BLOG – 35 YEARS AGO BLOG 28

I pride myself that I can make anything out of glass but that’s not exactly true. For example, I can’t make (nor would I want to) make a Caithness Glass rosebowl. Yes, I have been asked, and I have recently been asked to make a window frame for a front door. Funny thing was the person asking was the local traffic warden and I did think maybe I should try and accommodate his needs as an investment in case I parked on a yellow line! I also can’t make Edinburgh crystal wine glasses nor glass ash trays pressed by a huge machine, thousands at a time in China for a penny. In fact, there are things I can’t make but I will just keep quiet about them as it would be complicated to separate what I can and can’t do. My default is always yes and then panic after.

When starting this glorious glass journey, I spent time working for a person making ornaments using the glass knitting process. I could do it but not fast enough to make any money and really hated this technique as it was overly decorative. One doesn’t see this type of glassware now except in charity shops. The products always cracked but the crack could be seen since the glass was just layered over and over and over.

One of the hardest products I tries making were lots of glass tubes with a wall thickness of 0.5 mm! The glass was so thin you could press a finger on the surface and watch a dent appear. Horrible job to do and took me days to make just a couple. Similar work does test the concentration levels in me and looking back at some of my work completed over twenty years ago I do wonder if I could make it now. Part of my reluctance is not wanting to, so my motivation has gone.

There is much more I want to make in glass that I hate looking back. I don’t even like looking at myself in the mirror!