Installation day

This morning:


This afternoon:

the second one is quite close to my design visualisation

Getting out of the lifts:
1st floor
ground floor
lower ground

And the champagne is on ice.
Framed close-ups from my glass are going into the consulting rooms, but I haven't seen those yet.

Rainbows over Bodmin Moor

Regular readers of this blog will have noted that each autumn, at the start of each glass year, I have seen a rainbow. This time, while glassblowing in Cornwall, I saw two. A good omen, I thought. Some chunky stuff sits in the lehr annealing for 4 days and I have hopes that there are some winners in this lot. I can't go to Cornwall again until I make some serious sales.


cf 2 October 2006 (rainbow over the South Downs);3 September 2005 ('Rainbow over Istanbul', scroll down) and 29 September 2004 (rainbow over Malvern Hills). Can't find the 2007 and 2008 ones but I know they were there.

Chase Auction

This vase sold at the auction in aid of a children's hospice. Interesting because now both my 'pinch-edged' vases have sold, even though as we were making them we thought they weren't completely working. I like the idea of hand-shaping the contours of a vessel, but realistically I think one would have to make a shaping jig to do it evenly. And that just isn't financially viable.

Echoes in Ely

Two charming details from panels at the Stained Glass Museum in Ely Cathedral (a wonderful eyeful in itself, glowing in autumn sunlight as we arrived and then bathed in magical lighting as we left). Top: a 1930s artist (silly not to take the name down) and a sweet little medieval rebec-player - illicitly snapped. Fun looking at glass with other glass-makers, because each of us saw something to share with others and knowing about the techniques involved made it a richer experience. Very nice to get up close to stained glass windows as well. Earlier in the day we'd agreed to hold another Glass Echoes exhibition in September 2011: venue as yet undecided. We'll somehow contrive to keep the echo theme.

at Windows

Anything that has a glass connection has a place in this blog. That could be just about everything, but I have to have some limitations. I think Galvin at Windows counts (just as Murano did). 28th floor of the Hilton and we sat at the window for out 40th anniversary of the day we met. And had:

pink Pommery champagne
amuse bouche of butternut squash mousse with parmesan froth

J: oysters with cucumber, ginger & ponzu dressing
S: seared scallops, pumpkin purée, pomegranate, wild chickory, smoked bacon and maple vinaigrette

J: venison on a bed of stranded Savoy cabbage, potato mash swirls and delicious sauce
S: pigeon with beetroot mash and other bits
a very good Rhône (their cheapest at £27

pear tarte tatin for 2 (enough for 4)
Sauternes
coffee with petits fours

an anniversary platter of chocolates (which we took home)

idfx magazine

I'm in an article on recycled glass in November's idfx magazine - not a journal I know, but it looks worth getting. I wonder if I will get any approaches as a result of it. Good publicity - in theory. And I told the journalist about Zest - which shares the page - so that's nice. Not sure either of us would have known about the article if I hadn't asked. Also it's a shame a magazine on design doesn't credit the photographer.