Katie is 12 years old. She discovered glass when her family wandered into the Open House in October. Instructor Nancy Cann was wrapping up a workshop, and she showed Katie how to make a simple glass piece.
Katie was so attentive and creative that Nancy invited her to take part in our Gift Making Marathon. She produced more than a dozen small glass pieces, including a “breakfast” of egg, toast and hot chocolate!
I took this photo when Katie came to pick up her finished pieces. She wandered around the studio, asking serious questions about my new projects as she touched each item with wide eyes. When her dad said “Time to leave,” Katie grabbed me and gave me a huge hug.
I’d forgotten how wonderful a hug from a child is. A child who’s found a new place in the world where she can be herself.
That’s how I feel about the studio. I remember walking into 186 Rio Circle for the first time. At the end of the long dark hallway, the lights shone on those big kilns, and I could literally feel my life change.
As Charlie showed me around, I couldn’t believe that such a place even existed, let alone that I could use it. To now have the privilege of opening that door even wider seems absolutely miraculous.
So, as I draw up my business plans for the studio’s development, I remind myself how important that sense of wonder about glass is. And how magical the studio can be for the Katies of the world.
I’m very fortunate to have an excellent business adviser, Judith Ross, from the SCORE volunteer program. She is not only a business consultant and financial mentor, but a major collector of art glass. She brings an incredible array of ideas, contacts and practical knowledge to our sessions, and she has really kept me on track.
It’s easy to get bogged down in the details. To run weekly workshops, produce holiday gifts for sale, and deal with the mechanical problems of a 55-year-old industrial building … it has been draining at times.
But then I walk around the studio and turn on the lights behind Charlie’s sculptures, and I remember what I am here for.
Thank you for making it possible.
Best,
Lisa
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