Well, not that I've actually been away - just distracted. But intend to resume up-dating my blog - even if it means that people will realise that I'm slightly odd - most creative people are though, so maybe that's not a bad thing. For now though, I suppose I should let dear old Meg out into the garden (it is after 1:00 a. m, so I do hope she doesn't decide to bark) and then get ready for bed.

They do say that time flies as you get older - sometimes I think I must have been abducted by aliens (there are certainly some people who think I am on another planet most of the time) and come back to earth to find that weeks have gone by! ( Have I said that before? And no it's not the drink before you leap to conclusions. I casually mentioned to him indoors that I may be selling my kiln. Of course he guessed that that meant I'd be buying a bigger one. He just doesn't understand that there are times in a woman's life when having a bigger kiln is absolutely essential. It may be another case of sneaking it in when he's not looking - he doesn't read this, so he'll never know. I'll just have to paint it blue and then he definately won't notice.

Anyway, another momentous decision has been made. I've been going to my slimming class for 6 months now and have decided that the next step is to actually start the diet! When all those around you are eating chocolate,...........hmmm, how to end the sentence...........I know! Join in!

There isn't a single minute of any day when I'm not busy! It's as much as I can do to spare 6 hours a day to go to bed! (5 1/2 quite often). In a minute, well December, I'll be 50 - where did those years go, I was only 20 a few minutes ago. Anyway, I never thought I'd be upset at not being 50 already, but amazingly I am. In my day job, they offered volountary redundancies, which I could have put in for. However, being under 50 by mid-July, I would have had to wait 10 years for the pension. Had the opportunity come up in December, I could have (if they would release me) retired and made jewellery full-time ggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I'm hoping that it comes up again soooooooooooooon but not before December though.

I do have something to be chuffed about though, as since my last up-date I find that I am supplying 2 shops in Spain and also have several repeat orders from the USA and Australia, as well as regular customers from the UK - Gisellery appears to have gone global and I didn't even need a Gisellery blimp (see an earlier post)!

Don't tell my husband, but I'm thinking that I really, really need a bigger kiln sssshhhhhhhhh! (He's threatening to move me into a cabin in the garden)

I've always been the kind of girl who can find a logical explanation for anything. Well, today I found another excuse for having to buy a new outfit. The weather here has been atrocious the whole day. However, I still had to go out to do the weekly family shop, but simply had to find somewhere to shelter from the rain. I decided to shop at the Torquay Sainsbury rather than my usual Paignton branch and parked at the Willows, where there happens to be a large M & S. I decided that was by far the best place to shelter from the rain, spending a good 45 minutes in the Per Una Department. In the end I had to buy a few things to justify my being in there, in the hope that the rain would stop by the time I came out. Of course it didn't, but I am now the happy owner of a beautiful top (well it's 3 tops in 1 really) and a matching skirt. I still got wet, just not quite as soon as I would have done. I wonder if it will still be raining tomorrow?

I realise it's quite an age since I up-dated this page - but where did the time go. I decided I wanted a complete change to the site, not that I didn't like the previous design, but something about it always niggled me. I f I can fathom out what it was I may revert back to it. For now thoush I 'm in a purple but fresh frame of mind - must be the thought of Spring. I've been improving on my photography, but this has been a slow progression, due to the awful weather. Ideally, I need a cloudy day to get the best results - trouble is, cloudy days mean rain & wind too! With the lighter evenings though, I should be able to get more opportunities.

I'm still really enjoying playing with glass & sometimes even remembe not to slide it through my fingers (I've had a few cuts). My latest gadget is a glass grinder - trouble is it's still hiding in the wardrobe - my other half doesn't know it's there yet. I'm working on how to smuggle it out and actually use it! It's not the price of it (but they're not cheap), so much as the steady conversion of the house into a fully blown workshop that he objects to. Ah Well he loves me dearly, so I'm sure he'll come around (again). XX

I just can't believe it, in my head it's still September! Well that's another Craft Fair over with, thank goodness I've got tomorrow off to recover, although I dare say I'll be lighting my blow-torch, cutting glass and making a necklace plus doing the ironing and the shopping - all at the same time. But then women can of course multi-task. By 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, after two very long days, but with another two hours to go, 30 stall holders were to be found staring blankly out from behind their stalls, with a glazed and exhausted expression. Plus, it was FREEEEEEEZING! So, the next time you frequent one of these events, take pity on the poor stall-holders, who not only spend hours and hours and hours creating all the beautiful things on display, but also wear themselves out manning the stalls. Yes I know we choose to do it and it was certainly worth it to hear all the lovely compliments I received about my work. A heartfelt thank you to any of you who stopped to admire and purchase my jewellery. i hope you enjoy wearing it.

You may recall that I mentioned my friend being awarded the MBE. Well, I ran a little challenge amongst my bead-making friends, to design a fabulous focal bead for me to incorporate into the necklace that will be worn on her big day. The winning bead (designed & made by Kath Clarke from Bradford) is absolutely stunning. I now have to get busy making the necklace. Once it's completed I'll post a picture in the gallery.

AND.. the car is now Giselleried. Two delightful chaps from Apollo Signs in Paignton sorted it out. I decided against having the doors decorated in the end, as one wouldn't want one's car to look like a van or a taxi after all. No, I've settled for a rather fetching little number on the rear bumper. Don't worry, I have a reasonably large rear bumper (that reminds me, I really must re-start my diet!)

Picture now on 2nd Gallery Page!

With a mixture of nervousness and excitement, I've finally switched on the kiln. I'm hoping that I'll have made some pendants and a coaster, but I won't be able to open it up until tomorrow to see how they've turned out. I'm not expecting great things though, as this is only a trial "play" run really. Do you know how tricky it is to cut glass easily into small neat shapes? I've been very busy this weekend and have also made a few new pieces of jewellery, some of which I'll try to add to the site later. Of course I haven't had time to prepare proper meals and all of that, so apart from when my other half makes me boiled egg & toast for breakfast, I've had to resort to eating chocolate and Bombay Mix to keep my strength up.

I'm normally plannimg my next little adventure, which usually involves spending money that I haven't got - I can't help that, I'm a Sagittarian after all.  Anyway, I've decided to "Gisellery" my car. Of course it will be very tastefully done, although how much "taste" one can have for £20 a door, I'm not quite sure. When it's finished I'll add a picture to my gallery. My aim is to one day have one of those darling little advertising  blimps  Gisellerying around in the sky. Pie in the sky, head in the clouds more like!!

I've incurred my first bead-making burn. Merrily pulling stringers (for those of you who don't know, pulling stringers involves tweezing out a long thin straight pice of glass from a molten blob), I dropped one on the floor. Instinctively I picked it up OWWWWWWWWW! It was very very hot. Lovely numb spots on my thumb and fore-finger now with a nicely developing blister. That however is nothing to the burns experienced by my virtual (glass-forum) glass-making friends on a regular basis. Who was it said that "we suffer for our art" - or something like that?

I finally got my kiln out of it's box, well actually I didn't, my husband got fed up of seeing a big box just inside the front door. I've realised that there are loads of things I can do with it, such as make fused glass (including the space-age looking dichroic). My house is becoming more over-run by the day, not only with my jewellery components, but now also with glass nnd metal rods, hosing, flashback arrestors, blow torch and propane attachments. I'm also branching out into chan maille, so have had to add to my plier collection - I need a studio!

Got in from work to find that my kiln has arrived. However, I realise that I'm absolutely terrified of it! And I've absolutely no idea whre I'm going to put it  -  You know it seemed such a good idea at the time.

I spent the weekend at Newton Abbot Racecourse, manning my jewellery stall at the craft fair. Manning a stall for two days is very very tiring, but my good friend Lisa, who owns Aromatika had the adjacent stall and it was great to catch up. If you haven't checked her site out yet, I strongly suggest that you do. www.aromatika.co.uk I adore her products and they seemed to be very popular at the weekend.

The reason I'm excited, is that I've now ordered my kiln! Apart from that, another good friend has recently been awarded the MBE and has asked me to design and make the jewellery she will wear on her big day at Buckingham Palace. I just hope that I don't suffer from a lack of inspiration, which can happen when under pressure to create something special.

Busy Busy

I've neglected this page. I've been having such a lovely time  learning how to make beads, that the time has flown by. I am struggling to stop myself from ordering a kiln, if only I could sneak it into the house like a new pair of shoes (you know where I'm coming from ladies, I'm sure!). I am also busy preparing for the Craft Fair at Newton Abbot Racecourse which takes place this weekend. I doubt whether I'll add anything new to the site until after that.

I've got a few days off work, so have had a lovely day with my blow torch melting glass and making beads. But even more exciting than that, I've discovered that there is another Giselle Bratcher in the world, yes it's true. I emailed her and she has replied, so hopefully we'll get on well. How did I find her I hear you ask? Well if you search for "yourself" in Google, or some such search engine, any entries with your own name on come up. I couldn't believe it and neither, I think, could she.

At the moment I'm preparing for a MacMillan fund-raiser on Friday, where I'm taking my jewellery, plus a large craft fair, but will try to add a few more items to the site tomorrow.

Warm Regards, Giselle

I feel that I have reached that point in this website carry on, where I may need to understand what all this computer speak means, e.g <a blah de blah>:::///<> java script? html? site maps? submission techniques? - see what I mean, gibberish! We didn't have all this nonsense when I went to school. All I want to do is make pretty things and show them to people, that, I'm good at.

Have a good day. I'm going off to make something and leaving the gobbledygook for another time. 

I've been so busy this week, I've neglected this page (along with the ironing). I've decided that some of my photos need re-doing on a plainer back-ground. I also want to make some beads this weekend, so provided I don't expire from carbon monoxide poisoning due to the fumes emitted from the torch, you may hear from me later!

Got the shock of my life earlier, well no two really. First, I looked at my site on a different computer - thought I'd entered the world of Dr Who and that a great monster had risen from the deep! It was just the shell from the photo's. I'd forgotten to downsize the photos and the settings on the computer made it look ENORMOUS. Apologies if anyone has experienced the same - I'll sort it. Some people like the shell being there, some don't. I like it though, so for the time being it'll stay. I did buy a photo tent today, but I have a sneaky feeling the shell will creep in there too!

Second -   made my first website sale - two of the phone charms. I had spare beads of those though, so they are still shown as available.

Took loads more photos - I'll load them on a.s.a.p

Well it's raining!

I woke up to-day, full of excitement at taking some lovely out-door photos to add to the site, but it's pouring down. I'll need to focus all my attention on the more boring, but essential written information.

later.....

Humm.... managed to pour coffee into my husbands keyboard - he wasn't too cross, thankfully we have a spare. I've never done that before. Managed to take a few photos as it stopped raining, that is until the battery went in the camera. Oh well, it's another day tomorrow.