Continuing with my series of posts in support of ASTD's Employee Learning Week, here's a guest post from regular reader/commenter Robin Reagler on a different kind of professional development experience she arranged for her last staff retreat.

Robin is Executive Director of Writers in the Schools (WITS) in Houston, where she and her staff engage children in the power of writing. You can check out the WITs Blog here to read some of the wonderful work produced by WITs participants. Also check out Robin's great personal blogs, The Other Mother and Big Window.
 

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(A version of this was originally published in the WITS newsletter, A New Leaf.)

Glass is magic. I hadn’t given it much thought until recently, but it’s true.

We had the annual WITS staff retreat last week. This year we threw Myers-Briggs and other assessment tools into the wind and decided to try our collective hands at something new to all of us—glass fusion.

Our friends at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft arranged the workshop for us. Artist Gene Hester led our session.

Glass fusion is an art form in which you use heat to connect various types of glass. It differs from stained glass in that there is no leading to separate the individual panes.

Gene taught us six different techniques, and we created a new project using each one of them. My favorite part was melting glass threads over an open flame. The glass pieces resembled pixie sticks. Ten seconds in the fire, and the brittle stick was suddenly liquid. I loved the process of twisting and twirling and bending the molten glass. I really lost track of time and place while I was working.

There is nothing as amazing as the creative process, and I loved watching what my colleagues were making. You could see each of our temperaments in our art.  I think I learned something new about each of us.  The Office Manager worked exclusively in straight lines.  Her geometry was flawless.  The Program Coordinator combined colors as though he were a fashion designer.  One piece was more luminous than the next.  My projects centered on those twisted curlicues I got obsessed with.  I was a bit of a pyromaniac that morning.  It was fun.

We also made a group project together by combining remnants and leftovers from our individual work.  This was a great moment, and I wish I had left more time for it.

By the end of our session, we had made dozens of art objects. Then we carried them to the kiln to be fired. When we picked them up the next day, all the pieces looked different. I didn’t even recognize one of my own glass tiles. It’s the fire that makes the magic happen.

Everyone agreed that this was the best staff retreat we’d ever had.  What did we learn? 

• We learned more about one another—and that’s impressive, given that several of us have been working together 5-10 years. 
• We worked together on a team project that existed outside of our normal comfort zone.    Glass fusion equaled the playing field.  No one had experience or expertise.
• It was inspiring—to   create so many cool things in three hours and also to see how talented   each member of our team truly is. 

Prior to our craft workshop, we watched a Dale Chihuly interview, a segment of Inspirations, the Michael Apted documentary about how artists get their ideas. Chihuly is possibly the best known artist working in glass blowing at this time, and his work can be seen in art museums, botanical gardens, and in hotels such as the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

It was fabulous to watch the team of glass blowers creating these large rainbowesque glass globes in their studio. As they finished each piece and slid it into the kiln, they paused a moment to cheer!  Then they immediately began the next piece. In the interview, Chihuly says, “If I had to work alone, I don’t think I’d be an artist.”

Sounding a different note, there’s a scene near the end of the film in which Chihuly, alone, stands on a bridge over a quiet pond. He throws the glass spheres into the water, one by one, and watches them float away.  The globes gleam in the quiet light. Suddenly the whole world is art.

Photo via cool skatcat