Hestia does Stained Glass

www.bogenriefstudios.com/studios.html

I have returned from the GSA and must warn you that five days swanning around the Mackintosh building with REAL arty students has quite turned my head and I've gone absurdly boho....



Significant numbers:

5 - people in my class including me. Jean, the minister's wife who was making two stained glass panels for her husband's church - kept us in tea, scones and pancakes.  I loved her.  Geraldine and Eleanor - Aunt and Niece - both very arty and lovely company. Eleanor is going to Art School in London in the autumn.  She was gorgeous and talented.  Ian, our token bloke,  a Summer School veteran who rattled through his panel and even managed to get a go at slumping glass.  I was too slow to have a go at that *sigh*

66 - the bus that I caught every morning and afternoon that rattled down Great Western Road for the princely sum of £1.45.  I loved that bus.  I waited longer to cross the road than I waited for the 66!

3 - Great news - the tiny number of elastoplasts that our class required over the whole five days. Bad news - they were all for me.

2 - numbers of panels that I made.  Firstly a little test thing about 4" x 4" and secondly my Big Thingy - a panel for Sonshine.  And that Alphonse Mucha panel above is NOT it, ok?

6 - number of techniques used in the panel for Sonshine - fusing, etching, enamelling, painting, praying, swearing

2 - nights out with friends. The lovely Lisa Marie came all the way from Dundee to meet me.  We were both very relieved to find out that we were both completely normal and not psychotic plasterers from Motherwell with a body bag in the car and a shallow grave already dug in Strathclyde Park.  We went to a Japanese restaurant on Sauchiehall Street which was EXCELLENT.    On the Thursday night I went out with my lovely Veterinarian friend who is getting married in October.  We went to a Spanish Tapas bar on Renfield Street called La Tasca which not only sold good-sized tapas portions, but had the most honest and handsome waiter (whom, of course, I had already imagined spending the rest of my life with before he had plonked down my first glass of sangria - it's not just me who does that, is it?  Is it?)

20 - the number of quid I mistakenly overpaid the bill by in La Tasca.  The waiter returned to our table and asked us whether we meant to leave a £20 tip.  A quick glance into my wallet confirmed that I'd handed over 2 x £20 and not 2 x £10 as I had meant to.  What a dolt - and what an honest chap.

6.30 - the time that my downstairs neighbour seemed to get up at every morning.

2 - texts to Sonshine to tell him I wuved him

1 - length of time, in minutes (rounded up to nearest minute), he spent on the phone talking to me when I phoned to see how he was.

5 - number of signature silver bangles jangling up my left arm along with a substantial statement ring - a la Renee Perle.

1 - number of days I wore the bangles before I got fed up with them clattering off my carefully cut glass pieces.

100 - percentage of me hooked on carrying on with the stained glass stuff.

500 - the number of pounds I will need to spend on buying the basic tools and some lovely glass.

The tutor, Eilidh was lovely - in that slightly absent, stressed way you'd imagine an art tutor to be.  She could fix EVERYONE'S problems - even my impossible curving of the lead channel.  And she had the patience of a saint, bless her!  I intend to return for the 20 week (one day per week) course that starts in the autumn.

It was totally absorbing work.  I arrived at 9.30am and didn't venture outside until home time - sometimes that was as later as 6pm. 

Y'know there's a lot been written in the press about how women are unhappy with their lives, especially once they reach A Certain Age. I think one way to combat that boredom and unhappiness is to push yourself  to do things that tax your skills and push your envelope.  Hence the burlesque, the stained glass class etc.  I believe that if you keep surprising yourself with new challenges, your life cannot possibly be boring.

Give it a go and see for yourself!

Oh - and here's my effort ;-)  Note - fused glass for the sun.  Enamel for the sun's rays, etched glass for the wind buffeting the kite.  Painting (and possibly a small amount of my life's blood) in the kite tails.  Available for commissions, weddings, bar mitzvahs and cremations ;-)