DAY TWO – Monday

It’s about 7:30 pm – dinner is over. It’s a cool evening – windows open, ceiling fan moving the breeze around, voices coming from the porch outside. There’s a guy telling the corniest jokes you ever heard, and giving all sorts of mis-information to some teenaged girl and her mom. “They wanted to do a brain scan on me last year, but they found out I don’t have one.” “The Indians sold Manhattan for $20 worth of beads.” And this about the new list of the world’s seven wonders – “I don’t know what happened to the old list, I think they’re all gone now.” And, yes, it’s all I can do not to poke my head out the window and say, “Dude, that’s a total myth about Manhattan, and the places that were on the old list are still there. They just aren’t on the list anymore!” Yes, the Know-It-All raises her ugly head once more.

I’m lucky – I have a great class. We’re all on about the same level of experience (none), and the teacher has the patience of Job. My classmates are from South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina and California. We have one woman who has never done this before at all, and she’s probably the most gifted artistically. She made one piece that looks like two goldfish in a bowl, and the depth of the piece is really amazing.

It has been a good day. I learned how to cut glass, operate two kinds of kilns, and prepare glass for firing. I’ve learned that dichroic glass is not exactly what I thought it was, and that teensy flakes of glass can be very, very sharp. I have seven pieces in the kiln tonight, and have prepared ten other pieces. Can’t wait to see how the first pieces turned out. Tomorrow, we’re learning an “opal” procedure – have no idea how it will work, but that’s why I’m here, right??