Learning about Glass.

As I had decided that I wanted to do more than flame working and bead making, and find other ways to learn about glass, I had to figure out how.

Unfortunately, I live in Port Elizabeth, far away from other major cities where more glass oriented courses or possibilities are on offer, and it would have been quite impossible for me (with fully established family, school and husband work commitments) to sign up for a 7 year apprenticeship in a hot shop in Cape Town.

After some research about what was on offer in our own town, I signed up for an 8 week Stained Glass Evening Course at the fine art department of NMMU. Although stained glass was not my first passion, this was a step I had to take in order to start connecting with fellow glass enthusiasts. And boy, did it pay off! I learned so much about various sorts of glass, glass cutting tools and techniques, grinding and polishing to get the correct shape, safety and health precautions in the glass workshop, etc. After an initial trial piece to get confidence at cutting glass and leading up, we had to make a properly designed piece, to show we had indeed mastered the basic cutting and leading techniques. My small trial piece was quite abstract, but for my second piece I took inspiration from theKoisan rockpaintings.

Amanda, our teacher and a wonderful glass artist in her own right, burst at the seams with enthusiasm about the possibilities of working with glass and before my term course was over, we’d spent many hours chatting about why I was there and what I wanted to achieve.

She eventually convinced me to enrol as a full time student (lucky me, I was not working and actually could do this) to work intensively with glass and learn as much as possible about all the different aspects of cold and warm glass techniques.

Although I was scared out of my wits, it was the most important step I had made in many, many years and was looking forward to exciting change in my life.