Monthly Archives: December 2021

.5″ x 1.5″, glass and stone

I love the way that ice makes the world glittery.  If only winter could be icy and WARM! We’re on our way to a tiny house in the winter woods where there’s a huge window.  I’m hoping it’ll be the perfect combination, watching the beauty of winter while being toasty and warm inside.  This pendant combines white stone and crystals with fused dichroic glass.  It’s hard to capture in a photo, but in real life it catches the light and glints, with the silver of ice and the reds of flame.

1″ x 1.5″, glass

I’m building a glass and steel wine rack, my first welded commission, and it’s reminding me of the constant struggle between constraints and freedom.  On the one hand, I’d like to create exactly what I want, but on the other, the constraints of working to the client’s requirements and building something that they’ll love creates a welcome set of boundaries.  Years ago, running a teen center, I learned how much kids crave clear boundaries and the freedom to be creative within them.  Nothing has really changed.  Constraints make that which is created within them even more special.

1″ x .75″, found objects

I spent part of my birthday walking along the beach in Portland, ME, enjoying the gray skies and the amazing array of snail shells that were left on the sand during low tide.  Most of them were brown, but every 100 yards or so there was one tiny bright yellow shell hiding among the piles.  I put them in my pocket, along with bits of purple mussel shell.  As always, they lost some of their brilliance when they dried, but this pendant captures them in all their glory, with a clear coat of resin to bring back their shine and make them look as alluring as they did that day on the sand.

1″ x 1.5″, found objects

It’s been an intense week of a conference about racial justice and how to move the world and our institutions toward equity.  We talked about the discomfort of sharing power and challenging white supremacy.  I never leave these conversations feeling satisfied, but they’re a chance for introspection.  In all of my art I feel comforted by symmetry.  There’s something so calm and balanced about the two sides of an object being the same.  But there’s also something sinister about the mirroring of what’s already there.  I may not be ready this week to take the bold step of making a piece that’s not symmetrical, but at least I put a moving piece at the bottom. As it swings, it’ll throw off the balance just a little, making space for something that’s new, different, unbalanced, and very possibly better.

.5″ x 2″, glass

The kids and I had a long conversation today about how religious traditions often layer on top of one another, being combined and borrowed over the centuries to create new customs.  But one fairly constant tradition is to light candles in the darkest part of the year. I’ve been working with Tova Speter to create a collaborative traveling Hanukkah exhibit called Brighter Revealed, a huge lantern that’s bringing light and color to neighborhoods across the region this week.  Like the lantern, this pendant has eight sections to represent the eight nights of Hanukkah, and glass that reminds me of the colors and shapes of stained glass.