Having survived the pre-Christmas round of craft fairs and farmers market, we come into January and February, which we treat as a quiet time for experimenting and developing new styles and techniques. We are moving our home studio (only to another room), and this will allow us to use our cold working power tools more easily. They all cut or grind in water and tend to make a mess, so we will now have a dedicated area with its own sink. All very mundane, but even the most sparkly glass jewellery requires a bit of hard work and mess in the making! Pam is already experimenting in the new studio on some “heart” jewellery ready for Valentine’s Day, while I am still fixing shelves and cupboards. Over the holiday we visited our daughter in Manchester and we visited Chorlton, where we we’re very impressed with the Tapas bar and with Creative Recycling, a craft studio which, as you might guess, sprang from a desire to recycle all sorts of things, including glass. They do a small amount of jewellery but some very nice fused glass wall art at reasonable prices.

We are now trying to plan our 2013 itinerary, there are lots of craft fairs and canal events we would like to get to, but the rate of travel on a narrowboat and their location means some hard decisions have to be made. On the non-canal front we would like to do Chippenham and Tenterden Folk Festival, which we did last year and Greenbelt festival, which we love, but haven’t taken the glass to yet. More to come on this!