blue artichoke

Learning a new skill sometimes involves learning a whole new language. Last month I took a class for making my own glass beads; it looked fun and I thought a sackful of handmade glass beads would be a good birthday present for my mom, a frugal jewelry maker who would never pay $10 for a single bead. There was one other person in the class, a guy who had bought his own bead-making kit a few weeks prior and had made, oh, maybe 30 large beads already. He hopes to graduate to glass sculptures. I'm happy sticking to beads. But, because he had read up on the subject and already had some experience, he and the teacher talked beads. I felt like they were speaking Spanish; I recognized the words they used, but the context was unfamiliar. I'm a quick learner, though, so after two hours, I had a handful of beads to take home with me, and a bead making kit of my own. For the next two weeks, I made about 10 beads a day. My early efforts are a bit lopsided, but I progressed to making more-or-less round beads. The ones where I made mistakes, though, turned out to be the neatest looking ones. I like this hobby; even mistakes look cool! Now that I'm comfortable with the basics of bead making, I'm thinking about taking an advanced class.

I can add making glass beads to my list of 30 New Things to Do/Learn/Try while I'm 30.

Here's the list so far:
30 New Things:
1. Roast a duck
2. Learn to make glass beads
3. Swim in an underground river
4. Sea-Trek
5. Touch a sea turtle

Getting to Know All About You: What is the newest skill you've learned?

By the way, a "hot head" is a type of welding torch we used to make glass beads. The "sweet spot" is the proper distance within the flame for melting glass.