An adventure. A surprise. An unknown destination.
That was all I had to go on when my friend Jill asked me to hold a spot in my calendar for a particular Sunday, in close proximity to my birthday.
I confess I did not think about it much in the intervening days. I trusted Jill’s judgment, and was rather excited about the promise of the unknown.
A few weeks later it was time! Dressed casually, but not too casually, I picked up Jill and we headed out. Jill had maps and addresses and I simply plugged the first one in and followed the instructions delivered by my ever so helpful GPS. Ah – off to the North Shore. My first clue. Sadly not a lot to go on….
Buddha-ful was our first stop for lunch. It was a sweet little restaurant, just off Lonsdale, with a nice selection of Buddha bowls and smoothies, and even some vegan desserts. We both ordered bowls: “Bohemian” and “Wild at Heart “as I recall. (I admit that I did make a note so as not to forget. My slothful memory cannot be entirely relied upon any more.)
The Chai tea was delicious, and the bowl lovely, with lots of different flavours and textures. I simply could not eat the full contents of mine so packed it up for lunch the next day.
Somewhere in there, Jill asked me if I wanted to know what we would be doing. I was still happy to be surprised. My only clue was “something creative.”
I think of myself as a “creative problem-solver”, but someone capable of creating a thing of beauty? Not so much. A tiny schmeck of anxiety began to creep in. I reassured myself with the certain knowledge that Jill knew me and it was highly unlikely she would be whipping me off to a watercolour class.
After a short stroll down the street to fill some time, we were off. Again, the GPS was our guide and we pulled up to a private home on a cul-de-sac just below Grouse Mountain. Nothing revealed just yet.
Somewhere between the car and the basement, Jill did say we would be making a fused glass platter. I would like to say that was enough for me to know what to expect; it wasn’t. At least not just yet. And this was not a lot to go on, though looking at this image now, I see there was a great clue on the top right <head smack>:
We looked around the room and chatted with our instructor – Debbie Hungle. She told us a bit more about what we would be making as other students began to arrive. Ideas were floated, photos of inspirational projects taken, and we began.
I am good at rapidly sketching a process on a white board, or building a spreadsheet filled with numbers. I can handle a Miro board due to my deep and abiding love of sticky notes. And in recent years, I have mastered the ability to rapidly build the first draft of a powerpoint deck. This blank sheet of glass – well that was a little more daunting.
Nonetheless Jill and I both dug in. We collected pieces of glass, nibbled them into shape with a cutting tool, added glass beads (prepared in advance by Debbie) and our little platters began to take shape.
The nice thing about this project was how easy it was to play around by putting things down, moving them around, taking them off, and even starting all over if the design was not satisfactory.
Although it took a bit to get started, the 3 hour class flew by. In the end I think we were both pleased with our creations. These photos are before they were fired. Each tiny piece of glass lightly glued into place to ensure it’s safe transport to the kiln.
We drove home feeling quite satisfied with our efforts, chattering about what inspired us, and the choices we had made. We would have to wait a week or two before they would be ready for pickup.
Jil – thank you for a marvelous adventure. I loved the surprise of it. I loved that I actually felt able to create something that was , in the end, rather pretty. I loved the lunch, and even our coffee stop when we went back to pick up our finished platters.
I think I would be very happy to try something else. Maybe some macrame, or a jewellery class, or some pottery. I enjoyed “making” and I would like to keep that freshly developed muscle stretched. Perhaps I am actually capable of something more than yet another pair of knitted socks.
Adventures of a curious mind 
Leave a reply to Donnie Foerster Cancel reply