Who I am...

A chance comment on Facebook set me to wondering how many of my 560 or so "friends" actually have any idea of who I am, why I am here doing whatever it is I do. You'll say that's part of the FB game... but for that matter, how many of my real-life aquaintances do ? Apart from my family of course, who on principle disapprove anyway. I feel like I'm spending most of my time with people who have no clue, anymore than I have as regards who they might really be.

Based on recent experience, I suppose most of my casual acquaintances would describe me as "someone who makes jewelry"... which is nowhere close to how I feel about myself so I guess it's up to me to attempt to market the right image. So first things first, if you want to remain on speaking terms with me, you'd better integrate the word "flameworker" into your vocabulary. Or at least for the general public "glassblower". Because what I first and foremost do and enjoy is melt glass. Jewelry is only a by-product for me, something that enables me to attempt to make a living out of it.

Now as to why I am actually doing it as a full-time job and not as a hobby... anybody ? No ? Well, ok...
As some of you may know, I was trained as a reasearch scientist in physics and chemistry. I first came to Switzerland to make my Ph.D. and stayed there because I was hired by Nestlé to work on food aromas. That's how I got to discover the inside of the magnificent world of the food industry, the operative word being "industry". Meaning that contrary to what we were trying to make the general public believe, the real aim was to make money, not make healthy products... and no, it isn't the same thing.

It was probably naive from me to expect anything else but it definitely triggered the question of whether I could live with it on a long term basis. And to make a long story short, the answer is that I couldn't. I quickly realized that the same issue would present itself wherever I worked and that the only way around it would be to work in a structure where I would be totally in agreement with the aims and means... i.e. on my own.

And since science as the saviour of the world had lost most of it's shine by that time, I decided to turn to something that did not even try to make believe it was necessary to the progress of mankind and which was on a more individual scale... so glass flameworking it was. Because yes, melting glass is fascinating. And challenging. And I love challenges !

So yes, I am one of those who consciously decided to exchange the certainty of a good salary for the freedom to think differently and I've never for one second regretted that choice.

Nothing is easy and I am human and therefore full of contradictions but with every passing day I try to refine my approach to life to bring it as close as I can to what I feel is right. I mostly do not eat processed foods anymore... I've seen how they're made. I strongly believe they are mostly responsible for a variety of ills, including the drastic rise in all kinds of cancers. I try to favour organic so as to reduce the amount of chemicals released in our environment. I try not to get caught into the ambient consumerism... and that's rarely as easy as I would like !
I try to favour locally-made and/or artisan rather than mass-produced, to reduce my energy and water consumption, to recycle (thankfully living in Switzerland helps a lot). In my work I try to keep track of what I use and where it comes from.

There's probably a lot more that I could do and if you're trying to find faults in my approach you will undoubtely succeed but after years of thinking that just quietly doing things was enough, I am now beginning to think that being more vocal about it may not be a bad thing...