My five year old nephew asked me why I make 'glass bubbles' and it stuck with me

I was working on some simple implosion pendants at my home studio last weekend, just basic stuff, and my nephew was watching. He pointed at the furnace and asked, 'Why do you make so many glass bubbles?' I mean, I just laughed at first and said it's my job. But later, I kept thinking about it. To him, it wasn't a paperweight or a pendant or a vase, it was just a bubble I trapped in glass. It made me realize how much I overcomplicate things trying to make 'art' and sometimes forget the simple joy of the process itself, you know? The way the glass moves and captures air. Has anyone else had a simple question from a non-glass person totally shift how you see your own work?

3 comments

3 Comments

nina_sullivan612mo ago

Had a similar thing happen last year with my ten year old niece... she watched me pulling a gather and asked why I was "cooking a giant jellybean." I tried to explain about glassblowing and how it's an art form and she just shrugged and said it looked like I was having way more fun playing with my jellybean than she ever had drawing pictures. And honestly? Kinda shut me up for a minute. I was so caught up in worrying about the final piece, the perfection of it, the pricing, all that stuff... and she just saw a grown woman playing with hot candy. Still makes me laugh when I think about it. Sometimes kids see the purest version of what we do.

iris_mason884mo ago

is it really that deep though

adam_anderson64mo ago

Sometimes it is that deep. People act like caring about stuff is a bad thing. The whole point is to dig into why things matter. Otherwise what are we even doing here.