My other great loves

Most artists and creative people are not limited to just one medium. This is true of myself, my whole life I have been creative, there are not many crafts and mediums I have not experimented with over the years. I love to crochet, I love to create pretty things with fibres, paper, glass, silver. I garden, bake and indulge in lots of things day to day that require imagination and vision. I love colour. I adore observing art in all forms.

Running Destiny Pier, designing and creating and playing with all these beautiful colours is like living in a wonderful dream. I don't think I will ever tire of it. I feel so lucky to be able to spend so much time creating to my hearts desire.

One of my greatest loves has always been the written word. I love literature, I love to read and I love to write. I have since I was very young loved creative writing, stories, poetry, songwriting is a great, great love of mine. I feel so happy when I get to sing and play the guitar. I also like life writing. I like to write to move, inspire or motivate. In various jobs over the years my writing has come in handy but it has never been the focus that I would like it to be. My piles of of papers with my scrawling upon them, the files of words, the musical recordings. All have sat hidden away. Most seen only by myself or those closest to me.

As my children grow and my family becomes less dependent on me I have spent my time feeling like there is a gap, a part of me that needs to be fulfilled. Don't get me wrong! Being a mother, having the family life I have is a joy that I feel so unbelievably blessed to have. I have awesome friends and have a buys life. I am truly lucky! for 25 years I have been with the love of my life, my best friend, my soulmate who supports everything I do with a gusto that I am so grateful for. But I have spent a long time trying to figure out what it is that I want to do next... what was my goal to achieve in my life. I have pondered so much and doubted and wondered some more. But I think all along I knew. I have decided to focus some more of my time on my writing and music and so at the age of 49 I find myself enrolled with the Open University to begin studying for a degree in the Autumn. I shall be studying BA Honours in The Arts and Humanities (Creative Writing) . I am super excited. Being distance learning I can fit it in around Destiny Pier and get to indulge all my great loves.

This does mean I will have a bit less time for working on my glass, I will be having to spread myself out a bit more through the week. I shall limit the number of commissions I take on and it will probably mean I am even more rubbish at updating my social media, shop and website. But I am hoping to be more efficient and get into a good routine so that nothing is neglected.

This next chapter in my life is exciting and I really hope that I can see this through to its conclusion. I look forward to juggling all these creative balls and continuing to share my glass and creations with you.

Jeanette xx