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The Glass Blowing Class (7): Were you captivated and inspired by the art you saw already? A complimentary glass blowing workshop has been offered by some local artisans. Located next door to the Crystal Heart Gallery, if you have a ticket stub from the event you can stop by to partake in one of their classes, where they’ll teach you how to make a glass blown ornament/bauble, a wine glass, or a set of glass beads. All classes are beginner friendly and you will be gently guided through the process. You keep what you make, and you’re encouraged to bring a friend! Classes are hosted every hour on the hour.
Bestla sighed softly as she settled into the little grotto that she’d set up within the ruins of her little homeworld. She’d had so many visions by this point of how it used to look. How it used to sound when the breeze would wind its way through strings of tiny, silvery bells woven through the trees… The breezes were as dead as the rest of the place now, but she’d brought up bells and windchimes anyway, needing to have something to touch and see outside of the memories that came and went so capriciously.
And now, thanks to the Crystal Heart Gallery’s largess, she had some pretty glass beads that she’d made herself with the intention of stringing them into a sort of sun catcher. It had actually been a lot of fun and much easier than expected given her lack of depth perception. The teachers had been kind and patient enough. Certainly, they’d earn her respect after describing some of the ways glass blowing could go terribly, horribly wrong. Fortunately, the beads she’d made hadn’t backfired and managed to incinerate her lungs, though she had come within inches of hot glass dripping onto her shoe.
My own damn fault, she thought. I let myself lose focus.
Well, that was then and this was now, and sitting here daydreaming wasn’t going to get the beads she’d blown strung. Hauling out a wad of colored string and a circular wooden frame, Bestla went to work, deftly weaving the strings to the hoop and each other and occasionally weaving a bead into the mix. She’d purposely gone for textured shapes and soft, golden colors for her beads. She had a notion that when the thin, wavering sunlight hit them, they’d glow warmly in the dim, forever twilight of her world.
She worked hard, unraveling the strings and re-weaving as some new notion or thought struck her fancy. She liked to think that it was her little world finding a way to speak out to her, guiding her in making something that belonged here. And just as her fingers began to cramp and seize, Bestla grunted softly in satisfaction. Tying and braiding off the last bits of thread, she admired the dream-catcher like ornament. The largest and prettiest of her beads rested in the center, suspended like a firefly in a spider’s web. The rest of the beads had been staggered around with the smallest of the lot dangling in a little fall of braided thread and glass. It was odd, it would certainly cause some of the noses in Destiny City to turn up in distaste, but Bestla didn’t care. This was for her and her world alone. And now, she needed to find just the right place for it. She had an idea that it would look amazing suspended in the center of the little grove she’d found and fallen in love with. The withered tree branches had grown and tangled together just right back in the past…
Mind made up, she staggered to her feet, wincing as her legs and feet began to ‘wake up’. Once sure that she could walk without stumbling, Bestla hurried to the grove and carefully eyed the cluster of branches. Yes… Yes. It would work and if she got things tied just right, her suncatcher would look like it was suspended in mid-air. But to do things properly, she’d need a decent ladder. Which was not a thing normally found on a dead world. At least, she chuckled a little ruefully, not a thing she’d trust her weight to if one was laying around.
So so so! I’ll have to put this off until I can get a ladder up here. Maybe Angus and Bindhi would have one she could borrow. And it’d give her an excuse to visit the niblings again. Plus, if she forgot the ladder up here, they were the only two people she knew who would get it. Heading back to where she’d left her things, she set the suncatcher down carefully.
“Right. I’ll be back and I’ll finish the job then,” she murmured. And moments later, her little world was still and silent as Bestla willed herself back to Earth.
Word Count = 705
