Hello, hello, yes Im back. Im sorry I have been quiet since my return, I have been rather busily running about trying to put the house into some sort of order having spent the run up to flame on charging around like crazy and as a result turning the house into a scene of chaos reminiscent of my bedroom as a teenager with piles of stuff everywhere !!
Im finally getting to the point where there are work surfaces visible again and life is returning to something approaching normal so its time to sit down and tell you all about the Flame On. I shall try not to end up with an epically long blog post but I feel it is only fair to warn you that I have made myself a hot drink (Vimto if you are interested, having just rediscovered it) in order to write this so you may wish to get a brew yourself and settle down in order to read it !
The trip did not get off to the most wonderful of starts as on dropping the cats off at the cattery her spottyness decided to take a great dislike to being "abandoned" and started to create and play up awfully shrieking, growling and hissing constantly at which point i apologised and scarpered quickly !!
We decided to take the ferry over to The Netherlands so we could take the car and himself decided that Harwich to the Hook of Holland was the best route involving the least driving on the "wrong" side of the road. The ferry was surprisingly nice and we had an excellent meal, all the lovelier as we were not expecting it !
Our first night hotel at Hoek van Holland is worthy of a mention for the sheer amazingness of the breakfast. With a "starter" of fresh warm croissants with fresh strawberries and cream, followed by a whole host of warm breads, meats, cheese, fresh fruits, boiled eggs and even fresh made pancakes !! and there were yoghurts and cereals too but we didnt get that far !! (Should you find yourself in the area we stayed at the
Hotel Noordzee)
There were also curious little boxes of "sprinkles" very similar to hundreds and thousands, for bread. My inner child was delighted, and when we came across a supermarket I had to buy some to bring home with me ! I can confirm that despite being very messy to eat they are very nice. ( I cant read the label as it is in dutch so I remain blissfully unaware of how many e numbers they may contain or how much sugar I consumed :) )
Anyway.. we got to Oosterhout without incident, had a very good coffee in a lovely little shop we found, which was served in fab little bodum double walled glasses (another thing to add to the must get list !)
Thus revived we went over to the hall where the Flame On was to be held we were introduced to Joyce who has been co-ordinating and organising and started the setting up process, amid a certain amount of chatting with the other stall holders
They day of the Flame On dawned with some nerves from me as my demo was to be first and despite having made the beads I was demoing many times I did get a touch of the shakes, however everyone was very kind and said that it was not very noticeable ! After my demo I relaxed a bit and was able to enjoy the demo's of the others. I dont have photos of the demo's but there are some excellent photos of them in
Mauro's facebook album .
I do have some photos of work that the artists had bought with them to sell so without further ado -
Michou's beads -
Mauro's sculptures -
Anouk's Beads -
It was lovely to meet everyone who came to say hello and great to see some old friends too ! I was very lucky and got to do some glassy swaps with some of the other stall holders so I will take photos of my haul of beauties and share them with you soon ! For now I must go and unearth the rest of my house but hope you enjoyed the pictures so far !
