In my downsizing project, some of the hardest objects to deal with are those made of glass. Glass breaks (duh) and so packaging it up for donation gets more complicated.
When I discovered this sculpture at the North Carolina Museum of Art, I thought wow, maybe I could find an artist to come to my house and pick up all my glass.
In the interview below, artist Beth Lipman talks about her creation, which she titled Bride. She explains that the sculpture starts with order at the top and descends into chaos as the eye reaches the bottom.
I still remember unwrapping some of my glass wedding presents.. So neat, so elegant, nestled into a white boxes with tissue. Now those vases and candy dishes and candlesticks are crammed into cupboards. Chaos.
With menopause must come downsizing hormones. There’s not a woman I know who doesn’t want to clear out when she hits a certain age. But gosh is Beth Lipman going to have a good time with downsizing. She can build more incredible pieces of art!
What about you? What’s been your greatest downsizing challenge?
Friend For The Ride 
Greatest downsizing challenge: my husband, the pack rat!
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I’ve heard that from other women–that their husbands are more reluctant to clean out. Must be his and her hormones!
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Fascinating as art. We all have so much stuff. I remember opening wedding gifts and we got this glass orb- I guess it was meant to be some sort of decorative ornament- we called it the “boob.” Needless to say, it was tossed out quite soon. My mother is trying to get rid of cordial glasses– know anyone?
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Ha on the boob! I love cordials and have the glasses, too. Never seem to get my act together to serve them though.
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I am all about downsizing…..but the hardest is my kid’s childhood memorabilia and stuff.
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Yes. That’s hard. I delivered lots of mine to Kath once she got a house but when they don’t have much storage, until then I guess it’s our job.
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Over the past summer, I took a couple of boxes at a time to my daughter’s house. She has more storage than I do. She wouldn’t let me throw out ANYTHING unless it had her OK.
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Great re-purposing of glass! My husband is the saver and he squirrels away things in the attic where I can’t find!
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Gosh it would be fun to know what he’s put up there!
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My husband and I just took AT LEAST 6 full carloads of shredded papers to the landfill. We actually burnt out the first shredder. I now have 6 drawers of 2 file cabinets and many boxes to start saving again. Oh, that’s the plan, not to save as much. I’ll try. And I need to mention the couple of carloads of “stuff” to OCIM?
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Wow SIX car loads is a lot! I am impressed! I think it’s such a wonderful feeling–cleaning out. Helps us make room mentally, emotionally, and physically for the next stage of our lives.
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I’m interested in the meaning of the sculpture. Perfectly planned wedding descends into the chaos of marriage? I guess a very innocuous interpretation of that could be too much clutter!
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Yes. Hard to know. But I do know as brides we envision perfect lives…
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What a beautiful way to recycle lovely glass. For me the hardest things to get rid of are my Mother’s stemware and a “few” boxes of my children’s toys and books. All sentimental attachments!
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Are you going to keep the stemware? I say, “Yes.” Will be lovely with Blue Willow!
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What a fascinating art piece and I can see why she chose that title. I’d be scared to have it in my earthquake city!
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I wondered how they moved it to the museum.
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Ooh, I wonder if any artists in our part of the world need glass?
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Let me know if you find any!
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I shudder to think how much STUFF my apartment would have in it if I hadn’t actually had a situation for a few years where my entire personal space was a 10×10 room with a small closet. Really wasn’t anywhere to put anything new so I got out of the habit of buying things. Total change from when I was younger and couldn’t walk past a pretty tchotchke without bringing it home!
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I remember as a younger woman wanting more stuff , and also, I was part of a group of friends who gave each other trinkets for every holiday. Those were sweet times, but I sure don’t want many trinkets anymore.
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A lot of glass ware
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