A new hobby?

Wow!  I knew it has been a long time since I've posted, I just didn't realize it'd been 6 months!

Oh well, its a new year (Happy Late New Year) and the smell of change is in the air.  My wife is still painting, and doing quite wonderfully I might add.  She's gotten more commissions since December than she had the entire previous year!  Its very exciting to see things picking up for her, but I'm still waiting on her to become famous and rich :P  She's still a constant, driving motivation for me to somehow achieve some semblance of artistic expression.


I tried my hand at painting and drawing, and while she says that I have the aptitude to do well at both, I am too critical of myself to see that happening, at least without a major shift in mindset and determination.  She recently attended a nude drawing/painting session at the local gallery, her second time ever doing so, and really loved it.  Interestingly, I've since considered the idea of doing some nude modeling as well (since she said I'd make a better model than the guy that was there.  I love my wife :)  We'll see if that ever actually happens, as is the case with many of my ideas.




There is one idea however that I have at least started with.  Yet another form of artistic expression, and one that I think I might actually do well with.  Stained Glass!!  One of the local shows that we attend here in the high desert of California caters to a number of arts and crafts vendors.  Our frequent neighbor as this show is a highly skilled glass artisian.  He creates a wonderful selection of fused glass jewelry, plates and bowls and decorative items.  He's purchased a number of my wife's paintings and we've wanted to support his work with a purchase as well.  We have a chandelier in our entry way that has 24 panels of plain, smoked beveled glass that, while an interesting idea, lacks much excitement.  We decided to have him make new glass panels in whites, reds, oranges and blues to really increase the beauty of the piece.  As we were visiting his home a few weeks ago to view the sample panels and colors, he showed us some of the numerous stained glass pieces he has in his home.  A number of tiffany style lamps, kitchen window and side lite in the bedroom.  He also showed me his shop and the tools of the trade.  While is fused glass items are beautiful, I found myself drawn to stained glass.  So what did my impulsive self do?  Bought 100 pounds of glass!!  I also bought a number of other items deemed essential to the craft such as: a glass grinding, a good glass cutter, a lathekin, copper foil, solder, flux, a soldering iron with extra tips and other items.

I'm pretty excited with this idea and really think that it might suit my abilities and personality.  I've already done a few small panels to learn how to cut the glass and solder the joints.  Perhaps I should have taken a class or two first, but hey.. I'm not exactly a traditional learner :P