Today’s photo is of my first attempt at making glass beads.  I posted in May about my first class in glass sculpting and about my nervousness and anxiety in trying new things.  And, how much I am loving working with glass.

Now, into my second course and contemplating joining the glass studio – me, an artist?! – I can feel myself relaxing into the flow.  In the first class, I focused a lot on following directions exactly from the instructor and trying to make each piece perfect. Now, as I get a better feeling for the glass and the colours, I am letting each piece take shape as it wills. More of a partnership between me, the glass and wherever inspiration comes from.

And, I am not worried about the “mistakes”. In fact, one important bead is missing from this photo. I was trying something with a bead and it didn’t work. I shrugged it off and said, “well, that was a failure”, dumped the bead and got ready to start again, feeling kinda proud of myself for not getting upset about the “failure”. My teacher’s take? “It’s not a failure, you learned a lot making that bead.”

I certainly did.