It has been crazier than ever round my way.
I have been working on some big jobs and still trying to navigate my way through. First cab off the ranks is lighting for the super impressive Jardan. Jardan are in my eyes, a fantastic Australian company. They produce ridiculously gorgeous furniture all made here and are proud ambassadors of Australian made. These lights are to be launched in their new flagship store in Richmond.
The next one was making vases for Dinosaur Designs. THE Dinosaur Designs!! Another amazing champion of the Australian made. I feel really lucky to be able to work with such big wigs of the Aussie made. I am pretty proud of myself to get them x100 units BEFORE the due date. I have loved Dinos for a looooong long time and knew I could give them works which would fit perfectly with their brand. This job also gave me the opportunity to run a small team of three which I absolutely love doing. This was my first team run in Melbs and I think we killed it.
My new wheel definitely got a good work out.
Lets see what else has been happening....
. studio flooded
. more jobs coming in
. working on some sweet exhibition stuff
. trying to keep my head above water....
Oh and we bought a house!!
More pics to come....(when i get out of cardboard county...)
So it has been an epic month and there is more on the way. I have loved getting to work on these jobs. It's so amazing to work production style. Even if the works are not my style I am learning something from every piece and I think my skills develop and make me a better glass blower. From the dinos job I learnt to interpret what the client wants and make work that represents who they are. Its interesting because it's not work that I would usually make but I still think it was a really successful job.
I have become the queen of scheduling. Seriously, I am booked up a minimum of six weeks in advance. I feel like I look at my diary about 27 times a day. I'm not going to lie, I feel stressed! I gotta learn to deal with this shit a bit better. Even though I was exhausted and go to bed dead tired, as soon as my big boof head hit the pillow, those pesky worries just crept in and started going round and round. They wouldn't stop. I think I need to have more confidence in my work and know that it is good. Some days I feel like a total hack, like a fraud and other days I feel like a real glass blower. I gotta nip that shit in the bud and get it under wraps. I think its ok to say you are proud of yourself and essentially telling yourself:
"you are a good guy at stuff".
I thought working for myself full time would be the best thing in the world. It may be the best, but that doesn't mean its easy. Infact this is probably one of the hardest things I have ever done. At the moment, and maybe because I'm fighting a bogus cold, I just feel wrecked. I'm just a little ball of stress and not enjoying it. I feel the weight of all these jobs on my back and I know its me that wanted this, I just got to make it work for me. I want to remind myself that this is the dream. Think how fortunate I am to be working in my field of choice. I want to enjoy it and I want to work hard but I also want my one life to be balanced. I want to get out more and see stuff. It's so important for inspiration and well being.
Now heres my favourite pic from this week, here is a picture of my cat creeping on me in the bath.
