Classic Case of Burnout

I've never really understood the term "burnout" until recently. I was working really hard during the fall and early winter to keep up with the various shows and festivals I had scheduled. When May came, I kind of just stopped working for a while, and a while became longer than I originally thought it would be. I was distracted by all the end of the year activities at my real job, and so I thought as soon as May was over I would get back to it. May ended, and I just wasn't feeling it. That's when I realized I had a classic case of burnout. I looked at the glass stacked around my garage and my heart just wasn't in it. I kept waiting to get inspired, and it didn't happen.

In the mean time, I picked up sketching on the iPad. A fun diversion, but the glass still waited. I didn't schedule any shows in June or July - lots of time to recover the glass groove. My next show isn't until late August, I have a pretty large inventory and I'm still coasting along.

I've decided that I will just muddle through the burnout. I will take baby steps and see if inspiration returns. I willed myself to get started this past week when I was off for the holiday. I moved my ring saw out of my very hot garage and into the dining room. I gradually started and began to enjoy working. Still, I crave something fresh, a new way of working, something new to try...but at least I'm working again.

My mind is working on new ideas. I have a few things percolating that I want to try, a few experiments to get to. I wish I could say I'm truly motivated, but at least I see a little spark. In the meantime, I will keep working. I want some new, fresh pieces for my upcoming festivals.

Below are a few of the pendants I created last week. Overall, I'm pleased with most of them. When working with the ring saw, you have to carefully clean each cut piece before firing. For some reason, even though I washed the pieces a few of them still had the debris on them - this was only apparent after firing...so I lost a few in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Something New!

Before Thanksgiving I got an email from someone I had met at a show last year. She had worked in glass for a while several years ago, but had decided to sell some equipment and glass. She wanted to know if I was interested. I ended up buying a ring saw and some glass. 

I was in the middle of getting ready for a couple of shows, work was really busy and the holidays were coming up, so I didn't really get a chance to play with the saw until the last couple of days. It's so cool! Now I can cut curvy and more intricate shapes. When cutting the glass by hand, I was basically limited to straight lines. I could do some curves, but it wasn't easy. 

Yesterday, I cut out and created some random shapes and then tack fused them to create these whimsical flower pendants. It opens up so many possibilities. It may take quite a few more tries to get the feel for using it. It's not too difficult though.