Tag Archives: cutting glass

Sorting Glass — A Poem

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I’ve turned my energies to poetry for a while, as I take a two-week challenge from The Daily Post. I didn’t write this poem for the challenge, but was reminded of it, so I thought I’d share it here:

Sorting Glass

Sorting stained glass into bins,
careful lest I cut myself.
How does one parse the spectrum of light
into specific and separate boxes?

Blue or green?
Translucent or opaque?
Flashed? Rolled? Blown? 
It even defies the line 
between solid and liquid.

Can’t mold it into endless shapes,
like a potter fondling clay on a wheel.
Can’t sand it smooth like a choice piece of wood,
and wipe the fine dust away with gentle strokes.

No. It’s cold and rigid and sharp and brittle.

But when the light finds it,
it warms and dances and morphs 
into myriad shapes and textures and nuances
that no other medium can rival. 
It comes alive. 

It brings me to life.
And as I sort it into bins,
being careful not to cut myself,
I feel its pulse in time with mine.

m3

Piece.by.Piece.

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Monday, January 2015 – Dear Diary:  I’ve had my pattern laid out for this stained glass panel for a while now, but for some reason I can’t get myself to go into the studio and start cutting glass.

  • Maybe it’s the dog. Every time I head to the studio he starts running amok all over the house.
  • Maybe it’s just getting over the inertia of starting a new project.

I’ll start cutting glass tomorrow. 

 

huly in trouble

Tuesday – Dear Diary:  The studio just doesn’t feel right. I got in there and cut one piece of glass, but something’s off.

  • It could be the new layout of the studio. I just moved and so the setup isn’t quite the same. I just need time to get used to it.

I’ll do better tomorrow.

one piece

 

 Wednesday – Dear Diary:  I went into the studio today and cut another piece of glass. Just one. This time I began to feel dizzy and ill.

  • Maybe it’s the mats on the floor. They’re squishier on this floor than at my previous studio.

I just need to get my “sea legs.” Or would that be my studio legs?

mat2

 

 Thursday – Dear Diary:   The more I think about it, there could be a number of reasons for feeling ill yesterday.

  • Perhaps I drank too much coffee and overdosed on caffeine.
  • I probably need to improve my diet. I could have felt dizzy because of all the crappy food I’ve been eating.

I’ll eat better tomorrow.

starbucks

 Friday – Dear Diary:  I think the studio just needs airing out. There was some nasty stuff on the walls when I moved in, and the fumes from the bleach-based cleaner I used were strong enough to fell a horse. Had there been a horse in my studio.

I’ll open a window and get some fresh air in here.

pokey

 Saturday – Dear Diary:  The open window thing didn’t work. I forgot that there are storm windows on this side of the house, and I didn’t open the storm window when I opened the inner one, so no fresh air got in. Oops! Today I’ll open BOTH windows.

window

 Sunday – Dear Diary:  Wow! It’s been a week already, and I’ve only gotten two pieces cut. Let’s see… It’s January. There are 91 pieces to this panel. At this rate, I’ll be ready to solder it together in roughly 44 more weeks. Right around Thanksgiving. But then we’ll be into the holiday season and it’s hard to get much of anything done during the holidays.

christmas

 New Year’s Resolution for 2016:

Get this stained glass panel finished!!!

Note: No horses were harmed during the photographing of this post. The dog, however, was chastised. But just a little.