Paperweights are one of those things that people think are not useful anymore. I guess they hearken back to when you would have your desk next to an open window because you didn’t have any AC or indoor lighting and needed something to keep your scrolls and missives from blowing out into the sheep pasture where some peasant might stumble upon it.
They’re pretty easy to make, just a blob of colored glass, twisted to make it interesting, and dipped in clear glass. I should say, paperweights like this are easy to make. I’ve seen elaborate ones, with delicate scenes inside, some of which include dried flowers or butterflies, and I don’t even know how that’s done. But ones like this are so simple, they can be done at the end of the class in fifteen minutes or so.
Of course, they usually require cold work to get the bottom smooth. I despise cold work. I hate the sound of grinding, the noise of machines, and the setup and cleanup. The bottom of this is not the ground-smooth plate that one might expect, but I probably won’t finish it properly. It holds paper down. Did you know I still use paperweights? I use them to hold down the roll of background grey paper that I use as a backdrop to photograph my pieces with. Useful, and pretty too.
