Tag Archives: self-improvement

Jetsam: Lightening the Load

Posted on by
2

j1

Flotsam, Jetsam & Lagan: sounds like a prestigious law firm, doesn’t it? Or maybe a 1960s folk rock group? But no, these terms have a more nautical theme.

I’ll let dictionary.com explain:

Flotsam — 1. the part of the wreckage of a ship and its cargo found floating on the water. 2. material or refuse floating on water. 3. useless or unimportant items; odds and ends.

Lagan — anything sunk in the sea, but attached to a buoy or the like so that it may be recovered.

Jetsam — goods cast overboard deliberately, as to lighten a vessel or improve its stability in an emergency, which sink where jettisoned or are washed ashore.

⊕⊕⊕⊕⊕

I won’t be channeling my inner pirate here; I get seasick in the bath tub if I take my eyes off the horizon. The thought of people chucking things into the ocean intentionally is also rather sickening, but I’ll save that for another post.

The point of this post is:

 Life is like a shipwreck.

Wait, that doesn’t sound quite right… Anyway, I’ll wade in with my analogy:

Sometimes we go about life having taken on a lot of unnecessary “odds and ends,” and when we get hit with – “stormy weather” shall we say — we founder and end up floating about, all wet. The “useless and unimportant” baggage we were needlessly hanging onto bobs about pointlessly in the waves nearby as we frantically dog paddle and wait for rescue. That’s flotsam.

j4

Sometimes we get the “ship” kicked out of us and lose our footing on dry land, but we manage to take stock of what happened and what’s important to us, and we can devise a plan for how to recover from our losses. That’s lagan.

j2

And then there’s jetsam, when we rid ourselves of the unnecessary baggage that’s weighing us down, impeding our progress, or endangering our stability. And having done that – and continuing to do it – we sail through situations that might otherwise have sunk us.

j3

I’m striving for jetsam; lightening my load of unnecessary stress, worries and material “stuff.” It’s definitely an ongoing process. Stuff seems to seek us out at every port, clinging to us like barnacles on a boat.

Okay, swabbies, I think this ship has sailed. I’m off to the galley for some chow. I suddenly have a hankering for fish and chips.

J  J is for Jetsam.

Piece.by.Piece.

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Manifesting through Stained Glass

Posted on by
2

NOTE: This post was the first written for my now defunct blog Glass Manifestations. I have since folded many of the Glass posts into my What Rhymes with Stanza blog.

Manifest —

3. verb (transitive) to show plainly; reveal or display

  1. to prove; put beyond doubt or question

Creating stained glass panels is a very personal process for me. From the inspiration, to the design, selection of colors and textures, and then to the actual crafting of the piece. Sure, I like to sell my work and keep my cupboard stocked with food and my studio stocked with glass.

But what mostly matters to me is the process. The quest for ideas and inspiration and the way they “manifest” out of the seemingly mundane fabric of my simple life. The challenge of translating those ideas into a dynamic two-dimensional design. The sensory pleasure of looking at material options, feeling the heft of the sheets of glass, holding them up to the window to study the interplay of color and light, tracing my fingers (carefully!) across the surface to gauge how the texture will contribute to the overall design. And then the careful application of age old techniques to craft the materials into a final cohesive piece of art.

And finally, the moment of truth, when I lift the completed panel off the work table, move it to a window to let the sunlight filter through, step back and experience how my original inspiration has morphed into a tangible representation constructed with glass and lead.

I gain a lot of insight during the process of creating a panel, and again whenever I contemplate the finished piece.

Glass Manifestations [My original blog site was] about glass (sort of) because working with glass is how I do a lot of my processing (thoughts, feelings, ideas, inspirations…), and hence a lot of my thoughts, feelings and ideas are made manifest in my art. But it’s also about insight and growth, in the hope that what I manifest tomorrow, or next week or next year – in life as well as in glass – will continue to improve. In quality, in meaningfulness, and in pure, simple pleasure.