Well, 2025 has been…a year

Posted on December 28, 2025 by A Dreamer

It’s just been a total firehose of atrocities, cruelty, crassness, and stupidity.

If the best you managed this year was Getting Through It – that is a hell of an accomplishment any year, but especially this year. You did good. And lets raise a glass and take a moment for those who didn’t make it.

I really thought that I’d be doing a lot more writing to try and process everything – but it’s just been too much. And so much just too awful to be able to really comprehend.

And I don’t really know what to do about any of it. I protest. I yell at my reps. I’m not sticking my head in the sand and pretending it’s not happening, tempting as that may be. But I don’t know what to do as I watch all this happening with zero consequences. Every institution that should be some kind of guardrail has failed us. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive my fellow citizens who put this administration in place – on the right AND the left.

While all this goes on – the world keeps spinning on it’s axis. The bins need to go out, the mortgage has to be paid, we all are still expected to show up at work like everything is fine and every corporate leader out there isn’t trying to replace us all with AI.

I know I am very lucky in all this. So very lucky.

I found an escape with fused glass. I call it “Art Therapy Sundays” and I’m only half joking about it. I have made so many things this year, some wonky, some gorgeous, and I love every piece.

I am surrounded by like minded family members and friends. I have two amazing furry best friends in Sean and Jorge.

The bar for 2026 as a whole isn’t just low – it’s in the cellar. If it could just suck a bit less than 2025, that would be great. My personal goals are keep going, keep protesting, keep yelling at my reps, make more art, hug my cats, try to stay employed.

And to end this post on a good note – here are festive cats and my glass pieces from this year:

Sean, a grey and white fluffy cat, in a festive red plaid bow tie. He is adorable.
Jorge, a solid grey cat with green eyes, wearing a red plaid bow tie. He is being very good for Santa.
A black lantern with little cutouts, and the glass panels have fused glass. This shot has the panel with chunks of three shades of blue glass for a mosaic effect.
A 6x6 piece of fired fused glasswork. It was fused flat to start, then put on a mold with a square bottom and fired again so now is is raised up on the sides. It has three layers. The bottom layers are 1 inch squares, in blue, green, and yellow. The second layer is 3/4 inch squares laid on top of the 1 inch squares in a diamond shape, with yellow on blue, blue on green, and green on yellow. The third layer is 1/2 inch squares laid on the diamonds, with green on yellow, yellow on blue, and green on yellow.
A kiln carved piece of fused glass. A design is cut out on thick fiber paper - in this case, a five pointed balloon flower. The glass is then placed over the fiber paper and fired. This produces an indentation on the glass in the form of the design. This piece has dark blue adventurine glass.
A variety of fused glass pieces, from top to bottom, left to right: A fired suncatcher. It has 5 diagonal color strips - blue, pink, white, pink, and blue - the colors of the trans pride flag. In the other corner there are three blue cabochons (dots). A fired suncatcher. A clear plate with a pink and purple jellyfish (or vaguely jellyfish shaped design) - it is very mosaic-y, the body has lots of pieces of pink and purple glass. There are ocean-ish blue cabochons around it. A fused glass votive candle holder. It started with a flat square of fused glass, placed over a round mold to make the bottom and in the second firing, it slumps down into wavy glass along the sides. The glass itself is clear with with small bits of blue, blue-green, green, and white glass on top that spread out from the middle to the corners, giving an ocean wave feel to it. A fused glass votive candle holder. It started with a flat square of fused glass, placed over a round mold to make the bottom and in the second firing, it slumps down into wavy glass along the sides. It is a clear square of glass that is covered with large pieces of royal blue, yellow, medium blue, and very light yellow glass. A strip of royal blue runs from one corner to the other. There are bright yellow strips on either side of it. Then there are strips running perpendicular in the bright yellow and royal blue, with some medium blue on upper left, and then the very pale yellow is at all four corners. A fired piece of 5x5 inch glass. In the lower half, there are pieces of green glass going upwards towards the upper right hand side, and coming down from the left are pieces of streaky blue and white glass. The blue and white glass is surrounded with white frit, and the green is surrounded with black frit. The frit is like sand and got kinda messy and all over the place. A fired light leak piece. It is varying shades of blue shards up and down with space in between. In the lower half, the spaces are filled with green frit (ground glass) and in the upper half, the spaces are filled with pale yellow frit. The yellow frit came out almost clear - which is OK! I was feeling “ocean” with all the blues and wanted the green at the bottom as “sea kelp” and the yellow at the top as light filtering through, and it works! A circular plate of fused glass. It was made from chunks of a pattern bar of layers of blue and clear glass - it is several shades of blue and I love it.
Several fused glass pieces. Top to bottom, left to rightL A "coral bowl" - made with strips of glass and is reminiscent of ocean coral. The various strip colors are olive green rainbow iridescent (it changes from greens to blue-purples depending on the light) then blue adventurine, which is a sparkly navy blue, and then clear bits for stability here and there. A fired piece of 5x5 glass with a landscape. The landscape is green & yellow cabochons (big dots) for grass at the bottom. Then there are blue transparent dots of various shades for water. Then more of the green & yellow cabochons for more grass above the water. Then two trees of brown glass with pink dots around them as cherry blossom trees. It has been ”tack fused" so the glass is still raised up on the base plate, but soft and rounded. A "pocket vase." It is a sheet of 6x6 inch clear glass, with fiber paper in the top center, about 3 x 4 inches. There is another sheet of glass on top, which will melt down around the fiber paper, leaving a hole at the top. On the very top, I have added transparent blue and green cabochons. The fiber paper in the top center has been removed after firing, and there is a pocket at the top where flowers can go. On the very top, I have added transparent blue and green cabochons, the cabochons have clear stripes in them and look like flowers themselves now that they have "melted" into the glass. A sandblasted piece. Contact paper was put on the corners and in the center in a butterfly shape. Then the exposed glass was sandblasted, giving it a matte appearance. The contact paper is removed, leaving the pattern and shiny glass. It is green iridescent glass. A multi layer landscape. It is on transparent fern green glass. The trees in the background are painted with some additional frit for texture. The trees in the foreground are glass, with the leaves made of murrine and freeze and fuse.
A selection of fired glass pieces. From top to bottom, left to right: A 6x6 fired glass plate. In the center are bits of yellow glass in a sort-of circle. That is surrounded by green coarse frit (ground glass bits) then some small bits of pink surrounding that, then blue pieces in the corners in smaller circles, and then more blue coarse grit around the edges. The high temp firing has smoothed everything out. There are decals on it of line art in various flower shapes. There is a large flower over the center section of yellow, and small flowers over the blue parts of the corners. A piece of 5x5 inch green transparent glass, with a stenciled spider painted onto it over it. The legs and body have been painted in with various colors of glass paint, including red, orange, yellow, blue, pink, turquoise, and purple. A three layered rectangular piece - the bottom layer is ocean & sky, the middle layer, the sun & seagulls, and sand on the top layer. A fired circle of clear glass about 5 inches across, with bits of transparent blue glass of varying shades in a mosaic pattern. It had a full fuse firing, and is flat and the blue bits are very smooth embedded in the clear glass - it then had a slump firing in a mold and is now a shallow dish A square "strip construction" piece. Strips of red and cream glass are turned on their edge and sandwiched together with the red and cream alternating. There are four blocks of the strips, the upper left and lower right have the strips running vertically, and the other two blocks have the strips running horizontally. This shot is from the top, and it is very smooth and shiny. An 8x8 inch piece of fired glass. The main color is a streaky blue and white opaque glass that was about 7 1/2 by 7/12 inches, broken into large chunks and placed on an 8x8 inch clear sheet, so that there is space between the broken pieces. In those gaps, it has been filled in with fine frit, which is basically very tiny pieces of glass, almost like coarse sand. The frit is light green and is transparent and the light "leaks" through it. It's in a windowsill with the sunlight coming through so the “light leak” is more apparent.
4 piles of cabochons/glass dots. Upper left are made from layers of transparent blues and clear glass. Upper right, dark green and yellow glass. Lower left a variety of small glass dots in different colors. Lower right made from layers of transparent greens and clear glass.
An fired piece of 5x5 inch glass. It is a clear glass base with large chunks of dark iridescent glass arranged on top of it in a mosaic-ish fashion. The iridescent pieces shine in blue, purple, and gold - depending on the piece of glass and how the light is hitting it. It has been ”tack fused" so the glass is still raised up on the base plate, but soft and rounded.
A fired circle of clear glass, with a mosaic sunflower on it. The center of the sunflower is opaque and transparent brown bits, and the sunflower petals are opaque yellow, and opaque orange. It got a tack fuse so the texture of the mosaic pieces is still there. It was flat and has now gotten a slump firing in a mold, so it is a bowl now.
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