Surprise!

Well, yesterday's shop session was far more satisfying than the previous one. I usually go in with a mission - assembling my tools and supplies in a rigid order and following the plan. This time I went in with no plan and just played with the glass the way my kids do.

See, my boys have an art box. It's a blue plastic shoe box full of crayons, glue sticks, glitter pens, markers, finger paint, play do, etc. When I color a picture, I pick out four or five crayons and color the picture. When they color a picture, they drag out whatever works. Did you know Spiderman could have a glittery web and play-do eyes? Yeah, me neither but it looked good and the kids had a blast.

So that's what I did yesterday. I dragged out all my frits and played in the scrap bin. I cut up former disasters into cabochons (breaking my drive belt in the process damnit!) and just painted with the glass. It's all very abstract and I shut the kiln lid with a sense of finality figuring that it was a wasted session. It was fun, but it felt like I had just run a load for nothing.

This morning, I went out to the shop to shut down the kiln and couldn't help but pop the lid. Imagine my delight when I found that every piece in there was going to be usable. When I'm not doing straight production, that rarely ever happens. It's just not possible to have every experiement come out - or so I thought.

Maybe it's because I went in and played instead of worked. Perhaps I was just due a lucky break. Doubtless, I have found some new techniques that work for me.

Now all I have to do is clean up the mess on my bench. I'm as bad as the kids.