glass as meditation
Glass artists create an astounding amount of scrap glass. Astounding. We are loathe to part with it, too. It’s humorous really, the amount of scrap you end up having. I have seen photos of scrap glass storage that is larger than the amount of clothing I own. No lie. Especially once you get into mosaics, because you can use tiny-tiny, little pieces in mosaics, or glass-on-glass (aka GOG). It’s a problem.
I had a thought at one point that I would begin doing GOG. After following a great group on FB for a year, I decided that the medium wasn’t for me. The level of minutiae was beyond me. GOG is much more versatile, in my opinion, than stained glass. Or perhaps I should say from my point of view. You can get a level of detail that is only equaled in those 1000+ pc tiffany lampshades. I severely dislike using small pieces in my stained glass. If I cannot get around a tiny piece, I will try a foil overlay. If that doesn’t work, I can suck it up, but I grumble the entire time. I am not quite as fanatically against small pcs as I was before I purchased Nick’s Grinders Mate. It is a great tool, and I would highly recommend it if you do not already own it. It will save your fingertips and nails when grinding.
I had begun to hoard glass scraps in anticipation of GOG. Once I decided not to do it, I thought perhaps I could sell it, but I never actually got around to figuring out the how-and-why of that. Last week I stopped by my local glass shop to pick up some copper patina, and my fingers began wandering thru a soda flat of some really great scrap. I began pulling pieces out, and the owner said those are already taken… she took me over to the pile of scrap. There was a ton of it. I have a couple of gallon milk jugs worth of scrap. She had 8 file boxes full, big scrap too, not just small stuff, like mine. It made my blood sing, to imagine it all sorted, and organized…
She mentioned that she wanted it gone, and I ended up offering to box it up for her and put it up on a couple fb groups to sell, move it for her. She said ok, but on the day, supplies weren’t on hand, so I declined. I had worked myself all up to sort glass scraps, so I decided to sort mine. It had been a weird, frustrating day and I felt like I was spinning my wheels. Walking in circles and getting all huffy. So I poured a glass of wine and sat down at my table to photograph, box and weigh scraps. I ended up dumping out my big receptacle, and spent a couple enjoyable hours sorting by color and singing along to Ozzy’s Boneyard on SiriusXM. I sorted about 15 lbs of scrap.
Posted the photos late last night, and by 10 am today, had sold all of it. I kinda wish I had more, now… and I have freed up a bunch of space on and around my work table. It has spurred me to photograph some other items I have, that I would like to sell, and begin listing them on ebay (not glass related). Good stuff.
love affair with stained glass 