2022 Newsletter draft that I never sent out

Hello everyone, I realise it's been a while since I've been in contact I feel the plague has now lessened to a degree but I can cope with potentially starting a newsletter again.

It has been a couple of years since I sent one out and I apologise for my lack of contact but I haven't really had anything to update you on because I've just been trying to claw myself back out of the covid pit.

So what's been going on during covid? Not a whole hell of a lot regarding station glass I have to admit. During the first lockdown I made rainbow hearts which allowed me to pay the bills but now I'm rather sick of the sight of them and I don't want to make any more for a long time.

When things started getting a little bit back to normal I took a hit in the form of my assistant Georgina White taking on a new role at a different glass makers. She left with my blessing although a little earlier than either of us expected. 

You would like to Follow her career she has moved to Bristol Blue Glass blowing as a full-time assistant amongst other roles.

So in 2022 I was focusing on trying to make enough stock to keep the shop full whilst also looking for a new assistant. I borrowed two students from De Montfort University during their third year on the glass making course. Although I only had them for a couple of months as they both moved back home after they graduated. 

I enjoyed working with them and their enthusiasm and willingness to learn was quite infectious. Georgia Hazel and Jasmine Cayen. 

Earlier this year in February I visited Teign Valley Glass based in the House of Marbles in Devon. They run an event called the Melting Pot where several glass blowers get together to demonstrate their work or collaborate or generally just have a fun time playing with glass and experimenting. 

Richard Glass runs Teign Valley Glass assisted by the wonderful Imogen McCullen.

I had such a wonderful time that I have been desperate to get back down there but circumstances here have prevented my journey back down as yet. 

I will try to add a few pictures from my visit including my failed attempt at one of the lampposts which sits outside of station glass. 

Recent developments include a new stockist in Stourbridge and me completing my personal Track Safety Training so I can now legally and safely retrieve things that small children accidentally drop on the train tracks. 

In August we had the first International Festival of Glass since Covid hit and some of it was lovely. Seeing all the glassy people you haven't seen for ages, watching demonstrations, buying a few bits at the auction, seeing my friends open up their new gallery/studio, showing some people around who hadn't visited before, watching some new glassmakers networking and thriving, seeing the museum open properly with some great exhibits. 

There was also an air of things changing, the price of gas was a frequently discussed topic, there was an electric glory hole being demonstrated which all the glassmakers were eager to try. 

There was an overwhelming air of "What the hell are we going to do?" among the artists and the positive people all seemed to have fixed price gas accounts for several years in advance. Some of them are shutting off their furnaces for prolonged periods whilst they figure out what to do. Some are streamling their practices (myself included) and trying to figure out ways of making glass with less gas and electricity. 

Just before August I interviewed two lovely ladies who have both since started working at Station Glass. 

Rosie Perret and Melissa Keshkinkalich. 

Rosie is a DMU graduate who is also currently working at Lumsdale Glass. 

Melissa (of Melissa's Melting Pot) is currently taking the evening glassblowing course at Dudley College, alongside teaching lampworking and fusing classes. She began her glass journey at an evening class at Plymouth University alongside training to be a teacher.

They are both enthusiastic and enjoying their training! I am having lots of fun teaching them new techniques as we go along. 

The last few months have been a bit of a blur ending with me getting the flu and having to have the end of the year off and missing Christmas all together. It hit me quite badly because of my asthma. (Yes I am an asthmatic glassblower!) I'm slowly recovering in to the new year and we will get back on track again soon! 

Professional practices

I've just listened to a podcast called "I like your work" they bring up the issue of having little to no professional practise induction into the real world, or examples of what to do once you leave university and how to pursue your artistic career.

We had professional practice courses at university where we were encouraged to make samples of our work to send to galleries, we were encouraged to brand ourselves or make ourselves in to a brand and basically apply for everything that we could.

The first time I graduated was in the 2008 recession so when I left University there were no jobs There were no opportunities and no one knew what they were doing, whether their gallery would survive, if their practice would survive and sadly many did not survive.

The second time I graduated was in 2011. I took a master's course because my boring normal job was killing me.

As a masters student I really would have benefited from some sort of guidance on what to do in the artistic world. I already have some work in a gallery but it was not a lot of work and it was only one small gallery.

It was also work that I could not make at home.

So I bought a kiln and started making smaller versions of that work which led me to realise that the pricing system that I put in place at university did not apply any longer.

I had to rethink my process, my prices and my ability to actually create the work whilst working another temporary job.

At the time I had a weekend job working in a clothes shop, who would change my hours weekly and expect me to show up regardless and have no other commitments.

When I needed to take a large piece of glass to be acid dipped and I got stuck there for several hours I couldn't make it to my shift, I got a disciplinary and essentially after the temporary term was up they did not keep me on because I had absences. Totally worth it.

In the long run it was better for my career but at the time I liked having some form of stable income... and discount on clothing.

Something I learnt whilst I was making pieces for this small gallery (which were large cast glass sculptures) was that the gallery owner had completely unrealistic expectations about how long it took me to make a large glass piece.

Basically she had a customer who wanted a specific colour of the sculpture before Christmas. She had given me 3 months, so I reluctantly agreed but because I had to rush things through and have a piece made before Christmas it ended up costing me more than usually would, not to mention petrol, running around, stress, etc and I managed to get it to her three days before Christmas. I later found out that she did not give it to the customer until 2 weeks later so I had rushed for nothing. I ended up just covering my costs making that sculpture. 

Things like this made me realise that I needed to set clear boundaries on how long something would take to make and adjust pricing accordingly for creating work outside of a University environment. I had not taken in to account that I had to order a lot of casting crystal from another country before I could start, or factored in hiring a large kiln because I didn't have access to the university kiln. 

I was hindered slightly in that someone at the university told me I could hire the kilns once I'd graduated as an alumni but when I tried to actually initiate this I was told that there was no such protocol for ex-students hiring kilns or equipment. So I had to go and find a kiln large enough that I could hire elsewhere. The hire of the kiln cost me over half the price of the sculpture so that's basically where I lost all of my profit.

I hope that I can benefit someone by making these mistakes first, or maybe, I don't know, creating a lecture or something to help people when they are first starting out in the art world.

Because not every opportunity is quite as great as it might seem at first glance. 

    

    

(From three years ago) "What you want to do is..." but do I?

My life seems to be plagued with "What you want to do is..." insert someone else's idea of success here. I have to confess when I hear those 6 words my eyes glaze over, I begin to examine my own thoughts and stop listening to the speaker. The speaker who is telling me what I "want" to do. Often the speaker knows little about me, often they are giving me their opinion on what they think I should do regarding my business. A business they are not a part of, in an industry they are not a part of.
A woman has never said that sentence to me (unless they were explaining how to use a computer program to me in which case I consider it perfectly acceptable) and a woman has rarely said to me "You don't want to do that" whilst I often hear this from men.
Even men I am close to use these words. An example that springs to mind is when I shaved part of my head (which happens regularly) my grandfather told me that I didn't want to do that again and that I had "spoilt myself" because I looked so nice before... With my normal shoulder-length hair. I was upset that my grandfather considered me to be less acceptable in some way with a hairstyle I preferred.

I have been told recently several times that "what I want to do" is to get on Amazon because that's where the real money is. No one has considered the fact that I can't make enough stock fast enough to compete in that market. Maybe in ten years time but certainly not in the near future.

The main reason I am offended by this choice of words is that people presume to know what it is that I want. When in fact they just want to tell me what they think I should do. They give me their opinion in the guise of helpful advice. It has never been requested and it probably never will be. The people I have actually asked for advice never used those words. Plus the people I have asked for advice are experts in their field and I usually a part of the same industry that I am.

So this was just a small rant about people giving me advice weather I want it or not.