Or did I mean Trials?

Serious ups and downs over the last couple of weeks.

As coordinator of the SAACT I was sweating it for a whole week on delivery of this years very special catalogue, eagerly jumping out in front of delivery vans coming down my street for what seemed like days and days….But then they arrived! (“Hallelujah”I cried.) And all was ‘up’ as I toured the county delivering them to our outlets.

So on the ‘up’ I went to visit Peter my pal with the kiln to get my latest glass fired pieces and then came the ‘down’. My beloved curlews had over-fired and what had been stunningly beautiful EAG streaky glass was reduced to murky opaque brown….Serious downer. Hours and hours and days of work reduced to nothing!

The following morning and washing all my other pieces, things were looking better. Foiling and joining on the Saturday produced a wee street of painted ‘Wee House’s on the Hill’. (Slowly going back up).

But from every great down comes a great ‘up’. Inspired by failure I came up with a design for a panel. It would incorporate cute wee painted sections and my favourite shot-blasting. (I miss those guys on the shop-floor!)

Designed around my Brothers house, I drew up ‘School House Farm’.

Ed at the shot-blasters informed me that the font I had chosen was really just a little bit illegal, it being the font used in the Wainwright Guides, (but that’s meant to be a secret, ssssssshhhh!!) So that put me on a definite upper. You can’t beat being just a bit naughty to put you in a good mood, can you?

Had a blast once again on their machine and tried carving out a sandpiper – (neeeeeearly worked).

And my newly developed delicate touch produced no holes in any case on the text sections.

I have experimented again with my painting technique, laying down a mat of umber and painting black line over the top. (No room for mistakes with this one!) You can see my work in progress here but if you want to see the finished panel you are going to have to come along on the Trail.

And yeah, I’ve had other downers cos I am working so blinking hard at the moment. But, outweighed by the ‘upper’ of trotting over Hutton Roof last night with my running pals and sharing a pint after and not caring about my achy knees.

Yeah, life is good. And I haven’t minded at all getting grubby grouting today.

See you all soon at my best ‘gig’* of the year…but a few more late nights to be had first though.

*Best gig = Venue 13, The Silverdale and Arnside Art and Craft Trail. (Look out for the bunting!)