And now for something completely different

While I really try to stay on topic with this blog, sticking to glass or at least jewelry, sometimes I am compelled to add in the odd other bit. This time it is political, but very close to home at the same time. So apologies to readers who expect only lampwork entries, but it is my blog, and I guess this falls more in the category of "musings" than "lampwork."

The topic today is the Israel-Hizbollah conflict, and the perspective on it is quite unique. It is a video of an Arab woman psychiatrist speaking on Al-Jazeera TV about the bigger context of the conflict. It has subtitles in English, but it's high-bandwidth and some on dialup have trouble viewing the video, so here is a link to the transcript. The video can be viewed here. If you have trouble, go directly to http://memritv.org and search for Wafa Sultan.

There is so much more to be said on this topic, but I don't want it to get lengthy here. I just felt that this perspective was worth sharing and unlikely to get as much exposure as some others.

No glass? No problem! Projects on the go.

As you may notice, there hasn't been much to read here over the last month or so. This may be counterintuitive, because knowing that I am a teacher, one would think that I'd have all kinds of time to make glass. This would be true except for two things: 1) it gets way too hot to be standing over a torch and next to a kiln in the summer, and 2) there have been so many other things going on!

As you might have seen, one thing is that I'm working on a total redesign of my website. Because it is of necessity a slow process, the site is a bit Frankenstein-y at the moment, with different parts having different looks. That will change, slowly but surely.

Another project has been completing and posting the audio meditation, "Unlocking the Mysteries of Gemstones." It's available in both download and mailed form.

And following on from that, I just did a workshop in Mahattan on the same topic, including a Make Your Own Healing Bracelet segment. It was a lot of fun, and each woman who participated came away glowing and happy with the bracelet she had made.

Here is a photo of the women's hands with their bracelets.