Spotlight on Birdy Coon

I’m Birdy Coon, a first year Dragon. I’ve never been much of a joiner, but there is so much going on in this group that I decided to jump right in, even working through my camera phobia and joining some Zoom sessions.

Birdy isn’t my real name, of course. All kinds of creatures fascinate me, but especially birds. OK, maybe not bugs! Crawly things are, well, CRAWLY. We moved a lot when I was a kid and I kept getting nicknamed Birdy. Wild birds would land on me, follow me into the house and pretty soon somebody would start calling me “Bird Girl”, or “That Crazy Bird Girl”, and eventually it would shorten to Birdy. My business was Laughing Bird Arts, but my customers kept referring to my work as “BirdyBeads” and eventually that name stuck too. I’m still a crazy bird woman, but now I’m also a crazy Dragon. What could be better?

I’ve been making beads and small sculptures since then, except for the past few years. I had an accident that left me unable to even get to my studio. Things are improving, and earlier this year I fired up my torch for the first time since 2016. I imagined that I’d jump right back in where I left off. Yeah, right! I am once again a beginning lampworker. I tend to dive right in at the deep end, not bothering to work my way up to it. That left some gaps in my skills. This time, I’m starting with the basics, attempting to learn more methodically instead of going right back to making my favorites – large organic focals with lots of colors and magical Double Helix glass. I’m not sticking to the plan very well. But at least I have a plan.

A Zoom chat with another Dragon reminded me of just how connected we all are. It turns out that I’ve had some near encounters with this Dragon, spanning nearly my entire lifetime! As a child, I shopped in the store where her mother worked. A few years later, while living in a small village in Alaska, I met a very kind and memorable gentleman who turned out to be her father. Finally, we are now working together on a project. We live on opposite sides of the country and have little chance of ever meeting in person, but you never know.