Cool glass

Son has finally found something he loves ... glasswork! He's been doing a lampworking class at the Canberra Glassworks this month (4 x 3 hour sessions), and is excelling. He's the youngest student in the class (middle aged women are the norm!), is very adept and a quick learner.

These are what he made on his first lesson :

His teacher said he was doing advanced level beads by the second class (that's these ones) :


His goal is to learn to make (and sell) glass body jewellery, like the stuff here. There is currently no-one in Australia making this sort of body jewellery, and there's definitely a market! He and Dotter have to buy all their glass jewellery from the States. So we're not talking 'pretty beads' here, but glass jewellery for people who are into body modification (as both my kids are). Labrets, plugs, pinchers, twists, and so on.

The next step is further training with this guy (about 120 km from us), and the purchase of the equipment (small kiln, blow torch, mandrels, glass sticks, safety gear, and so on).

He has the requisite balance of artistic and design talent, with handicraft skills, connections to the body art & modification online community, and obsessive interest (one of the occasional pluses of Asperger's).

This is the most positive development for Son in years. Here's hoping he can gradually reach his goals! Considering that he's been unemployed with practically no goals for the past 3 years, this is a big step forward, even if there's only slow progress from here (there have been a lot of disappointments and false starts in the past few years, so I'm trying to be realistic). I'm very proud of him. And relieved. Yup, definitely relief in there too.

And here's your Miss Petal photo for the day. She turned 1 on 14 March, and this is her birthday jumper (Rav link to the pattern).