Creative surge

The weeks leading up to Christmas were a frenzy of glass, flux and solder as I tried to keep up with orders for leaded glass snowflakes. I made 27 snowflakes this year, compared to 11 last year. This meant going into debt for a time, after buying supplies and waiting for people to pay me. (I might do things a little differently next year.)

I really love making unique glass creations, but the pressure of cranking them out en masse this year got to me a bit. I was happy with each of the snowflakes I made, but at points it felt more like a burden than an enjoyable creative experience, especially when debt entered the picture.

But now that the frenzy has subsided, the debt is gone and I have a whole week off (thanks to the generosity of my employer!), I have been experiencing a renewed sense of creativity, purely for the fun of it.

I put together a piece made of tiny glass scraps left over from a Christmas commission. They were too small and plentiful to foil and solder, so I glued them together. The entire piece is roughly 5x7. (I still need to clean it up and put a frame around it.)

The other night, I spent some time doodling, which I haven't done in months. I have a dozen or so doodles similar to this one. I had forgotten how relaxing it is to just lose myself in a doodle!

I've also gotten back to my harp, which has been woefully neglected since the Sanders show ended. Robb and my poor neighbor downstairs had to listen to me tune it for about an hour. (Sorry guys!)

Yesterday, I started working on a glass piece that has been in the "pattern state" for going on a couple years now. I really love this design and have a hunch that maybe some others will too... so I'll probably be making it a few times over. But I just might keep the first iteration for myself.

After all the pre-holiday artistic mass production, I'm somewhat relieved to know that my creative spark still exists. In addition to the poppies project, I plan to do some baking this week, and maybe a drawing.

I guess I'll be finishing out 2010 with a surge of creativity -- and ringing in 2011 the same way!