they asked, my craft resume

On Wednesday I am going to hand over several examples of my stained glass. An hour later I may or may not be a juried member of the Bucks County Guild of Craftsmen. They also want a resume describing background and style...

I have always doodled and if you could find a high school or college notebook, you would see that it goes back, at least to junior high. Doodling became more elaborate in my mid twenties as I started spending more time on my designs and my art supplies became more diverse than pens and notebook paper. In my early forties, I felt an urge to do more with my designs.

So five years ago, I took a quilting class and made a quilt top. I had grown up surrounded by quilts and have always loved them, but something was not quite right. Quilting was not for me. So I took a class on how to work with stained glass.

Design is my favorite step in the process. At the beginning I so wanted to spend time with designing pieces that I wondered if I would ever use a design a second time. Now I do, but I also can't stop doodling, especially at staff meetings. The challenge is to take my favored "doodles" and make them glass friendly.

My stained glass has two main categories. I use my drafting tools (my dad is a draftsman and I worked for him one summer, back in the day) to make designs often inspired by traditional quilt squares. I also do what I call star flowers which are my attempt to take a favored doodle and turn it into glass. Recently I was commissioned to make a hummingbird, which may be yet another direction.

There is also a bit of the unknown while working with glass. It is far from the uncertainty of Raku pottery, however, I am never sure what a piece will look like till the soldering and cleaning are finished. That is when I hold it up to the light. Usually a favored step in the process.

That's it, for now. I need to copy and paste it into a word document so more revision may occur. Off to select the pieces to take. Worse thing that can happen tomorrow night is to come home not a juried member, but that is what I am now, so life will not be so different. There are aspects of my work, which I feel in need of improving. So if rejected, I hope it is for those things and not for my designs.

BUY STAINED GLASS

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