My First Anniversary of Working with Glass, a.k.a. my 1-Year "Glassiversary"
I mentioned in my last post that July 10th of this year held greater significance beyond being the end of my successful 100 Day project run. Why? It was also my 1-year anniversary of the first time I fused glass. My “Glassiversary”, if you will! (ANDYOUWILL) 🍾🎉
My glass origin story begins in Rome. 🇮🇹
I had signed up for a glass fusing workshop through Airbnb’s “Experiences” offering, so the afternoon of July 10, 2018, I made my sweaty way to Giorgia’s studio and workshop near Stadio Olympico. (Rome, you were mercilessly hot that trip. I forgive you.)
Giorgia greeted me enthusiastically and told me I was the only participant, so it would be a private lesson. 👍🏻👍🏻 She showed me around her studio, gave me a quick primer on glass, the rich history of Italian glass and, finally, glass as an artistic medium. Giorgia is a working glass artist and accomplished in restoration. I imagine she stays busy because: old world.
My intro to glass included:
- Some top line “whys” and “hows” regarding glass as a material
- The different types of glass arts (blown, stained, fused, lamp work)
- How to and practice cutting glass
- Project prep and support
After all this learnin’ Giorgia took me around the corner to her favorite cafe for an Aperol spritz. 🙌🏻🥂
We headed back to the studio to do the project: designing my plate then using the glass available to realize it and prepare it for fusing. Giorgia fused my plate overnight and delivered it to me the next day. Perfetto!
What’s still funny to me is that I’m obviously not over here making and selling glass plates. But something about the medium fired me up (all puns always intended) creatively.
That’s the magic, man. Staying open, living a life full of all sorts of inputs… building those dendrites so synapses 🔥🔥🔥!
After having “meant to” for months, today I finally dug deep into my Airbnb inbox and sent a message to Giorgia, updating her on where I went with glass after her workshop and thanking her.
