It is always a very early start for me to work and prepare my glass during these hot summer months. With the mounting fuel costs, it is important for me to aim hard to utilise the sunshine with the solar panels positioned on our house roof but however, once the sun moves around to the side of the house where my studio is situated it is impossible for me to work in there even with the doors open. So I do have a limited time scale in the mornings although sometimes I could work in the evenings spending many hours preparing my glass work before fusing or slumping.

Additionally of course, I also want to use any solar power collected that I can to limit my soaring electricity costs, so the earlier in the morning that my kilns can be programmed to switch on, the better. Another area that is vital is for me now is to fill my larger kiln with enough work as possible to limit the requirement to switch on a second kiln.

Life has certainly changed over the last year or two for us all .......