McElf GlassWorks

A Full Service Glass Art Studio

Energy and Airplanes

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Life’s a funny ‘ol thing…

This fall I started working on an awesome project.  It’s the best kind of project you can ever hope for because it comes with the best kind of customer.  No matter the project size, the right customer makes me as an artist want to hold onto a job for as long as humanly possible, because I don’t want to let them go.  (Due to insane, multiple family circumstances beyond my control, some of that has been going on anyway…)

Let’s call this customer PBMC

I did a simple drawing for PBMC over the summer.  The approval went quickly, we were both excited; he had given me a budget and some simple parameters and I had come up with a very nice solution that we were both looking forward to working on.

PBMC Sketch

Often, during the design process, I pack up lots of samples of technical things and sheet glass to help get a sense of what the customer prefers or dislikes.  I also brush up on my mental game… I prepare for the cost battle.  It’s come up often enough, people trying to bargain for a “better price” (and a lesser result)… isn’t there a way to do this cheaper?!? So a little part of analytical/mathematical/business me is always packing heat… always ready to swoop in and save artist/creative/I-want-to-build-this-no-matter-what-me.

Not with PBMC.  When your customer knows what their limits are, it makes it easy to not have to fight over silly stuff like that and just get down to the fun stuff.

And that’s where my creative life got even better.  The BEST!  The more PBMC and I got to know each other and talk about interests, the more I wanted to build little facets of that into the windows.

*** CAUTION *** CAUTION *** CAUTION ***

Yep.  Should have seen that coming.  PBMC and I are very easily excited by this project, by mutual interests, by life in general.  And that energy feeds into itself and grows and what we’re working on is going to have… very little resemblance to that initial drawing.

It’s going to be so. much. cooler.  Sculptural, dimensional, layered.

The balloons are being kilnformed and really pop out of the window both because they’re physically thicker and because they’re so bright and cheerful.  Satellites hover in the background of the sky over a very textured moon.  And the TREE!  Leadwork and glass… oh BE STILL my mutinous heart!!

When PBMC first called me, he just needed a little something to block the light beaming through his office window like a laser, blinding his customers.  But we’ve created, together, something so much more than that.

I can’t wait to finish and install this window.  I’ve been in the hospital for the last month with my mom.  She’s going to make it but I can’t even begin to describe how the experience has drained me and left my heart terrified.

Through it all I’ve kept in touch with PBMC and he has patiently given me the time I needed.  Because he’s the BEST kind of customer.  I love wanting to go to work for him.  I love that he’s my boss right now.

Especially this morning.  Leave it to Buffalo… I haven’t seen PBMC since Thanksgiving.  This morning I sat down on a plane… right next to him!  I’m transported back to early December.  It feels like I never left home.  We talked about forensics and telescopes; cardiac surgeons and train stations; economics and trees.  We watched the moon set through the clouds as we flew South toward Baltimore, and then we saw the sun come up.

I’m putting that in the window.

One more weekend and then I’m headed back into my studio.  I’m going to ask that window to feed me all the energy we’ve instilled in those sweeping, graceful sky lines and majestic mountains.  And I’m hoping that we can work together to breathe joy to every who will ever enjoy it.  Especially me!

 

 

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Life's too short for decaf coffee or annoying emails.

What I can't promise is regular, weekly emails. What I can promise is sporadic, humorous updates with a serious amount of gorgeous glassy adventures inside. Occasionally, there might even be a chance to join me for a cup o' coffee. (The really caffeinated kind!)

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