Best laid plans

I'm afraid the market has been cancelled for today. I was just setting off about half an hour ago when I got the call. It's not too bad where I am (about 50 miles North of Cambridge) but freezing fog and icy roads have forced many stallholders to decide not to travel. You really need about 10 stalls to make a decent showing. There were 15 of us on Friday and Saturday was full with over 30 stalls.

I will keep an eye on the forecast for tomorrow but Countryfile were forecasting a big lump of snow for Tuesday; they're often wrong on predicting snow so I can't say whether I'll be there tomorrow or not!

It was quite funny when my mobile rang because we were sat in the drive about to leave and heard the tone, I'm not familiar yet with receiving calls on my new mobile. It sounded like an alarm on the car, we went round checking the doors were closed, seatbelts etc. before it rang again and this time I felt the vibration and realised someone was ringing me :-) I couldn't get hold of the market manager (busy ringing everyone else no doubt) so I tried my sister, she had her mobile phone turned off. She normally stops overnight at my mum and dad's house after she's done the Sunday main market (they live much closer to Cambridge) so I tried ringing there but Sharon had decided to go home and so I woke them up! :-/ Ooops, sorry mum and dad!

Extra days

I will be doing some extra days at All Saints Art & Craft Market in Cambridge on this coming Friday (17th), Saturday (18th) as usual and also the following Monday (20th) and Tuesday (21st). This is subject to weather allowing me to get there (I note the forecast says it's due to turn cold and snowy again from Thursday onwards) and that I have sufficient stock left.

I am running out of some things due to the fact that I cannot replenish my bead stock. Additionally, some silver items have sold out and there is now not enough time left for me to have the items assayed and put them back out on the stall or post for Christmas. It's very unlikely any items ordered now will reach you in time for Christmas but if your item is in stock, I will be happy to post it first class to you. Please e-mail me first to check availability.

The part for my kiln has arrived this morning so I'm now going, screwdriver in hand, to see if I can fit it. It may be a job for DH but I'll keep you all posted (ha, may my performance in that regard be better than Royal Mail's!)

No market today

I telephoned the Market Manager this morning just past 6am this morning to check whether to travel to Cambridge and for the first time this year, he told me no, he wasn't going and he asked me to let my sister know (Arcturus Jewellery) as well. The Art & Craft market is therefore cancelled and so I won't be at my stall today.

Hopefully everything will be more back to normal tomorrow and I will be there then, I am also planning to be there on Monday as well.

In praise of Laura

I had a brilliant day at the Art & Craft market yesterday, it wasn't nearly so cold as last week. I brought my hat, scarf and mittens but didn't even need to put them on. I wasn't getting caught out by no woolly tights under my jeans this week but I have to confess, I found myself a bit on the warm side in my long johns! The BBC were also forecasting rain for Saturday for most of the week but fortunately, on the day, the rain was only in the early hours of the morning, it stopped for me to sell jewellery and then started again just as we were packing up (which I don't mind!)

So, in addition to great weather, my favourite buskers, the Beatles (not the real ones!) were playing and they give a great atmosphere. The danger is though, that you sing along to all the songs and don't engage with potential customers visiting the stall! They were a trio this year, I'm sure they were just a duo when they last visited us, the one doing the drums looked just like Ringo Starr!

And then, bestest thing of all, favourite beadmaker, Laura Sparling, turned up with her boyfriend, Chris. I've only met her twice now - both times quite briefly - but from reading her blog and website, it feels like I know her quite well! Unfortunately, we didn't get much time to chat because customers kept wanting buying things (tsk! ... only joking, I'm very grateful for the business, thank you, you lovely people!)

I did get time to show her the first four roly poly beads I made using her latest tutorial, they're really fun to make. Whether reading the blog, website, downloading tutorials or meeting her in person, I always seem to learn something. On Saturday, Laura could see from my beads that the roly poly bit was lopsided (one was straight so I'm improving!). I thought it was just me having a tendency to melt glass more on the right which was causing it to be lopsided but Laura says when she was teaching recently at someone else's studios, she had chance to try out lots of torches and they're all hotter on one side; I just need to compensate by holding it more to the left. I'm not posting photographs of the beads here as they're nowhere near sale-worthy yet but I am going to practice a bit more in the new year.

Before she left, Laura gave me a present, she is such a thoughtful person, not only did she remember that I avoid palm oil when she bought me some festive Christmas Santas, but they were also milk chocolate (which anyone reading my blog will know is my favourite!) I was half expecting her to stop by my stall if she got time, but it was a big surprise to get a lovely pressie too!

If, like me, you love beads, then I recommend you purchase a copy of the Beads by Laura 2010 calendar. I've got mine a few days ago and its really of a very high standard with beautiful, quality pictures of the very best of Laura's colourful beads. It's going to hang in my studio where I can admire and be inspired by her stunning work!

Back to normal

I'm so glad to report that the Craft Market in Cambridge was back to its usual "tranquility" yesterday, lots of shoppers, bank holiday weekenders and day trippers amid the trees and stalls at All Saints on Trinity Street. It was a pleasure to be there on a lovely summers day. There was a jazz musician just outside and some really nice laid back "lazy" numbers were drifting in over the buzz of the shoppers which suited the atmosphere perfectly. I'm not usually much of a jazz fan as I tend to think most of the fast stuff just sounds like someone tipped some instruments down the stairs but the cool, mellow stuff is .... great! ;-)

After complaints and e-mails from various stallholders (including me), the Markets Manager and the Council, the police sent a couple of officers round on patrol a few times and they stopped by to have a word with me saying that they were going to nip this thing in the bud. They are apparently putting the word out amongst the street people that anti-social behaviour would not be tolerated in the Craft Market. If they defy the message and there are further transgressions, there would be arrests. I found it most reassuring.

It has however given me a bit of a kick up the backside that I am too reliant on my income from the Craft Market so I think I'll be upping my on-line presence. Much as I love the craft market and the way of life it affords me, I can't see me sitting out in all weathers when I'm approaching pensionable age!

I already have an account with Etsy as I do buy from there quite often but I haven't sold anything yet. I shall also look into Artfire, Folksey and other places too. I found Ebay far too expensive to sell from when I tried that 3-4 years ago. The on-line sales sites that specialise in hand made items seem far more reasonable in their listing fees. From what I can see, Artfire seems to be free ... they must make their money through advertising perhaps.

I must stop by that shop that Laura mentioned in her comment last week as well, though I'm not sure they would take my items all the time I am also selling in the craft market but perhaps if I developed a new range exclusively for them. In the meantime, here are a couple of new design earrings that went on display this week for the first time. They are both priced at £20, not on the website yet but soon will be. The black ones feature my black/silver bubble beads, different shapes of onyx and some antiqued chain. The other pair have a super new (to my designs) shape of swarovski crystal nuggets and some bumpy beads made in transparent straw yellow glass. The bumpy bits are made from stringer of silvered glass and these have been reduced to very shiny golden dots. Excuse the peculiar photographs, I needed to hang them from something as they're so long!Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend!

Sunshine at last!

I have rummaged around in all my jewellery boxes and fished out most of the jewellery that hadn't been photographed and so there are lots of new things on my website, particularly on the Lampwork page, where there are countless new bubbles products, the Red Mist Charity page has new earrings and a bracelet and the Recycled Blue page has new Bombay Sapphire bracelets.

Here's a photograph of the red bubbles I promised, and I forgot about another new colour I added to the bubbles range in amber glass so here's a pair of the earrings just to show those off too, but follow the links above to see many many more glass bubbles.

I hope to see you on my stall at the Art & Craft market on Trinity Street in Cambridge tomorrow - the forecast is great, no rain at all and some lovely sunshine, especially in the morning; grab your sunhat and I'll see you there!

Handy mittens

My new mittens came in for some use yesterday when I was on my stall. It was cold and wet - both of which we can manage with, but the wind kept gusting. Wind is the hardest thing to deal with on an outdoor market. The tarpaulins get little puddles of rain in them, no matter how tightly you fix them down and when the wind blows, the puddles drain onto whatever is beneath the edge of them. Hopefully not a potential customer! Things fall over, prices blow away ... I'd rather it were wet all day than windy!

Half way through the day, we all wished we had just stayed in bed, there were precious few customers about and I think I just about broke even! Even so, nice to see a couple of regular customers and chat to them and it was great to find out that my mittens were a big success!

DH is off on a jaunt with one of his flying buddies today, he is going to Cromer and promises to bring back fresh crab for dinner! I have loads of jobs on my to do list:

1. Put all the foam inserts into my new boxes order which came this week
2. Publish photographs of new items on my website
3. Tidy up my studio, the desk looks like a glass bomb has hit it
4. Get up to the date with the ironing (note that item is right at the bottom!)

Not the most exciting of days but I will feel very virtuous when they're all done and ready to get on with the fun of making things next week.