Number One Stunna

I am bypassing my anxiety to post my first blog entry ever, since all my friends are doing it and they are utterly inspiring and interesting people. I thought I wouldn't have anything to write about since I am no longer in a foreign country, but in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. But then I got to thinking about how someone from another country could be reading this, and my bluegrass life and frenetic personality would definitely be foreign enough to make this worthwhile. Also, my glass-blowing instructor told me I am traveling in glass and relating my adventures to my far-away friends (it sounded better when he said it). That may, then, be the purpose of this... to explore my artistic activities and reverse culture shock as a journey too.

Just so you know, because I have some new friends who only know me by stories they have heard, and other friends that I have not told much to, I am seriously contemplating jumping into art and trying to make it a lifelong endeavor instead of a short-lived hobby. I started out making jewelry when I first moved to Puebla, Mexico about a year and a half ago, when I was teaching English classes to artisans and hung around afterwards to watch them fashion their crafts. So I got some supplies like wire and pliers and picked up broken pieces of glass from the roadside, and started making pendants and earrings and such. That has evolved to include more beads and stones from Mexico and Asia, and I am starting to do more collage and layered work. I am borderline obsessed with glass, and wanted to take the reusing to a dimension beyond merely smashing colorful wine bottles, so I am saving up for a blow torch to start melting it down into custom-made pieces.

Since I returned from Mexico in December, I have been in a weekly glass-blowing class where I have learned to blow ornaments, cups (a bit lopsided, but thoroughly functional), vases with pulled edges, a giant kiss and a miniature gravy boat (a welcome accident). Also, this Saturday, I talked my mom into going to a one-day glass fusing workshop with me, and I think I may have discovered something that I could dedicate guiltless years of my life to pursuing. Fused glass is cold glass that has been pieced together to make a design or image and then heated in a kiln to close to 1500 degrees F until it fuses together. After that you can take the piece and put it over a mold, heat it again and let it slump into a new shape to make a plate, vase, dish, etc. It is wonderful not only because the glass is so colorful (you can use matte, metalic burnished, patterned or translucent glass in a rainbow of choices), but also because depending on how you piece it, fuse it, slump it, and decorate it (with stringers, confetti, copper, frit, etc.), it always comes out differently. It is also perfect for making jewelry pieces.

Also, I am looking into learning metalsmithing to be able to set stones and glass in silver. There is this great school in the Estado de Mexico, and you should check out your website and then encourage me to go. Here it is: http://www.escueladisenodejoyas.com/Galeria.html

Aside from glass, I am attempting to sew my own clothing and bags, although I am still not too proficient with the machine. I am a good hand sewer, but let's face it... that takes forever.

As for Mexico, I am pining for it and can't wait to go back and visit Central and South America, too. However, I am waiting to hear about a job that I am in the running for with SOS, a nonprofit in Louisville. Here is their site, and it is worth looking at even if they find someone they like better than me. http://www.suppliesoverseas.org/ If they do not hire me, I think I will start traveling again, and if they do, they are setting up some connections in Nicaragua and that will keep me connected for the meantime.

That's all I have for now, and it's about 41 degrees so I am going to see my horse before the temperature drops again.