Saturday 14 May 2011

fusing workshop

A few months ago I was contacted about running a workshop for 5 friends. This quickly grew to 7 friends and then to 9!! At this point I had a minor panic wondering how on earth I was going to fit 9 people into my house to teach them at the same time. I looked up hiring the village hall and thought about hiring extra tables to have a home but however I planned it out it wasn't going to work. I was also worried about being able to teach 9 people well enough so that they had individual help with their work. The only answer was to teach in 'shifts' with a group of 5 and then of 4 which thankfully the group were more than happy with.

The day started with tea, coffee, lots of chatter and a reunion with an old friend from down under. You could tell straight away that they were going to be great fun and were here for an enjoyable day whilst learning something new.


The coaster making went pretty smoothely but by the time they were onto suncatchers the making group were being 'helped' by their friends who couldn't resist giving suggestions on their designs. I guess it should have been predicted once they all had a basic understanding of working with the glass. It was quite nice really although they often joked about being in competition with the opposite group or telling them to stop heckling them- all good jesting :o)


Some chose to chill out in the garden reading some of my glass books and we all popped out to see the impromtu air show over head. I've never seen planes doing loop the loops over my house before today! Southend have their airshow in 2 wks so perhaps we saw their practice.


Friends 'helping' each other out.


The kilnful of glass created today. 9 coasters of varying design and glass cutting.

Gill who made the beach huts very nearly bought a piece like this last week in Burnham and was chuffed to bits to be able to make her own one.


At the end of the day I felt like I'd spent the day with my friends and was feeling about as chilled as they were and then came to shock of a clap of thank yous...now that's not something you get everyday :o)

3 comments:

  1. Oh, those glass creations are so adorable! You must be a great teacher! You have a nice workplace. It's very conducive for learning. Good thing you have those windows. They light up the place quite well.

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  2. Hello.This post was extremely interesting, particularly since I was searching for thoughts on this issue

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  3. thanks for your comments.
    Also I must apologise Harvey as I've only just seen your post- I must check my comments updates more often!!

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