Ode to Glass

by: Erock


Glass panes taken from the picture frames that I converted into stylish albeit mildly ghetto bulletin boards with a bit of cork tile and craft glue-

Glass panes sitting on my crowded bedroom floor, along side my desk. Will you continue to collect dust indefinitely? Will I trip over you both one morning on my way to check my email on the way out the door causing a gouge in the floor and a slice on my heel and a ruined sock and a missed bus? But I cannot throw you away.

Glass panes, untapped potential, good times in the making, very functional… somehow...

And I’ve never etched glass before, and there is no time like the present.

Glass panes, waiting patiently aside my desk on the cold hardwood floor while I occasionally google ‘glass etching’ and then refuse to buy more craft supplies. Not to mention that glass etching chemicals are toxic. I then google ‘environmentally friendly glass etching’. How invisible you must feel as I walk passed you every day, not to mention that you are by nature transparent.

And then one day as I meander down Haight Street on my way home, I see a picture frame, made only from a glass pane with two holes drilled for mounting and a ribbon hanger. I gain true vision for the lonely and cold glass that sits on my floor, and it’s all perfectly clear.

All I have to do is figure out how to drill holes in your delicate glass surface, then find trendy picture frame stencils and paint onto my glass panes, and THEN … THEN I will utilize you for creative and functional purposes.

I google ‘how to drill glass’, and find diamond drill bits for the dremel. I wonder to myself if these diamond drill bits are conflict free. I then wonder if sometimes I wonder too much. I silently attempt to push from my mind the image of small children in Sierra Leone losing an arm for my goddarn diamond drill bits purchased so that I may save two panes of glass from the garbage can.

I google ‘dremel’ and find an amazing multifunctional tool. This tiny yet powerful machine drills, grinds, sands… I could get rid of my sonicare and use it for oral care (if I wanted to…). I must own a dremel. Dremels are extravagant, disposable and unnecessary. I should never own a dremel. My internal battles rage on (more accurately… my internal debates continue. I just thought battles raging was a much more dramatic image).

And still, my glass panes, you sit next to me now as I blog about planning to etch your surface or drill holes through your depth save my resistance to buy more craft supplies. And still you collect dust and patiently wait. And what about those poor children in Sierra Leone?