Big Birthday Tomorrow

Tomorrow (September 12) is my birthday - the big Four-Oh. Wow. Feel free to wish me happy birthday - or even better, support a great cause by donating to The Garden Road School by donating to my fundraising campaign! Just click below.

The Garden Road School is a non-profit organization. The 501c(3) application is in progress; it should be finalized in the next few months, so you can keep the receipt emailed to you and deduct your donation from your taxes either this coming year or the next retroactively.

The Story of My Life, In Recent Times

This past August, I moved my entire life to Peekskill, NY after living in the Boston area for 18 years - the longest I'd ever lived in one area in my life. This was a huge and significant move for me, one I'd been working toward for 18 years. The reason?

The reason is because I want to change the world. Literally. Through education, a little at a time, making the world a better place. And the best way I think there is is through the education system offered by the school I came to join, The Garden Road School. Please click the link to learn more about the school; I just finished the website, and I'm adding content every day, but there's a lot there already.

I've been involved with the school for years, working as its volunteer webmaster and joining in fundraising events. Finally, though, they were ready to hire me, and I was ready for a move.

However, things rarely work out perfectly, and the school hit some hard times this year, losing about half of its enrollment. It's growing again, but not enough to compensate for a large expected deficit.

So the teachers, passionate about wanting to see this education system in the world and the vision of what could be, volunteered to donate over $50,000 in salaries and hours to help reduce the deficit. This is very significant, especially since most were already working only part time and making, well, almost nothing. It's truly a labor of love.

For my part, in addition to my administrative and teaching roles, I have agreed to become a member of the school's Board of Directors. Each member is responsible for raising several thousand dollars to donate to the school. Given the pay cuts I have taken, and the added expenses from living in a more expensive area, I will be lucky to cover my food and heating costs this year. So I'm posting an opportunity here to donate to my board member fundraising campaign to the school.

Every little bit helps, so don't be shy about donating even a small amount. Thank you so much!

Oh, and my lampwork stuff is still in boxes. I hope to be able to unpack it soon. :-)

Beads and the Single Lampworker

Since I've entered the single life back in August, I haven't had much time or inclination to make beads, or for that matter, jewelry. There's just been too much going on - including romance of various kinds.

Being a creative soul, I have found various outlets for the need for closure when a period of dating someone ends, and I need to sever the connection. So for a while, I wrote a poem about each person.

For some reason, facing the need for yet another termination, this time from someone I thought would be a good match (for the first time), I was drawn back to the torch. I chose colors for a bead that reflect his character, as far as I know it. When I finished this bead, I was compelled to make another that I thought would reflect my own character. This process was very interesting and revealing; I recommend it! Now, when I say goodbye, I can hand him "himself" as a closing gift - and let go of him in more ways than one. I can also keep myself. And I can remake myself as many times as necessary.

Pretty new beads

I just love this color combination, so I've made several of these beads. They are transparent purple, with a turquoise stripe and an overlay of dichroic gold, melted together so the colors flow and form an organic shape. So pretty! This bead is available in the boutique, with more to come as I have time to photograph the beads.

Writing Is Also Fun!

November is coming, and that is an important and crazy time for me, a time in which I participate with my students in National Novel Writing Month. Last year we were featured in the Boston Globe twice.

I was thrilled to find out that Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo, would be speaking in the Boston area this weekend. I went to see him at the Peabody Borders bookstore, and it was so much fun! He's a great speaker, has super enthusiasm and energy, and is cute to boot. He was promoting his really cool writers' kit. Something you may not know about NaNoWriMo is that half the proceeds go to build libraries in southeast Asia. I highly recommend it!

Susan with Chris Baty on October 6, 2006 in Peabody

Watch a video clip of Chris talking about NaNoWriMo.

New year, new place, new beads

Just after the Jewish new year, I unpacked my lampwork stuff and made beads in my new place. I had been worried that there wouldn't be enough room to put all the stuff, but it actually fits quite well. The kiln is also doing fine on the wiring here; it's great that it's such a low-power kiln. The ventilation isn't as great as I'd want, so that's one thing that will have to be addressed soon.

My Minor torch is going to have to stay in storage for a while, until I can find a place where I can use more than a Hothead. There is no place to safely put a propane tank here (though I did pick a new one up cheap last week). So now I have the torch and the tank. Now I just need a place, the hoses, and an oxygen concentrator. Minor needs (pun intended)!

If the beads come out from the kiln and look pretty, I'll post pics.

Music: An All-Important Ingredient

It's been some time since I've posted, for good reason. The reason is that I moved from my home of six years - the longest I've lived consecutively in any one place in my life - in mid-August, and I have only recently become settled enough to even think of picking up my creative pursuits again, with school starting at the same time.

But now it's a new start time, coinciding with the Jewish New Year and other fascinating convergences, and things will begin again.

This weekend I went to visit my friends on Cape Cod for the CD launch party of the band Tripping Lily. I met the band in mid-August at Janni's and became enraptured by their music, spending most of the night listening to the band jam in the living room with only a few other people; most others at the party were listening to, and/or participating in, the beautiful jazz outdoors on the back deck.

I think Tripping Lily embodies some of what is moving now in the world. Plus I just like their music. The band members are youthful, energetic, have a great stage presence, and totally passionate about music; food is just about the only thing that can stop them from playing, that and listening to music. It was a totally fun concert/party at Redtop, Janni and Jeff's house in Hyannisport, right near the beach.

The band is performing at a music festival in Nashville this week, and they will be playing at venues in the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville area in the near future. It feels like they will be well known soon; they are already one of the hottest bands on the Cape.

And what on earth does this have to do with lampwork? I've found that my choice of music while lampworking is very important: it needs to be not so harsh that it breaks the meditative concentration, but having joyfulness as part of it is important. For example, Enya would be too mellow. So I have a playlist that I use when lampworking, and when I hear the music when not making beads, it brings me right back to the feelings and aromas of that process. Tripping Lily's music is a perfect addition to my Jack Johnson, Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband, Ian Love and Raconteurs songs on this playlist.

Tripping Lily's main web space is their Myspace page for now, and they're working on revamping their main website. You can hear samples of their music on the Myspace page.

Photos of the band:

From left to right: The lovely and talented Monica, who keeps the band succeeding in the practical world; verbose, humorous and warm Demetrius, who can tune his guitar and entertain an audience at the same time; Alex, Demitri's younger brother whose unique voice shines through most clearly in his music, including the broken-urinal-inspired "Nothing Goes" song he composed; and popular Laird, whose deep and constant bass keeps the band's musical heart beating.


Janni and Jeff join the band in their den, where the Couch Sessions CD was recorded.