The way the sunlight spills through glass has always put a spell on me. Unlike a prism, which separates white light into its colours, coloured glass adds to it and changes it.
When I was a little girl, around four years old, I inherited a miniature green glass tea set from my sister Doreen. The cups were about half an inch high, the saucers slightly wider. The plates were about an inch wide. The teapot and other pieces were equally miniature. I think they came from a dollhouse originally. It was the light that came through them when I held them up that enchanted me.
Coloured glass marbles, like spheres of captured light, were like jewels that I raised to the sky. Their watery beauty refreshed me, like a cool drink to my thirsty soul.
As a child in church with my parents, I loved the sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows. My thoughts were only of colour and light, far from the words drifting in the air.
The west coast had so much to offer when we moved to Victoria early in 1973. I discovered the joy of watching waves crashing on the sand, with the light from the sky behind the thin top edges of the waves. They glowed with a soft blue-green light.
I frequented a store at the bottom of Johnson Street that sold cobalt blue glass dishes from Mexico. I often went there just to look, to satisfy the thirst in my eyes, and although my budget was small, I bought a blue glass item from time to time, sometimes a goblet, sometimes a bowl, and brought them home to rest on a windowsill.
When we moved to Mayne Island almost two decades ago, “Starting Fresh” was on my mind. I chose to collect glass dinnerware of all kinds. I collect both modern glass and Depression glass and now I use them daily and relish the light they share.
When I had my cataracts removed, I rediscovered the heart-stopping joy of coloured light, and I realize that there is one thing I must see in this lifetime. Dale Chihuly is an artist whose work seizes my optic nerves and doesn’t let them go. I have never seen Chihuli’s coloured glass creations in person, but while I still have eyes that can see colours, I want to stand in front of them and let them devour me.
Amber Harvey
January 31 2023