Sylviebead Journal

 It's been a long long long time.

I'm back in the studio after 6 years (I've made a couple of attempts to do so in the past 2 years, but it seems to have stuck and found momentum this summer)   I'm spending a couple of days a week in the borrowed studio (thank you, Marie) and some of my previous skills are coming back to me.

My tremors have worsened over the years, so some things that were just automatic... like putting a dot of glass on something are really difficult now and it drives me nuts.  BUT other things I was struggling with a couple of weeks ago seem to have become better.  I was having trouble with stringer and finding the sweet spot in the flame for things.  That seems to have come back to me and that makes a huge difference.

This week I started making some attempts at cutting the hot glass and it's difficult like placing a dot because it requires precision and when the pressure is on... I shake more.  This week I tried taking some CBD before working and it seemed to help a little bit.  I'm trying some other holistic methods in addition to the meds that the neurologist has me on for essential tremor.

I look back at the posts below from 2020 when I was struggling with tremors a LITTLE.  I thought it was bad then, but it's definitely more noticed now.  But practice and consistency is helping.

Having a full-time day job makes studio time harder... especially since there are times that I'm working 6 days a week and being consistent with studio time will be harder... but for now, I'm trying.

The biggest reason that I'm working so hard at it right now is that I don't have any of my own glass Christmas Ornaments (maybe 3=4 but they're not the ones I wish I had saved for myself)   I want to have a collection for myself that maybe I can hand down to my kids some day.  Having my dad's artwork after he passed away was meaningful for both me and my kids (and others) and I want to have a collection of my art for my kids (and maybe their kids) to have someday when I'm gone.

I was always chatty when I blogged in the past and hopefully being so here will save the people of facebook from my continued glass updates.

I worked for the first time on a week night last night and it wasn't bad to commute there and back. I was able to put in about 3 hours and that was enough to get the parts for 2 ornaments made (and my normal warm up of some spacer beads or plant-stakes)   The parts I made for the ornaments last night made me realize that I COULD probably make parts for Head Over Heels again.  I told my youngest this when I got home and told them to keep me in check... I don't need to think about that right now... just to keep doing what I'm doing making ornaments for myself.

Last thing before I stop blah blah blah...  It's time to get out the Blackboard of Bossiness again.  I have made lots of parts for ornaments, but I need to start lining them up and determine what pieces I need in order to complete an ornament.  They all need "bottoms" (copper wire with some sort of glass ornamentation to be the bottom of the ornament that gives everything a way to stack) and I need to decide which are just colorful ornaments and which are jesters or angel/fairies... and what parts I need to complete them... colors and shapes.   So the blackboard will let me list what I need and let me check things off as I go.

That's it for now.  Will try to add a photo and/or video to this later.