HAPPY NEW YEAR AND ALL THAT

This will be my last blog for this year but that isn’t really an occasion to celebrate since I don’t blog often. I write a lot, maybe too much but not always for public reading. The following is part of my editorial for the Journal of the British Society of Scientific Glassblowers. Happy New Year and questions on a postcard please

Do you frequently stress about meeting basic needs and don’t always achieve them or are you comfortable in meeting all your basic needs? This is not a theoretical question but one that I was confronted with when thinking of booking tickets to a conference titled “The Power of Glass.” It was organised by Craft Scotland at venues in Edinburgh for face-to-face meet ups. When one looks at the price differences between the ticket categories then as someone who can meet my basic needs, I should be happy to pay an extra £40 as opposed to a person struggling with the stress of paying household bills! Big question for me, who is monitoring this arrangement and whose bright idea was it to word the price ranges in such a condescending and judgmental way? What a crazy World we live in!

I wish to share a story with you. In August, last year I attended the International Festival of Glass at Stourbridge. Along with a friend who wishes to remain anonymous, but I will call him Alan since that’s his name, we attended an exhibition where we watched a video focusing on the work of Christopher Day. The commentary shook us by saying Christopher stated he was the only Black glassblower in the UK. Alan turned to me and said, “so what”? As I nodded in agreement my mind was racing overtime in thinking how true is that statement. I mean how many Black glassblowers are there? I know one or two so was Christopher lying? Was he speaking from a position of ignorance or was he just prejudice? Does it matter? If so, why? Christophers website explains that he is of mixed race. Doesn’t say if he’s any good or what his annual income is or as far as I could tell his sexual orientation. So, we have just one insight into a multifaceted human. Just like every single person that is living and plenty more that are not. I like his glass art but not enough to buy any of his work but then I am poor and working class so we as a section of Society don’t deserve art – do we? What a crazy World we live in!

I like a challenge but a recent experience with a customer led me into a parallel universe where measurements seemed to be unappreciated, misunderstood, and irrelevant. Having agreed to work with an artist who supplied me with a drawing using centimetres as the main unit I commenced the project. The final work consisted of glass tubes joined together to form a coral shape approximately 90cms by 100cms. I was to pack it securely and await a courier to collect. After informing my customer of the dimensions of the package it transpired that she hadn’t realised or appreciated the size of the finished item and therefore this exceeded the conditions of the courier. Making an object with a defined size to fit inside a box which was smaller than said object is a skill set that I don’t possess. Of course, this activity was set against a deadline, and I did wonder if I was expected to travel back in time as the timescale was minus twenty-four hours! What a crazy World we live in!

So, there I was, walking along Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow, feeling excited as I was going to meet BSSG Chair Robert for coffee prior to our Scottish Section meeting. You can read more about the meeting later in this issue of the Journal but first let me tell you what shocked me. No, not that Robert did indeed turn up on time, actually before me, but I witness a serious case of disgusting consumerism flaunting itself in the Glasgow rain! Outside JD Sports shop was a long line of people queuing up for obvious bargains. What confused me was that many of them had bags with the JD logo on so had obviously visited the shop before. Some had several bags and were being hold as if they contain precious metals! In fact, their contents were precious but (in my opinion) only trainers. I asked the security guard at the shop entrance what was going on, as being from the far North then felt out of touch with the “real” World. It was explained to me that shoppers were buying trainers at £110 then selling them on-line for £150, thus making £40 profit. Customers were only allowed one pair each at a time to purchase so they just left the shop after completing their deal and re-joined the que to buy again. This pattern was repeated until the shop sold out of all products. What a crazy World we live in!

To be continued………………….. (Maybe?)