On skipping math and losing my way...

When I was younger I was creative, I drew, painted and played music. All through my first ten years of school I followed that passion. At some point, I am not sure anymore if it was sudden or gradual I became disappointed in the outcome of my efforts. The grand vision in my head would never play out on paper. At the same time another interest grew, science. Suddenly here was something I was good at. I loved delving for the information, gathering and finding the answers within it. Disillusioned with my artistic abilities, I changed course towards a career in science. Unfortunately I wasn't all that good at Math, still I loved physics and chemistry and worked hard enough at Math to get by. Of course, you can never quite get away from your first love... and besides, sometime it just wasn't in me to actually go to my algebra class. Conveniently a local artist was doing a large stained glass project on location at our school library. I would go and watch her work and talk while I had free periods at school, and sometimes (honestly... only occasionally) during algebra.

I went off to study biotechnology at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. While I was at university I travelled around quite a bit, going to the United States during summer holidays to travel around and visit friends I had made, both online and offline. You can see where this is going right? I met an American and fell in love, so after completing university I got married, graduated and emigrated all in one week. I moved to Dallas, Texas and after three years there my husband and I moved to San Diego, California.

So where does this leave me? Again disillusioned with my path, I was in the Biotech industry and seeking a creative outlet to make up for the shortcomings of my work. In a new house, with a garage and space to play, my mind came back to art. Influenced by my friend and her work with glass I decided I would give stained glass a try. I took a class and read all I could on the topic. I made my class pieces and then moved out on my own. Wow... I loved the glass. The colours and textures and the way it caught and held the light, designing a piece and then picking out the glass.. cutting the glass and seeing it pull together and then.... the assembly. Not being someone with HUGE amounts of patience the long hours of assembly wore on me. I remembered reading in all my researching into stained glass, something about glass beadmaking. I convinced my husband it was a good idea and ordered my equipment and signed up for a class in glass beadmaking at a local studio that had a classroom. I was completely hooked, there was something about melting that glass and working with it, that was mesmerising. Finally ideas in my head had a fighting chance to be realised by my hands, at least enough of them to satisfy. So now I work in my garage, creating the glass beads that you see on my website, and hopefully in person sometime!

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