I’m starting a blog , something I’ve never done before, and  also going to email my glass related customers about this non glass related topic. So I’m taking the idea of publishing, seriously.

Where I Am Now And What I Am Not

I’ve always had some guilt about not being a ‘real glass maker’. Not imposter syndrome; I think I maybe had that about parts of my life, but that’s another story.
Glass is the medium I work with, and have been using for the last 30 years, and no, I’m not passionate about it, I like using it, I can design and draw and paint with glass but not with other tradition media like paint.

My water colour painting is questionable, it’s sort of colouring in between the lines, although, at least they are my lines.

So, I don’t know a huge amount how glass is made; I don’t ardently follow other glass makers, because only the work of a few people interests me, and few of them use glass. Nor do I research how the different colours will react in the kiln, they seem to turn out OK, but there are people who do this in-depth analysis and I feel a slight guilt that I’m not one of them. I’m not a ‘real glass maker’.

 But I do think this is a common thought, possibly a common guilt for many artists and, seeing that all of us humans make and create and design to some extent, all the time, maybe it’s just part of being human and needing to strive.

So, to put the record straight, I play with this guilt, rather than take it seriously. I think my ideal, my ‘real glass maker’ is a bit of a joke with myself , knowing that I will never have these characteristics, and basically they don’t interest me.

I really enjoy what I do and am frequently pretty satisfied with it.

I’m starting a writing challenge to write a piece every week day for 21 days. The main theme is ‘place’ and my angle will be ‘exploration’ . I have no idea where it will lead…but I hope the beginning above will drop kick me into another orbit worth exploring.