owwh yes frybabe, I remember that in the chemistry set I received - thanks for the memory - did you ever do it - I remember being persuaded not to do it as the fear of burning my mouth was planted in my head. Ah so... we were adventurous for asking for the chemistry set and actually getting it since it was considered for boys not girls -
So far my learned truth is playing out in The Glassblower - I figured out long ago - to sell your art, regardless the artistic expression, even planting hanging baskets, it no longer was a creative endeavor because selling means more than half your time is devoted to business and you had to do over and over and over again as quickly and as cheaply as possible the same thing unless, you live in some small location that is known for its art gallery's and shops of handmade items, where buyers are willing to pay for the art and not decide between your handmade art and what can be 'store-bought'. And then some artistic work, like needlework and today, handmade lace, never sells for anywhere near basic hourly pay rates per hour that it takes to create the finished work.
It appears that the entire glass and toy industry in Germany was what we would call a cottage industry with low pay, barely enough to get by and the middle man, wholesaler, who meets directly with the buyers, establishes the prices, distributes the orders, makes very good money. I did not know but for instance a doll was not all made by one person - one cottage made hair another eyeballs another the head another painted the faces another made jackets another shoes on and on - each cottage specialized in one aspect of the doll till it was finally put together, boxed and brought to the wholesaler who found the buyers and had catalogues showing the many toys and glass products.
I also figured out those many years ago that to make money with your art you either become a business, selling your work with hardly anytime to do art or you pay someone to sell your work which cuts out a chunk that again brings your labor below minimum wage. All in all, handmade anything does not pay unless you establish a name that you are selling the name and its reputation as much as the work which means having a great marketing plan.
I remember as a kid the number of women who did piece work in the evening and after their housework was finished - my mother-in-law was still doing it in the 1950s - remember when the little cardigans we wore were decorated with beads that were placed like flowers and leaves or just sparkles - she did the bead work sitting in a comfortable chair using the arm of the chair like a giant pincushion with at least 10 needles threaded ready to go and on a small table next to her she had various size cardboard boxes holding the beads. Here she was a wonderful knitter who used to decorate the sweaters she made with beads but this is what it came down to when she thought to make a few dollars doing what she liked doing to her own knitted sweaters.
Interesting The Glassblower is mentioning Karl Marx and Heinrich Heine met Karl Marx along with others like Balzac, Berlioz, Nerval, Gautier, George Sand, Meyerbeer, radical writers like Karl Gutzkow and Laube. He meets Goethe and was not impressed, wow, although, he admires Goethe's work in Faust part I and The Sorrows of Young Werther. It is like the whose who of late nineteenth century writers, artists and thinkers - he also was invited to several Salons - read about them back when we read A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé -
These 4 books, the first novel and now this novel and the Harz Journey and the History of Germany are all connecting the various interests I've read about - each of these books mentions something that I had either read or experienced - it is as if I landed in a railroad round house where all the connections are coupled.
OH yes I found the book about Teutoburg Forest - the paperback with lots and lots of photos by Michael McNally and I had another, same author as a twin to the Teutoburg, The Conquest of Saxony AD 782-785 - Wasn't it Saxon Mounds that Hyacinth Bucket (TV Brit Com) had her husband were out looking for? Anyhow Teutoburg Forest is mentioned way back in 695 - when south of Teutoburg was lost by the Franks to the Saxons. Looks like according to the Google map the Harz mountains are under a 3 hour drive to Teutoburg wald.
Another drizzley day here after such a beautiful day yesterday - probably ushering in this monster cold front that they have been talking about all week - looks like a couple of days to curl up and read.
