Beautiful Failure

I'm sure that title up there is confusing to some of you but to me... it means progress. Your skills never progress if you don't try. And every successful lampworker I know has a drawer full of failures that come from parking your butt behind a torch and spending hours and hours there. It's the only way to get better.

What my vacation has taught me is I miss the time I should be spending behind the torch. All this social networking B.S. is just that. I can't think of one sale I've gained because somebody "liked" me. But what I do know is that my beads should speak for themselves and the more I torch, the louder their voices will be!

One of the things I did last week was to start dealing with this issue of cleaning up my life. I read a story about a bead maker who moved and all the scraps on her table became a huge problem. (Hello Pot, My name is Kettle!) She made a promise to her family that she would clean her workspace every night. She started making "end of day beads." These are beautiful and unique as they can never be made again. 

So instead of tossing all the stringers on my table... I made a lot of end of day beads. I made them all day long. This vessel was one. I love it because it's perfect... the most perfect on mandrel one I've ever made.  But there clearly was some strange glass on my table because it cracked. So I heated it up for hours and brought it into the flame and healed that crack. And another developed:

And yet, this cracked little vessel taught me much... Loved watching the play of light and dark glasses and how they influenced one another. I loved tweaking the balance of the piece.  I loved creating the lip and reading the glass for  volume. And I remember that I LOVE being at my torch - the act of creating.

And I love that I dipped this mandrel  with steel wool and bead release YEARS ago... the week I started lampworking...envisioning some graceful vessel. But I never felt ready to tackle it!  I'm ready now... and that's a beautiful thing.