Our April theme is “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” That got me thinking: before the beautiful, sparkly gem is formed someone is looking at a rather appealing hunk of rock thinking, “what am I going to do with this?” I think we’ve all felt stumped occasionally when seated at the torch. Kathy Tucker has the following great advice to share with us:
With limited time to do glass work, she feels like a lot of ideas come when not at the torch, and when she does have time, she frequently doesn’t know what to make. So why not keep a whiteboard for writing or sketching out ideas?
She even takes notes or photos on her phone if she’s out and sees something that inspires her. She’s also been known to take a photo of her tv when she saw a news anchor wearing a color combo that she really liked. (I’ve certainly done this too!)
She frequently creates a color palette that she wants to work with in a torching session. Kathy says, “I select my glass before I start, making sure to grab plenty of black, white, ivory and clear because I use those a lot. (You may have different go-to colors.) My stash is nearby if I feel like I need to add something in, but having a palette preselected really helps me.” What a great idea!
Sometimes she picks a color from her stash that she doesn’t typically use and builds a palette from there. What a great way to get outside your comfort zone and expand your work.
“If I’m having a real block and don’t have any ideas, I melt shorts together, label rods, pull stringer… anything that gets me handling the glass, and soon I have too many ideas.”
Kathy, thanks for such terrific suggestions for getting over the “stumped hump”!
“Tips, Tricks & Tools” is an ongoing section of our Newsletter overseen by Alice Henry. If you have ideas for this section, please share via email to: Tips@theglassdragons.com