more bad weather on the way tonight, fingers crossed it lasts the summer!

My sculpture is part of the TRAIL summer exhibition, this is a free sculpture trail running from Teignmouth to Dawlish (South Devon) seafront for the whole summer! All the sculptures are made of at least 70% recycled materials and it is a great day out for all the family, especially keeping the kids walking with interesting things to look at!  You can also vote for your favourite installation and there is a a prize for the public vote!

Lets just hope no one tries to take it for its virgin trip, it is very heavy and has 2 wholes in the bottom and is totally rudderless! I got some very strange looks from the surfers riding the massive waves last night and even stranger ones from the elderly people walking their dogs this morning!

My house is full of milk cartons…….but I have finished my boat

I have 310 2 ltr milk cartons stuck together in groups of 3 wide and 5 long and I have stuck together the tricky bits of the letter K and M for my milk sculpture. There are literally bottles everywhere and if you try and move them before the glue is totally dry they fall apart, its a nightmare! But I have made good headway, I have made all the parts of the letters and tomorrow I will stick all the parts of the letters together. I then need to spray paint them and fashion a cow head and tail out of the remaining few milk cartons………..I have till the 27th July and it looks like it is going up in the Taunton Branch of Morrisons,  I know nothing more!

Really got down to work this week and in every available second I was sticking glass on my boat sculpture, grouting it and then doing it all again to the sails. Its a large structure and it took bloomin ages! But I think it is going to look fab. I now just need to make the kaleidoscope that you look through to have a fun view of the boat, mmmmmmmmmmm it has to be installed by Saturday this week, better get on with it. Oh, and you cant see the whole thing till it goes up at the weekend, on the left is the sails being  under way and me  grouting the bath tub.

Super dad and Haunted Chapels!

Its been another extremely busy week for me! My brilliant father has once again shown himself to be a true super dad when I gave him an old bath I found in a garden in Exeter, some plastic sheeting and old bits of wood and asked him to turn it into a boat with a sail to become a sculpture! He did a fantastic job, as ever and is very tolerant of my hair brain schemes! I am keeping the full glory of the boat under wraps until it is finished, but here are a few photos of my dad making and me beginning to decorate my boat sculpture. Only 2 weeks to go till it is installed I had better hurry up!

Today I have come back from the first day of a two day craft fair at Salum Chapel, East Budleigh, Devon. There were not as many people come as any of us had hoped! I think the good weather and the women’s semi finals at tennis may have played a part in this! However, the setting is wonderful and what customers there were, were very lovely! I have made some useful contacts and may even have a couple of commissions! its not all about the money!

The Chapel is ancient, originally built around a tree, later rebuilt in the 17th Century with a false roof! where smuggled contraband was hidden! The chapel is reputed to be one of the most haunted buildings in Devon and the chapels wonderful guardian Kathy was full of amazing ghost stories including taped evidence of ghosts talking and the fact that every time the alarms go off in the night (one of the doors unbolts its self regularly, sending an alarm call direct to the police) the police refuse to enter the building and get the eldery and disabled Kathy to go in and check the building, cos they are too scared!!!!!!!!! Anyway, my stall looks lovely and any ghosts better stay away from my stained glass tonight!