I Love The Frogs

This week it's back to "business" both in torching and in training as well as finding a flow on how to put the two together with emphasis on the word "flow". That I'm sure will iron out as I experiment on which parts of my training to insert where.

Today was the first day back on the torch making horses since the show. My mojo was "off" a bit, however how the horses come out is how they come out despite what my intentions are. It's very humbling to let the art happen or let the art flow through me and not try to control it as control does not work (trust me on this one). As I looked at my last horse before putting it in the kiln, I laughed at its disheveled mane. My horses make me laugh and that's a good thing.

I was using a color called Blue Caramel for two of my horses. This color is my new favorite color, but it wasn't before. You see, Blue Caramel is famous for leaving a thick layer of yellow deposit from all the silver it contains. I thought this was how it was supposed to look until a more seasoned glass artist told me to acid etch the piece and that I would be amazed at what was underneath. The piece went from "yellow poo" to an absolutely stunning array of greens, blues, and yellows. I got to thinking about what else (training included) is absolutely stunning once the "poo" is pealed off? Be willing to make the adjustment to peel off the "poo".

The more earth-shattering discovery made this week was when Dennis and I made the executive decision to turn off the air purifier that sits beside the cockatiel cage. The air purifier does siphon the feather dust from the birds, but it's noisy and when we shut it off, we realized how noisy it was and decided to leave it off. As I blog I am listening to the frogs in my and my neighbor's dugouts. I can also hear the summer birds sing. I truly love hearing the frogs and birds and am willing to drag the vacuum cleaner out more often so that I can enjoy nature's symphony. I guess this was another instance where the "poo" was peeled off.

Sherri Donohue
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta