The topic for Flaming Hot! today is: How do you perfect your craft? Quite simply my answer is practice, practice, practice. Then I have to let it sit and stew for awhile, then I practice, practice, practice some more. It takes me a very long time to process new techniques. I can watch someone do something, then it will sit in my brain, stewing, processing, and working itself out for a good six months before I ever get the will to try it. It’s not that I don’t want to try it, it’s just that my brain has not worked out how best to go about it. I need to wait for the ah ha! moment. Then I have to practice, practice, and practice some more. I think it is safe to say I have never been fast at catching on to new things in glass. Once I get it, I get it, but catching on takes me forever.
It was the same way when I was heavy into sports. I was uncoordinated and clutzy at best. It’s a good thing I am 6 feet tall or else I fear I would not have made my volleyball and basketball teams. Turns out I was pretty good at both, eventually. I am still uncoordinated and clutzy, but can you imagine how bad it would have been if I had not participated in sports?
So back to lampworking. Only once have I ever had an idea that I wanted to try, that I had not done before that turned out really spectacular the first time around. It was from a picture of a dragon on book Eldest. I stared at that picture for a good two weeks, dying to make a bead. For those two weeks the details ran around my head, until finally I just had to make that bead. The next day when I got it out of the kiln is a day I will never forget.
