learn a little
A correspondence glass
Story & PHOTOS BY GRETCHEN
AMMERMAN
For the TODAY
I’m super good at art. And by that,
I mean I have a particular talent for
surrounding myself with amazing artists,
which almost makes up for the fact
that I can’t even draw a smiley face that
doesn’t look like it’s taken an airplane ride
through a tornado.
One of those friends, mosaic artist
Joanne Daschel, believes that everyone
has talent hidden somewhere, and that the
primary thing that separates successful
artists from the rest of us is the work they
put in to perfect their chosen medium.
With that belief, Joanne offers tools to
help others create pieces of their own. She
started by giving workshops at the Lincoln
City Cultural Center, where she has a
studio. When stay-at-home orders were
issued in March, she turned to the internet
and the postal service to offer nightlight
and sun catcher kits people can complete
at home.
“We’re all artists,” she said. “It’s just
that many of us weren’t encouraged to
think of themselves that way, so never give
it a real try.”
Challenge accepted.
Of the many choices available in her
nightlight kits, including a turtle, flowers
and a starfish, I chose to make a wave.
The box Joanne creates has pretty much
everything a person needs to create a
(potentially) beautiful piece of useable
art, including more than enough pieces
of glass in various colors to allow for
a healthy number of mistakes (precut
kits are available but I wanted the full
experience).
“It’s a good idea to practice with some
glass you don’t care about,” Joanne said.
“But I definitely include enough so that
you won’t be nervous about running out
while you are working.”
Though the kits include written
instruction, a series of short-but-thorough
videos Joanne created also help walk
you through the series of potentially
intimidating tasks, like trying to cut shards
of glass into actual usable shapes.
“We don’t worry about being too
exact in mosaic,” she says during one of
the segments, a hugely comforting tip.
“Having pieces that are not quite perfect
I think is kind of charming and it gives a
handmade, folksy look to each piece.”
After a few panic attacks, I finally
settled into a rhythm, really noticing
how the glass shards can create a shape
without being exactly what you thought
you needed them to be. This is one of the
things that drew Joanne to the medium to
begin with.
“Mosaic is fascinating to me in the
way that it engages the brain,” she said.
“If you look at a mosaic up close, it’s just
a bunch of broken pieces that don’t make
sense. Step back, and your brain will try
very hard to re-assemble those pieces
into a pattern that can be understood —
a leaf, a wave or a portrait. I first noticed
this magic when I became interested
in pointillist paintings as a teenager. I
realized my brain was ‘mixing’ the colors in
those dots together, but the fact that they
are distinct makes the image somehow
more alive. Mosaic works like that too.”
In the workshops she has offered for
the past few years, participants have two
hours to finish a nightlight. Let’s just
say that it took me longer than that,
and Joanne comforted me that not only
was I not alone, but that this is part of
the appeal for people who have been
purchasing her at-home project kits.
“I find that the time allotted is perfect
for some people but can be a bit stressful
for others,” she said. “This way, people can
work on them in their own time. I also
have had plenty of people that wanted to
attend one of my workshops but either
couldn’t come on the scheduled date or
live too far away, so this is nice for them,
too. I started this as a way for people
to have a creative project during the
quarantine, but it’s turned into something
I will keep offering.”
At first, I was trying to reproduce
exactly the color scheme Joanne used for
her wave design, but the fun really began
when I started to envision and create a
design of my own. Shard by shard, I was
making something that actually looked
like a wave.
My completed creation is sitting
next to me on my desk, and is honestly
something I’m quite proud of. I certainly
won’t be slapping a beret on my head and
calling myself a visual artist, but it was
quite a thrill getting out of my comfort
zone and trying something new and
Joanne Daschel
something that I thought was out of reach
to me.
“Taking a creative class is an act of
courage,” Joanne said. “It’s not usually
recognized as such, like a bold, athletic
goal like running a marathon might
be. But so many of us are living with a
lifelong message that we are not artists.
So, when we take a step into creative
learning where other people might see us,
it feels scary. I think at-home kits can be a
way for people to be brave, try something
new and get past that barrier.”
For more information or to order mosaic
night light and sun catcher kits, go to www.
joannedaschel.com.
The author’s finished mosaic
oregoncoastTODAY.com • facebook.com/oregoncoasttoday • June 5, 2020 • 7