so tonight i spent several hours after work with my (upaf) co-workers weaving baskets. leila is a great basket weaver and after so many months of us all admiring her work, she decided to let us all try. the bending of reeds - over under, over under, over under. it was not my first basket, but it has been, oh goddess, twenty years. eeek. now part of me was like, “girl, you have enough mediums! wtf? like you need to do this?” and most of me was like “hells yeah! i’m gonna make me a basket” and when the heckfire would i pass up the opportunity to learn something new? and crafty at that… come on! so it was great. it was (almost) totally new. it was a stretch. and i have a whole new understanding of and appreciation for well-made baskets. and leila is a rockstar. you should have seen us all down there in the breakroom listening to 80’s music. there were no drinks. who does that?
the other coolass thing i’ve done recently is blow glass. i went with my friend Mm for her birthday to this awesome (once we found it) glass studio out in cedarburg. there was an element of fear, a little bit of danger. i really did not want to burn myself. that shit hurts. no thank you. but so i sucked it up and i watched everyone else go first and then i did it. and really it’s like debra did it and i helped but still. one thing i learned is that working with glass often takes two people, especially if you are working on anything of a significant size. you need someone to open the doors of the “glory hole” and help support the weight of a heavy piece of glass, etc. anyway so it wasn’t that out of the ordinary the two people would create something together. i learned so flippin’ much that day. and it was super fun!
so am i going to become a glass blower and a basket weaver? probably not, but i will almost certainly incorporate what i learned into something else i make, and it was a darn good experience.
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