About Me
Well what to say, always a tough one, do I blow my own trumpet or hide behind a tree?
Those who know me will probably say I do a little of both so here goes:
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I'm still not sure what I want to do when I grow up but the last 50 years have been a blast as I try to figure this one out! Fortunately whilst my jobs have been full time, they are regular hours leaving weekends and holidays free to explore many crafts - and I have explored a lot. The lightbulb moment came on a significant birthday when I asked for a small kiln to do pendants, a little one will do I thought as I'll only be dabbling - mmmm should've known better. Six months and one course later I'd outgrown that kiln and upgraded to a bigger one, this one saw me thru' the next 5 years, countless craft fairs and the start of my workshops.
Ah yes, workshops, this is where things got serious. I'll forever be grateful to Marie at Silveripple Jewellery who took the risk of letting me do my first workshops in her gallery. The first one had only one person booked, the format was tweaked and the next two were fully booked with 12 people in each - we were off!
In the three years of doing workshops with Marie we worked out over 450 people had done a workshop, with some coming on a regular basis.
However these workshops meant a bigger kiln was needed so kiln number 3 was researched and purchased and a shed extension had to be built to accommodate it.
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Four years ago we moved to Kingcot and I had my eye on one of the outbuildings as a perfect workshop. Classes started up again and as I had a few repeat students, evening classes were slotted in so they could work on bigger projects of their own. Of course as things were growing kiln space was at a premium so yet another kiln was researched and bought - I still have them all.
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As with all craft you can always acquire a tool that will make life easier and along the way I've got a sandblaster to help with engraving and cold working, another kiln for vitrigraph (for those who are counting that makes five), a fabulous tile saw for pattern bars and a whole host of circle cutters.
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All of this can be seen at the gallery on the open days and workshops are run on a regular basis.