Alive again... fun with glassblowing.

[flexagon]

Yesterday I felt like myself again for the first time in two weeks. What a miracle to wake up feeling okay -- to have energy to do chores, go to the gym and still go out and be social and take glassblowing class with dr_alycat and cook_ting!

Now I know that glassblowing is awesome, and I see why everyone makes a paperweight before they make anything else... and I know how Chihuly does those wavy bowl shapes... and I want to go back and learn to blow a bubble so that I can make drinking cups. Unfortunately the school in question is really far away across town, which is too bad because they offer a lot of classes. But I know there is glassblowing at MIT as well, and so dr_alycat and I have pledged to see if there happens to be something tempting offered over IAP this year.

(Pledge complete. Grrr. IAP classes open to freshmen only? Maybe the right thing to do is take a class at Diablo and then weasel into the intermediate one.)

Like I really need another hobby. :-)

There is, by the way, an ongoing debate in my head between two voices. Both minimalist. One says "Have just a few meaningful items. Make things by hand so you really appreciate them." The other says "Have just a few things and don't be attached to them. There are better things to find meaning in than things."

The third voice just wants to play with molten glass.

Comments

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

I'm with the third voice. ;)

To a certain extent, I look at my pottery with your second voice. There aren't a lot of pieces that I've gotten really attached to, although there are a number of them. I give a lot of stuff away and donate a lot of stuff.

[mangosteen]

I did a class at Diablo about 18 months ago. It was fun on a whole bunch of different axes, but I think the most interesting thing about it was how it increased the resolution of my world.

"Oh, that's how Chihuly did the wavy glass bowls."
"Huh. I bet you could use some of these skills for candymaking."
"X is made that way because it's the easiest way to make it without fighting the material!"

If the only thing I got out of that class was being able to see the world on a finer scale, that would have been enough. As it turned out, I got a paperweight and a rocks glass out of the deal, too.

[flexagon]

Haha, yes to all that. It reminds me of the things I got out of manufacturing class when I was a mechanical engineeering undergrad: just a lot of looking around and going "I bet that was made by process X!"

Also, your instinct is dead-right: you can use those skills for candymaking. cook_ting is an ex-chef, and he was talking about the similarities between what we did and working with molten sugar... making ribbon candy and the like.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_swallow/]

that's awesome! glass is so compelling-- my sister is a glass art student and has a home lampworking studio. what I love is that the vessels and goblets she creates as drafts of homework are no longer interesting to her, so my very not minimalist kitchen is filled with them. :)

[niralth.livejournal.com]

Very cool!

I scratch my maker-itch by making cool things to give away. That way the meaningful things get made and I don't accumulate them (usually).

[flexagon]

*grin* The maker-itch... that's a good way of putting it.

I knit for myself, but luckily my output is extremely slow so I haven't exactly overwhelmed my closets. And I have let go of a couple of them.

[dr-alycat.livejournal.com]

about IAP -- darn it! But I think we should keep pursuing classes at Diablo or elsewhere. I think the 3 voices in your head should all concur that a wonderful, creative experience fits any of those viewpoints! After all, it's less about what finished product you have at the end and more about the experience.

[flexagon]

Yeah! In the new year I'd be way open to that! As an encouraging note, it only took me 30 minutes to get there from work (taking the Red/Orange lines from Kendall Square). That was much less time than I was expecting, and brings it into the territory of "maybe I could do it after work one day a week".

The experience beats the object, but I like hobbies that give me both short-term and long-term pleasure. There are at least two things I think would be very practical as objects as well as enjoyable to make from glass... drinking cups and Christmas ornaments. (I like glass icicle ornaments and have a hard time finding them, plus they'd make great gifts.)

Still grouchy in my head about not being able to make coffee cups that are good for hot liquid; but he DID say they do work with that "boro" stuff, aka Pyrex, so... how does one work with that? We'd have to go back and ask. :-)