I dream of glass – things I want to make, things I want to try, projects that went well, what I would do differently next time…
I love sunlight coming through stained glass and light bouncing off dichroic glass earrings and pendants I made when I see someone else wearing my work.
I love to look in the kiln and see the heat and the glass starts to bend and flow.
I dream of things that don’t exist and how I’d like to take a concept and give it life, with glass as my medium. This morning I was dreaming of doing chanoyu (Japanese Tea Ceremony) in glass – the spirit of the ritual, not tea pot and cups – I have some ideas…
When I don’t create I get crabby – just ask my partner! I wander about the house puttering and sighing and complaining that no one cares about my work, that the world really doesn’t need another piece of glass jewelry or a tile or a trinket – the world may not need it, but I need to express it – the muse always gets her way, sooner or later.
When I “do” glass I am playing, learning, burning, cutting, mixing, matching, contrasting, inventing, solving problems, testing colors, trying techniques, comparing textures, wondering what would happen if…
Sometimes I am amazed at the beauty of what I’ve made – and sometimes I quietly sweep the exploded scraps into the wastebasket – usually I find a way to re-use what didn’t work out how I intended – but always, always, glass teaches me – about beauty and fragility and strength and heat and patience and endurance and knowing when to stop, flash vent, cool down, and walk away slowly and let the glass anneal (heal itself with time) .
Kerry Ellen 2011
