Back home, Katja started up the laptop and made a mug of coffee. She decided to search immediately on her first impression, namely whether you could also solder glass. She found a site, where not much had been written on the subject, but where she discovered, at least, that it was also doable for hobbyists. Deep down, she was determined to become an expert, but she realised it was convenient to start as a hobbyist. Try it out, explore further and build your knowledge and skills.

She nodded in satisfaction, this was what she wanted, start simple and then see how she could refine it, improve it. She searched further to find out what tools and perhaps other materials besides glass she needed.

While searching, she found that, for now, she clicked most with a form of soldering, melting glass with a soldering torch. An ordinary soldering iron would not be an option, because she would need glass glue with it, and then you would keep seeing those edges between the glass shards. Her desire was to fuse the pieces of glass together without anything in between, forming them into a work of art of a shape or size as yet unknown. Whether it would succeed? She had no idea about that, but she was eager to try it this way. She decided to look for a soldering torch.

To protect her eyes, she would look for safety glasses. To avoid burning her hands, she needed work gloves and tweezers to hold the pieces of glass.

She was unsure how that would work in practice, also not sure what the options were. So, if she had to use two tweezers to bring two pieces of glass together, she would have to clamp that soldering torch into something. Actually, that didn't seem like such a safe idea to her. If it got loose... It would be better to put one piece of glass down or fix it in something, hold the second piece with tweezers and take the soldering torch in the other hand. She pictured it, but it didn't seem easy to her. Well, new things often weren't, so she didn't want to let that stop her.

She needed glass, glass bowls, vases, drinking glasses, wine glasses... She would look for those in the thrift shop. A hammer and a sturdy container, in which she could carefully tap the glass objects to pieces.

A second bin and a sieve, so she could sift the shards and catch the grit in that bin. She hoped to experiment with that too. She imagined that she would warm a slightly larger shard, and sprinkle some grit on top of it and melt it a bit so that it would stick, but also remain easily visible.

Old cloths, a sturdy work table, some old cutlery or fine screwdrivers, with which she could pierce soft glass, make grooves in it.

She had her list pretty much complete, she thought. Just to be sure, she walked over to Huib's work shed, to ask him if he had any advice.

Huib responded enthusiastically when she told him about what had happened to her with Olivia and Koos and what had happened at Bianca's this morning.

"How incredibly nice for you that you have now found your hobby too. Making something beautiful out of what is broken, broken glass. That rings a bell, Katja. I have a click with it, it seems to me, it really suits you. And do you already know how you're going to tackle it?"

Katja showed her shopping list. "This is what I think I need. The only thing I'm wondering is where to find a good work table."

"If you can't find one at the thrift shop, I'll make one for you from leftover wood. Doesn't have to be pretty, as long as it's sturdy. And another thing I'm missing is a plate you can work on. Something like a cutting board in the kitchen, but one that doesn't melt or catch fire. A slab of granite or something. And an idea that comes to mind is a possibility to clamp a piece of glass in, leaving your hands free for the other piece of glass and the soldering torch. My vise is kind of gross for something like that, but I'm sure there are smaller vices that would be handy for you. Ask about them at the DIY shop. Shall we go out together to get everything you need? Or would you rather go alone?"

Katja looked doubtful: "Together I'd like that, but do you have the time for that?"

"I would gladly make that time for it, I would just have to check with Margreet. Shall we go and ask her?"

Huib took off his work overalls and preceded her. "If it's OK with Margreet, we'll take the pick-up, just in case you come across a work table!"

Margreet greeted them in surprise: "Did you guys feel like coffee, too?"

Huib looked at Katja, saw that she nodded smiling. "Good, we'll do that, coffee first and then we'll explain our plan right away."

.

"So, tell me," Margreet suggested as she returned with coffee, "you're making me curious."

Katja told of having discovered which hobby suited her and her desire to go and buy the things she needed.

Margreet grinned and nodded, "And Huib would like to show you around the village, is that right?"

Huib winked at Katja. "Well, Margreet knows me inside out..."

"I like the plan! Do you guys want to go after coffee?"

Huib nodded: "I think that's a good idea, then, I suppose, we'll be back well before lunch."

"Oh, that lunch will wait a few minutes otherwise, you know. If it gets too late for me, I'll eat something in advance. Don't worry about that!"

As they drank coffee, Katja told more about what had preceded her discovery. Margreet shook her head: "It's incredible, isn't it, how this just happens. I am really happy for you, soon you will be able to start making beautiful things."

"I don't think they will be so beautiful right away, I have to try to get it done first," Katja said.

"It could be that the first piece of work might be simple, or not quite as you would like. But that doesn't matter, then just start the second one, and you'll get more and more adept at it. I'm very curious to see what this is all about to become!"

"So am I!" laughed Katja.

.

They decided to go to the thrift shop first. To their surprise, they found really everything they needed there, except a soldering torch, a granite slab and a small vice or something. They loaded the stuff into the pick-up and walked to the DIY shop.

"Handy huh, such a village, everything is pretty much within walking distance," Huib said.

"Yes, ideal!" thought Katja.

In the shop, they greeted the owner of the establishment and walked on at Huib's direction to where he knew she could find what she needed. Vices in different sizes. Katja chose the smallest one, stroked her hand over it and said, "Small but tough and strong, I must have these!"

A little further on, she saw soldering irons and solder burners. On the way, she had already told Huib that she was reluctant to work with a gas tank, because then that hose might get in the way. Huib knew that there were also soldering torches in the shape of a kind of pen, which you could just use separately, because there was a filling inside like with lighters. He knew that every time they were empty, you could refill them directly on the gas tank. He immediately saw the one he meant lying there, pointed to her, what she needed together, the soldering torch in the shape of a pen and a gas tank.

"What do you think, just do a small tank for now? If you like the hobby, you can always get a bigger tank."

Katja laughed: "Well, one of those big ones like at the campsite!"

"Yes, you laugh at that, but suppose this turns out to be the hobby of your life and you spend hours every day working on it. Then you'll need quite a bit of gas! No, without joking around, I can understand that you don't want to do it just yet, just take the little one along, it's so cute!"

Katja chuckled: "Yes, very cute, almost cuddly!"

Huib's laughter roared through the shop! "Silly girl! Come on, let's go see if... oh wait, below I see them already, a granite slab. You won't get that on fire or melted! Shall I take that one for you?"

Katja nodded, thinking they had everything now. "Let's take everything to the checkout then."

They made small talk with the owner, Katja explained what she wanted to do and charged.

"Young lady, make something beautiful out of it!" the owner said in greeting.

"I will certainly try," Katja promised.

.

Huib drove the pick-up to The Shelter. Together they brought the small work table inside. Katja had already made some space in the living room by moving the dining table and the one chair that had stood by it to her shed. She would use the other chair at the work table.

They also brought the other stuff inside. While Huib clamped the vice securely to the table, Katja put the glassware she had bought on the wall unit.

She slid the tray with the hammer in it under the table for now.

"Are you going to smash glass in here?" asked Huib.

Katja felt that question coming in in a painful way, as if she had been caught at a fault. She waited a moment before replying, as she tried to figure out what was going on inside her. This was actually what she had felt almost daily as a child, that she was afraid of being judged for doing something wrong. Her parents had so often let her hear and shown with looks that she was already doing it wrong again. In fact, she had not been able to do much good in their opinion.

Huib saw that his question had touched her. He had actually felt his question was rotten too, but now he saw that all kinds of things were happening to Katja. Probably his question had sounded so rotten precisely to touch something in her. That often happened to him. Erik, his father, had also had it regularly, when he could say something that hit very hard, even though he knew, looking back later, that he had said nothing special. Erik called it the power of his soul that was then behind his remark. He always felt it himself too, but couldn't stop it, didn't want to stop it either, because then he would be going against himself, as well as stopping a bit of the other person's process. Like his father, Huib resented being the instigator of such a piece of process, but he knew it was good, that she would only come out of it better.

Katja sighed audibly. "So, that was another intense one! Olivia cracked open the thick crust around my soul yesterday, and you had the honour of poking at it too. The feeling that I was doing it wrong. Your question of whether I would smash the glass in here. Purely mentally, I could have responded, 'Yes, but I'm not going to smash it, I'm going to hold the glass at the bottom of that container and then gently tap it with that hammer until it breaks.' But emotionally I went over the edge for a moment."

"I saw it happen," Huib said, "and for a moment I hated that I was the instigator, that I was poking into a wound."

Katja smiled. "I can imagine you don't like that. At the time, I didn't like it myself either, but I did suddenly oversee something that was standard practice in my childhood. Everything that went wrong, or seemed to go wrong, indeed, everything that went differently than my parents thought it should go, was wrong, was my fault! Your question didn't feel nice, because of that wound, but it didn't go as deep as it did yesterday after Olivia's comment. I'm already on top of it! And as for your question, I'm going to do it in here yes, because there's hardly any risk of jumping above that tub. And here, in an emergency, I can sweep it together with the sweeper and throw it back into the bin. So it won't damage anything here. The same goes for this small bucket. Nice huh, the sieve fits perfectly on it. From the larger bucket, every time I have broken glass, I will strain the glass into this, so that I can separate the pieces from the grit. I want to work with the pieces first, but also have some ideas for that grit. I will leave the tray and bucket nicely under the table. Basically, no one can knock them over there. And they're not in the way! And I'm going to use this low bin to put the pieces I'm going to work with in. I leave that one on the table so I can take out what I need. Have I managed to reassure you a little?"

With a mischievous face, she looked at Huib. Huib shot into laughter.

"Katja, I didn't care, really. It was just a question, like... do you like an apple or a pear... are you going to smash the glass inside or outside? More in that spirit, so no fear of breaking something or anything like that."

"I understand, it's fine! Massive thanks for your help, Huib, I enjoyed not having to do it alone, and also practical to search and lug together. Thank you!"

"You're welcome, it was fun! And again, I'm happy for you that you can get started on something that has your heart. Enjoy it and let us know if there's anything, or also if it goes well and you've made something nice! I'm going home, lunchtime... and you, in your enthusiasm, aren't you forgetting to eat?"

Katja chuckled. "You know me pretty well already hey, I'm not much for food. I know I should pay better attention to that. On the other hand, I always feel pretty healthy, so I guess it won't be so harmful to take it a bit easy either."

"Actually, you're just right, eat when you get hungry, not because it's noon. So that's another one of those ingrained things. I'll talk to Margreet about that, see if we want to do something with that, change something in that rhythm. Actually, I don't, I like that rhythm. Only when I'm working happily, it sometimes feels disturbing that I have to step out of it. On the other hand, I manage just fine. It helps that I love to eat, and like almost everything. Have a nice day, Katja!"

"You too, Huib, greetings to Margreet!"

.

After eating a sandwich anyway and drinking a glass of tea, Katja went to work. To start with, she tapped a vase to pieces. Holding it by the bottom, she tapped the top edge with the hammer. Her plan succeeded; the pieces of glass fell into the container and not outside. She could easily grab pieces from it, so she decided not to sieve yet. The pieces she picked up, she put into the bin on the table. She was holding the bottom of the vase still in her hands. It still had unequal parts of the side sticking to it. She decided to use that as a base. First, she wanted to try if she could melt two pieces of glass together. She considered that the glass might break easily if she heated it on the surface. She decided to heat it at the edge, at the breaking edge, where it had just broken off.

She put on her safety glasses and her work gloves for emergencies, if the glass did break into pieces. She chuckled. She hadn't thought about that after Huib's question, that it could go wrong exactly when heating the glass, that small shards could jump around. She would feel bad if that happened, but not insurmountable. Sweep and dustpan could clean up a lot! And luckily, she never walked barefoot here. As she thought about this, she felt a longing for a bigger house, a house of which she could use a room just for this work. A room where it wouldn't matter if some splinters landed on the floor. Well, that was of later concern, first she wanted to try this out, later she would look for a bigger house!

After filling the soldering torch and trying it out, she grabbed a piece of glass with tweezers. She turned on the soldering torch, and pointed the flame briefly at the breaking edge of the shard. She did it again, and then a little longer and longer. She saw that the glass began to melt slightly. Nice, so this was working! Now to get it attached to another piece of glass!

She picked up the bottom of the broken vase, and pictured how she wanted to try. She held the shard against the spot where she wanted it and aimed the flame where they touched. She kept the burner on for a while, heating two points at a time. When she had the impression that they had melted sufficiently against each other, she let that spot cool a bit and then released the shard... It stayed put! She turned the vase bottom over and saw, that the point where the shard was attached to it could use some heat on that side too, to make it become completely one there too. She turned on the torch, aiming it at the spot where she had just seen the cut between the shard and the bottom of the vase. A moment later, there was no longer a slit to be seen, they were perfectly stuck together. She didn't even have the impression that she would have to remove some melted glass, it looked nice smooth. Perhaps that would turn out to be necessary with thicker shards, that she would have to use a knife or a screwdriver to remove any thickening. If that became necessary, the vise would come in handy. After all, she only had two hands...

The first piece was attached to the broken vase. She looked at it from many angles and was satisfied. The technique seemed good, simple and working well. If she should ever make bigger things, she might have to start using that glass glue with it, or use thicker shards, even better. She would see about that then.

She grabbed her mobile phone and took a picture from different angles. She sent them in an e-mail to Huib and added as subject: 'IT WORKS!!!'.

She got an email back with a whole row of smiles and "looks neat, I don't actually see the melt line at all!"

Full of good cheer, Katja continued. Once in a while, she took a photo, so that when she went past all those photos, she could see her project growing.

From the base of the vase, strings emerged from pieces of glass, which seemed to grow upwards like branches. When the first branch was already quite long, she decided to continue working on the inside of the vase, so that there would be branches not only on the edge, but also in the middle. The artwork grew and grew.

She was working so diligently that she was slightly startled by a knock on the window. She smiled when she saw Bianca with Julian. She put the soldering torch safely away and, walking to the front door, took off her safety glasses and her gloves.

"Hey, I came to see if it works! I ran into Huib, and he told me you had already started. So you managed to buy everything you need?"

"Oh yeah, everything, at least for my first jobs," Katja replied as she put her hand on Julian's shoulder. "Are you coming too, Julian?"

He smiled and grabbed her by her sleeve. "Yes, come along, you can watch too."

She walked ahead of them and pointed to the work table. "That's the start of my first project!"

"Oh my, how bizarre, bizarrely beautiful that is! That shards of glass together can form something so beautiful! And you just do it on the bottom of a broken vase... Show me, how you do it!"

Katja smiled, put her goggles back on, her gloves on and saw that Julian was looking at her with a puzzled expression. "Sorry Julian, I must look like a creep now, but it's safer this way!"

Bianca laughed, and as a result Julian relaxed too. "Ha, he reacts really nicely to you," Katja concluded. "Well, so I take a piece of glass with my tweezers, find the spot where I want him, and aim the flame of the soldering torch on it. I've found that I don't even have to do it carefully. I did do that at first, touching and releasing for a moment and then lengthening the time the hot tip touches the glass, but so that's not even necessary. The glass just melts quietly as I aim the flame at it."

Bianca did not dare come closer, as neither Julian nor herself had glasses on, but could see even from a distance that the glass edges were melting. Katja gently pressed them together as the flame melted the glass well together from both sides.

Katja turned off the soldering torch again and set it aside. Triumphantly, she looked at Bianca: "So it's that simple! As simple for me as sewing is for you!"

She grabbed her mobile and took a few pictures again. She showed her collection of photos to Bianca. "This is how the bush has grown, nice hey?"

"Yeah, really fantastic! By the way, what I find most fantastic is how you are visibly enjoying it. You found what you were looking for!"

"Yes, definitely! Just this space... at the moment it works like this, but actually I want to look for a slightly bigger house, in which I can furnish a room for this work. I will look for it soon, a house around here, so I can still pass by. I have a good time with my housemates, and I have nice contact with the staff, and now I'm just getting to know you a bit better. Actually a pity to leave. But if I can find something nearby, I can easily pop in."

"That would indeed be nice. Other than that, are you up to it? I mean, do you feel strong enough for it yet?"

"Bit of a borderline case, but I suppose I won't have a house by next week, so I still have some time to get used to the idea and grow towards it, get stronger."

"Nice, too bad you'll be leaving soon then, but also good. That's what these houses are for hey, temporarily, to unwind and heal a bit and find your way. And as for work, you've found your way now too!"

Bianca stood up and hugged Katja. "Really, I'm so happy for you! And your work... you may start thinking towards the gallery too. It would fit in perfectly! Do you keep track of how many hours you work on this?"

"Oh no hey, do I have to start doing that too? I'm almost four hours now, I do know that. I'll write down the hours. I think it's obtuse, but I understand that if someone wants to buy it, I can charge something for it. How much do you charge per hour?"

"What seems like a good amount per hour to you?" rebounded Bianca.

"Fifteen euros?" And when Bianca nodded, Katja protested: "No, that's far too much anyway, then I'm already at sixty euros, and I'm far from finished!"

"Ah, such a dress for the doll..."

"I know, you're right, fifteen euros for an hour is not crazy, is actually quite normal, but it feels crazy."

"Recognisable, it's better now, but I've been struggling with it a lot!"

"Then I'll just assume that it will get better and better with me too. In any case, I'll keep track of the hours, and then we'll see!" Katja paused a moment. " 'Glass grows', sorry, a bit different, but those words suddenly came to my mind, as a name for my first work. 'Glass grows'... sounds good!"

"Yes, nice name! Well Katja, we'll go back," Bianca said.

"Then I'll move on again. Nice of you to stop by! See you later!"

To chapter 44. Olivia enjoys!

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