Extremely cool work in a very hot medium

I was in Brockton, Mass., Sunday afternoon at the Fuller Museum of Craft for the opening of Josh Simpson's show. Josh lives in western Massachusetts and makes glass. But "making glass" is considerably less than what he really does. You may know him as the glassblower who makes "planets," balls of intricately built, several-layered glass that are the size of marbles or the size of bowling balls. (See the "planets" above.)

Josh, in his "Infinity Project," places his "planets" in obscure and not-so-obscure places around the actual planet Earth, to be found tomorrow by a hiker or 500 years from now by an archaeologist, either of which would be left wondering at how this beautiful and amazing ball of glass crossed his or her path. You can read about this part of his life at his website joshsimpson.com, where you will find that the right proposal will allow you, too, to place a "planet" somewhere on the planet.

OK, enough raving about the balls of glass. (They are, however, remarkable. You gotta see them.)

But the show is more than planets - it's goblets, bowls, sculptural work that will remind you of a geode, vases, glass blown into copper cable baskets ... all colors all shapes. A great show. Worth the trip to the museum about a half-hour south of Boston.

As for Hatchville Pottery ... the floor went down in the new guest room/gallery last Friday. I've put in and painted all the quarter-round molding between the new floor and the walls, the furniture has more or less been moved into the guest room part and now I've got to get all the tools and waste material out of the gallery. Today or tomorrow for that. Then back to making pots.

Oh, and a bow to Tracey Broome down in NC, who a couple of weeks ago recommended the film "Throw Down Your Heart." If you are at all interested in music, banjo music, African music, or the American banjo musician Bela Fleck, you should rent this film. It's the wonderful story of Fleck visiting four African countries, bringing the banjo back to visit its ancestors. We watched it last night, getting it from Netflix. Well worth the time. Great music and great people.