New edition of Blown Away

The reason I signed up with Netflix was to see the first season of Blown Away. It takes place at the Croning Glass Works, where several glass blowers compete for a prize and to be called the best in show. There were 2 seasons with 10 episodes each, and they just released one with a Christmas theme that brought back five of the glass blowers who'd almost made it on the previous series. They were all fun to watch and required a skill I do not possess...and not once has my favorite won. Dammit.

I went to actually visit the Corning Glass Museum twice, thanks to these shows. It's about 150 miles from me and you had to wear a mask thanks to Covid, but it was worth it to see not only the amazing history and beauty of glass, but also actually watch them make some items. I've posted about it, before, on Facebook, so no need to, again.

But that visit did help me figure out the sort of artwork my main character in Dair's Window is doing. Dair Llewellyn does portraits of people in layers of fused glass (AKA: Gemmail) on various plates of clear glass, with light behind them, to give them a 3-D feel...almost holographic, because their expressions change as you move around them. This piece is what showed me it can be done. It's Pont de Grenelle by Louis Gilis, which is cut glass layered and fused in a light box.

Dair's Window is the story I was working on for much of the first part of this year and it exploded on me. Dair is a stained glass artist, which is different from blown glass, but watching Blown Away got me into understanding how one can use glass to make more than just cups, saucers and Christmas decorations. I now know what it is going for and will eventually return to it.

FWIW, I'm almost done with CK's challenge. Just under 3600 words to go to hit 50K. It won't be finished at that point, and I will finish it...then it's back to APoS and then...onward and upward.