The road to recovery

Is the road to recovery ever smooth?  Are there usually roadblocks that pop up now and then?  Yes on both counts.  Along with occasional detours and potholes.

While we were in the middle of trying to clean up what was left of our previous life I had thoughts that I would attempt to create new art from things I was finding.

And there was a lot to find.  A lot of metal bits, pottery chunks and a whole lot of glass.  In my workshop I kept sheet glass in a couple of different places.  A bit of it was stored horizontally under my work table.  That glass heated and when I tried to recover it it had become brittle.  The mass of color that you see above was all glass that was stored vertically in a wooden storage cabinet.  During the fire it had heated and in my mind I believe that the wooden dividers of the cabinet added needed fuel to help it all melt down into a huge slump.

Although it doesn't appear to be much glass in the case it was pretty full.  On the far right side was hundreds of square feet of clear waterglass and glue chip.  Within was an assortment of greens and blues.

Relaxing in front of the cabinet is Little One.  He was a most amazing cat to work with and will be missed.  Little One was one of the nine cats to perish during the fire.













During clean up I also gathered hunks of metal, aluminum from my wheel rims that had melted and reformed into new shapes.  Instantly I thought they would be interesting to work with.

A chunk of glass from the burned cabinet.  Here greens had stood next to white and black glass among other colors.  When they all melted together it resulted in this piece that I broke apart from a much larger piece.

The blues.  There is a fair amount of glass such as this mixed blues mass. A bit of the remelted glass has charred wood embedded with in it.

Combining the elements.  Here I've taken fused glass chunks and wrapped them with wire.  And the same has been done with the aluminum pieces.  Suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.  Measures 20 inches long by 9 inches wide.

This design and more are available in my Etsy shop.