Right now I’m reading up on writing. It was the one thing that I’ve been meaning to get around to “someday” that I hadn’t done much about. So I’ve been writing and I’ve been reading. I always read but it’s is a bit more directed when I’m trying to learn about something. I request books from the library, download workshops, read online articles, listen to podcasts… Basically fill up my brain with anything about the subject I can find.

My brain’s almost at the overflow point - that’s when I can take all these ideas and techniques and know-how and start connecting them together and trying new things.

It’s quite fun actually but I have to admit I’ve been neglecting my clay… But that’s ok. It’s time will come around again once the writing is more stable.

Snare me the soul of a dragon-fly,
The jewelled heart of a dew-tipped spray,
    A star’s quick eye,
    Or the scarlet cry
Of a lonely wing on a dawn-lit bay.
  Then add the gleam of a golden fan,
  And I will paint you Miyoko San.

Find me the thought of a rose, at sight
Of her own pale face in a fawning stream,
    The polished night
    Of a crow’s slow flight,
And the long, sweet grace of a willow’s dream.
  Then add the droop of a golden fan,
  And I will paint you Miyoko San.

Lure me a lay from a sunbeam’s throat,
The chant of bees in a perfumed lair,
    Or a single note
    Gone mad to float
To its own sweet death in the upper air.
  Then add the click of a golden fan,
  And I have painted Miyoko San.

–Mary McNeil Fenollosa

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html

This particular day, I took a small offshoot to the main loop. I’d been that way before, it doesn’t go very far, just down to a stream where the old beam bridge had been cut away because it was unsafe and the preserve doesn’t continue on the other side. I knew where it went. But that day, I noticed something, just the tiny hint of other feet wearing a path–not quite a trail at all–going off along the stream.

And I followed it.

As I came up over the rise a medium sized brown shape scuttled away, into the water or along the bank, I’m not sure. I saw a swampy pond, ghostly drowned trees sticking out of it and blackbirds crying the alarm over head. I startled a pair of mallards and then a great blue heron took off, landing further down the shore.

I sat there for quite awhile, watching the blackbirds and listening to the woodpecker in an old dead pine. Then I followed the bank for awhile, got my shoes muddy and saw a goose sitting quiet, almost dead, on a rock in the middle of the pond. I came back another day, just to be sure she wasn’t dead–she was that still. She had moved on her nest but was still faithfully keeping her eggs warm.

I had a wonderful afternoon that day and spent another hour wandering the woods and exploring, making my own path wherever I wanted to go.

You also get a really nice day planner at the class

There was a short little exercise that hit me. We paired up and the instructor had us introduce ourselves as we were ten years ago (just out of college, just married, etc) then as we will be ten years from now. That’s the part that hit me. There are a few dreams and idle plans that I’ve had in the back of my mind just percolating… because there’s plenty of time, I can always get to them later… But do I want to wait till later? If later isn’t now, when is it? It may turn out to be never.

So part of the class was thinking about our goals and values–where we want to be–then breaking it down and figuring out how to get there. I took one of my deferred, back of the mind, dreams and did just that. I have more goals but I’m going to concentrate on just this one for at least a month or two. Then I can see where I am, if it’s something I want to do and continue, and whether there are any other things that I want to add.

So now, off to learn how to hang-glide Ok, maybe I won’t follow that particular childhood dream but who knows?

If I have something challenging me at work, (as I have recently - in a good way since I get to learn some new technology) it seems to take up alot of my mental energy… When I get home I’m less likely to work on my own website or dig out my clay and try something new and ambitious. When things are a little more routine and I need a challenge, I start working on my own projects with renewed enthusiasm.

I think it works out fairly well though… As long as I don’t try to artificially force too much into my life. That’s when my art and hobbies become stress and work instead of an escape.

Not to say I haven’t been doing anything lately though I’ve done another round of fused glass, made my first PMC piece in the new kiln, then broke it while touching it up just a little more, then ordered some oil paste and fixed it… I also tried the glass powder freeze and fuse technique which allows you to make glass pieces from silicone molds. So I have been happily creative, I just haven’t been prolific. I will try to take some pictures and post on some of my attempts because there are some really interesting techniques.

But since I’m not forcing myself to get things done, I can’t promise exactly when that will be

Admission is the first step to a cure, isn’t it? It usually isn’t too bad being a procrastinator. An approaching deadline inspires me to buckle down and finally make that masterpiece (hopefully!) that’s been lurking in the back of my head.

So, I had looked at the deadlines for a couple contests in April and put them on the calendar months ago and put the dates in the back of my mind. One was the 4th and one was the 15th. And of course I completely switched them in my head so that I thought the one I really wanted to enter (Bead Dreams) was on the 15th - plenty of time! Except it isn’t - it’s the 4th. I realized when I turned the page for the calendar. Doh!

At least it’s an online entry so I can still send something in. It just won’t end up being the piece I was thinking of making if I’d had the extra ten days I thought I had. Oh well, now where’s that application to Procrastinator’s Anonymous? Maybe I’ll send it in sometime

So things I learned somewhat the hard way…

• It helps if you know what your glass IS. Most of mine are pieces I bought solely for the color to add to my kaleidoscope chambers so the COE is unknown. (You can’t mix COE’s or your glass will crack since the types will expand and contract at different rates)
• Cuttlebone casting looks really cool and is something I want to play with more, but I probably shouldn’t have cut the cuttlebone in two pieces because it cracked while fusing… That may be normal - who knows at this point?
• My temperature (1450 degrees F) wasn’t quite high enough for the glass I was using to bing it to full fuse
• Leave more room between pieces
• I could have some serious problems with getting addicted to glass!

So anyway, I got the kiln and we unpacked it and put it in the cellar near a door so we can vent it to the outside when needed. I ran through the first cycle empty just to burn off any residual oils etc from manufacturing. I did some reading online to find a sample fusing schedule for the kiln (temp was too low for this type of glass though). Then I set up my glass (irridized Spectrum stained glass) mostly on a kiln shelf on top of kiln paper. You use a different type of shelf for glass than you use for PMC which was interesting.

I also bought some cuttlebones from the pet aisle (parakeets use them) and carved some random shallow designs in one piece and a much deeper depression in the other. I used black glass with the irridized face down on the the shallow design and some assorted glass chips on the deeper depression. The black glass came out really cool (sorry the pic isn’t too good). It kept a bit of the irridescence but has the rough texture of the cuttlebone and the higher texture of my carved lines. The deeper carving didn’t work too well - too many air bubbles I think.

I also should have left more room (I knew I had too much stuff on the shelf) since a couple pieces fused together. I tried some colors of Pearlex mica powder on some clear glass (which must have a MUCH higher fusing point since it barely did anything) and the gold stayed but the blue and green seemed to mostly burn away. Something further to experiment with although I don’t like how most of the pieces, except the black textured one, came out.

I think I’m going to have some fun with this though

It made me wonder about my own. Is it personal? Usually I just think of something I want to make - an animal I want to sculpt, what I want it to look like, and then I make it… Is that personal? It doesn’t really sound like it when I put it that way.

But I think it is just the same. I almost always sculpt animals or something from nature. And I know EVERY artist is inspired by nature so while that may be my personal inspiration, it’s not very unique

But I’ve always loved animals. When I was a kid my family had a mini, hobby sort of farm. At one time or another we had ponies, horses, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, geese… And there were swallows flitting in and out of the eaves in the barn, and deer and pheasants in the fields. I spent alot of time outside, making forts, exploring or just sitting in trees and thinking. I read alot too - one of my favorite books was by Jacques Cousteau and full of fascinating ocean life. The walls of my room didn’t need wallpaper - I had them covered in exotic animals and landscapes pulled from National Geographic.

So is my art personal? Yes, I think so. But I might be able to make it a bit more so by thinking about where it’s coming from. And maybe using some of those childhood memories and sculpting the ones that mean something to me. I’ve already sculpted the swallows… They’re beauty and freedom and effortless flight, and a touch of my childhood.