Where it all began...

I am just going to act as though I have always been blogging and just jump right into it. I won't talk about how odd it feels to join the ever growing universe of bloggers, or how I wonder if anyone will ever read a blog from me, or how I think I can manage keeping up with it. Nope, I'm just gonna start. So here it goes!

It all started in 2005 when my best friend Kari and I went to San Francisco for a weekend to celebrate her birthday.  On our last day there we went to a huge Artisan/Farmers market down by the Ferry Building. I bought a fused glass pendant there that I absolutely loved - it just spoke to me and had a great energy about it. Until that day, I had never even heard of fused glass.






When I received a class catalog 6 months later from a local community college that listed an Introduction to Fused Glass Workshop, I jumped at the chance. A whole new world opened up to me. And just like anything that you experience for the first time, I felt a mixture of excitement and intimidation.

At first it felt awkward - so much glass to choose from; so many colors and forms -noodles, stringers, confetti, powders, sheet, dichroic, iridescent, opaque, transparent; new tools to learn to operate - glass cutters, grinders, breaking pliers, runners, glass drills. It was overwhelming and exhilarating at the same time! I was fascinated by the concept of taking layers of rigid glass to such extreme temperatures that they transformed into a molten state, melting into each other to become one.

[caption id="attachment_562" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Layers of glass before fusing"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_561" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="The layers have fused together into one piece"][/caption]

After that workshop, I couldn't stop thinking about the design possibilities in glass. The problem was, the class wouldn't be offered again for 6 months. So I waited. I continued working in Interior Design even though it had lost its hold over me. And then I took the workshop again. I was hooked! I bought a small kiln and started buying glass and tools and all the materials I would need. I set up an area in my garage and started playing. I never dreamed that I would leave the world of Interior Design to enter a different world of design in a medium I had never even contemplated before. It didn't take me long to realize that this was not a passing fancy.

The process of transforming glass became a metaphor for the change and transformation I felt myself going through. I decided to turn my passion into a business and to call my business "COCOON". To me, it symbolizes a very safe and nurturing place that is within all of us. A place for retreat, reflection, rejuvenation, rebirth, and transformation. Every time I go into my studio to create, something new emerges from me, and something within the layers of glass is revealed in a way that it has never been before.

This is why I do what I do. And this is why I love it.