“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way–things I had no words for.”

Georgia O’Keeffe 

Greetings Treat-A-Weekers,

So anyone who knows me, knows that I am not at all artistic.  In my entire life there have been three pieces of art that I have created, two of which were in elementary school (Ann Bancroft, remember our Little Rabbit’s Loose Tooth painting? That’s one of them, and I probably liked it so much because I painted it with you, a true artist!), that I actually loved.  The third piece, is the butterfly, featured above, that I created last week from scratch from various pieces of glass!  I had an absolute blast making this and was so happy with the finished product which now sits in a place of prominence on our credenza in our bedroom in Boston.  I went to the very cool Shard Shop, in Grayton Beach, Florida (studio pictured above) to make it with my two daughters and my sister and her sons.  My oldest daughter had seen friends on social media create artwork at this cute little shop in the Florida panhandle and she asked if she could too.  Taking a lesson on creating glass art that was not inexpensive ($40 per kid, $85 per adult, but you get a free piece of art that you make too) was not high on my list of things to do while on a beach vacation, but my 13-year-old really wanted to do it and I wanted to make her happy, so I asked our friend where they had gone to make their art (thanks for the info. Tracy Gay!), made a reservation, and off the six of us went on a gorgeous sunny day when we could have been out and about enjoying the rain-free weather.  Well, I am so glad I made my daughter’s ask become a reality — there was something incredibly bonding for my sister and I and our kids — something comforting and original and lovely that transpired as we all sat together making our individual creations in that beautiful cozy workshop with fun tunes in the background.  We were each focused on our own work, but critiqued each other’s and made suggestions, and mostly made compliments.  Each one of us had our own perspective on what we wanted/needed to make our work look beautiful to us and we each made a creation (all featured above) that we were delighted with, individually and collectively. I don’t think any of us had ever worked with glass as a medium before and this motley crew had certainly never taken a class of any sort together, let alone a glass art making one.  The experience was new and fresh and fun for all of us and made me realize, I need to try new things more often and my extended family needs to try new things together whenever and wherever we can as well.  I hope you all will too — the next time you have a couple free hours to play with, sign up for a one-off class — watercolor, pottery making, ceramics, whatever sounds interesting to you – maybe ask some friends or family members to go with you.  I am fairly certain, you will end up with a treasured piece of artwork, a sense of pride, and a feeling of warmth and refreshment that will last you for days to come.

Until next week, I remain, truly yours,

M