November 15th is America Recycles Day which, in conjunction with state programs like Texas Recycles Day, has helped millions of Americans increase their recycling efforts. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to look at the materials you discard resourcefully. Here are a couple of ideas:
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- Try using some of yesterdays newspapers to make your own handmade paper.

- Use leftover wine corks to make a trivet. Cork is a great barrier between scorching hot pots and your tabletop. One super simple way is to arrange the corks side by side vertically and tighten an O-ring, from your local hardware store, around them. Here is another way.

- That old pair of jeans, with a couple of holes, where it is not particularly fashionable to have a hole, can be given a whole new life as a skirt, denim bag or organizer. For ideas check out this article at Suite101.com.

It is not entirely uncommon that I repurpose items myself. For example, when my husband asked me to come up with idea for votive candles for My Place, I took the empty wine bottles they were discarding at the end of each night at turned them into something they could use.

Admiration, the San Antonio Visual Artists (SAVA) show honoring former Mayor Lila Cockrell is coming to a close November 21th. The SAVA Gallery, located on the street level of Rivercenter Mall in downtown San Antonio, is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The show is worth seeing in person, but if you can't make it down you can see photos of the work online.

It was just over a month ago that I spent a day in Market Square selling my wares to tourists and locals alike. During the long afternoon there were moments when I sat back and took in the festivities around me. The smell of fajitas pored out of the restaurants in billowing clouds of steam. Mariachis playing the same four songs over and over competed with the sounds of street singers performing for tips. And the mix of old and new architecture spanning from 1820 to the modern day Museo Alameda provided the backdrop for families enjoying a Saturday afternoon. At the time I longed to have my camera. So the next time I was in the neighborhood I stopped, put some change in the parking meter and ran in for a few quick shots.

The images of these butterflies were carved out of this smokey gray transparent glass not with a chisel but using the aid of a kiln to control the time and temperature the glass was exposed to. As the glass softens it can pick up the shapes which I have carved from fiber paper/board and transfer those impressions into the glass. A technique often referred to as kiln carving. This skill enables all kinds of design possibilities. I used this technique to create the items I referred to in my posting back in September of 2007.

Although not an overly complex technique there are some important factors to consider in order to be successful. For this reason I teach a 1-day workshop on kiln carving at Wire Designs Studio. The next class is scheduled for November 2nd and there are still a few spots available. If this is something that interests you, please contact Wired Designs Studio at (210) 495-4495 to reserve your spot.

The other day after many hours of toiling at my desk on the computer listening to music from my ipod, I decided to reward myself with a brief distraction on my way home from work. I stopped at a used book store to rummage through the art, poetry and fiction sections. You never know what you will find at a used bookstore. Humming Warren Zevon’s song Splendid Isolation, which had played as I worked earlier that day, I scanned the books in the stacks.

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As I mumbled “I want to live alone in the desert, I want to be like Georgia O’Keefe, I want to live on the upper east side and never go down in the street… Splendid Isolation, I don’t need no one….” my eyes came to O'Keeffe and Texas by Sharyn R. Udall. Periodically I imagine what it would be like to run away to some deserted place and leave behind all my present “distractions”. It’s a nice illusion anyway, one which for me often attaches itself to artists like O’Keefe.

Just a row or two over I came to Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go by Shaun McNiff. Known for his work on creative art therapies, McNiff writes about creativity for everyone in everyday life. This book was quite a reality check in comparison to my dream above. Blatantly challenging the idea that one need locate art in a distant place far removed from daily/ordinary life, he works from the concept that creation is a process which makes use of all our experiences (even those “distractions” I want to run away from). This book addresses those things we are all so familiar with mistakes, the blank page, repetition, creative blocks and working with what you have. Although we may address these things daily, reading about them brings to our consciences those simple truths we so often forget. Weather we deny them as I often hear so many do when the say “well I just not creative” or simple forget, it is the simple things which often hinder our ability to stretch our creativity. For this reason, reading books like Trust the Process can often be so helpful. Not to teach us something entirely new but to remind us of what we already intrinsically know, somewhere deep down, and have just forgotten or simple denied.

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“Everything that we perceive and feel

potentially contributes to the creative vision” - Shaun McNiff

We are fast approaching the end of 2008 and there are not many San Antonio Glass Art Guild (SAGAG) meetings remaining in this year's calender. If you attended in September to see Milissa Montini's video demonstration of pulling murrini (glass cane) you know how good these meetings can be. You're not going to want to miss these either.

October 30th at 6:30 pm, Liza Connell with Crystal Box Studio will be presenting on ways to embellish glass jewelery with simple to the intricate techniques using wire and Precious Metal Clay (PMC). Liza is an Senior Instructor for metals at Wired Designs Studio. If you have never taken a class with Liza this is your chance for a preview. If you have, I need say no more you already know how wonderful she is. The October meeting will be at Casarita Restaurant at 2895 Thousand Oaks just West of the Jones Maltsburger Intersection.

The November meeting is tentatively scheduled for the 6th to accommodate visiting artist and instructor Roger Thomas. The SAGAG programs committee does a phenomenal job of exposing our members to visting artist from around the nation whenever possible (reason alone to be a member of SAGAG). These are opportunities you don't want to miss. More information will be available soon regarding the location.

As a reminder SAGAG is open to anyone who works in glass at any level from hobbyist to professional and to those interested in glass art. Our mission is to promote community awareness, understanding and appreciation of the glass arts and to maintain a support network for artists, which provides educational, mentoring and marketing opportunities.

There is a certain something special about receiving a package in the mail. To sort past the bills and junk mail and find a jewel. Something which arrives by mail took deliberate intent on the part of the sender including the preparation of the package, postage and a trip to a post office. The effort involved is greater then just a light flick of a pinkie finger to an Enter button of a keyboard. That effort often involves intent put as ink to paper and wrapped in brown packaging.

This week I received two such treasures. The first was a card which traveled all the way from Lithuania. Sent to me by a fellow member of Postcrossing, it was obvious Leva had taken time to select the right card to send as ambassador across the sea. A card representing of the work of local Lithuanian graphic artist Sigute Ach, titled "Melie, pilna tylaus plaukimo maza valtele" or "Love full of silent rowing by a small boat" it brought a smile to my face as I brushed past ordinary white envelopes with cellophane windows to find this whimsical packet with a small treat inside.

The second was a manila envelope sent to Wired Designs Studio. I don’t normally receive mail at the studio so my interest was peeked when I receive a call informing me I had received a package from Austin, Texas. A package? For Me? With child like curiosity I came to find this nondescript package contained photos taken by a student documenting the events of an Introductory Fusing Class. Thank you so much Farah! I meet Farah for the first time during San Antonio’s first Luminaria event. It was not long after that she joined us at Wired Designs for a workshop. With her photo journalism background it was only natural she would want to document the workshop with her photos and I am glad she did. Her are just a few of her shots.