Anyway, after a lovely holiday in France - the same place as last year, in the glorious Poitou Charente region, not far from Cognac, within days I was back to work, with a frantic rush to get ready for the first appearance - at the Malvern Autumn Show - of The Beads And The Birds, a coming together of lampwork glass artists and jewellery makers, in order to promote the cause of British artisan glass and jewellery.
The Birds consisted of myself, George Harper East, Julie Fountain and Vicky Prior, and while we didn't make a fortune in terms of sales, we had a lovely weekend, and the feedback from those people who called by our stand was incredibly positive - oh and a lot of customers went home with some lovely jewellery!
Apart from customers, some glass and jewellery friends called by to lend support, mainly Cath Throup and Lesley Gleeson, and by sheer good fortune, we found ourselves situated slap bang opposite the food hall. It would have been so rude not to sample the wonderful fare on offer, so Gloucester Old Spot pork pies, farm ciders, and Oggies really went down a treat!
(From left, Vicky, Julie, George, and me)
And since Malvern, I've barely had time to draw breath. It's been one endless round of Merched Y Wawr events - Drefach Felindre, Llandeilo and Clydach - along with a stream of customer orders, whilst trying desperately to build up my stock of jewellery ready for the run-up to Christmas.
Pearls are still very much in demand, but I'm also trying hard to concentrate on gemstones again, after an absence of quite a few months.
And now I'm off on my travels again, this time to Cheltenham, to the Ladies Association of British Barber Shop Singers Annual Convention, a three day event being held this year at Cheltenham Racecourse. I was approached by them earlier in the year to see if I would be interested in having a sales stand at the event, so I thought I'd try it out to see if it would be a good addition to my sales calendar.
I'll be back in a few days' time, so I'll tell you how it went!
Enjoy your weekend,
Nia xx
