from the summer of 2019:
This perfect (if I do say so myself) donut is a true lesson in the old adage “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” When I first made this “grape jelly” donut I inserted (after firing it to create a perfect blob) a piece of purple translucent glass into the hole I had created. This was supposed to be my blob of grape jelly oozing out of the donut. But it didn’t look right, and I didn’t have time to fix it at that moment, so this guy languished in my studio for months. Finally, after having had some success mixing glass enamels and epoxy resins like paint with other "filled" donuts, I decided to try the same with this one. I mixed the epoxy like paint, tested samples on white paper, and thought I was on to something. However, efforts one and two on the actual donut didn’t work AT ALL: the jelly wasn’t the right colour, viscosity, or translucency. It was too dense and too runny at the same time!I was ready to give up, maybe put some chocolate glaze on top and turn this into a Boston Cream! But as I was wiping off the glaze with a rag soaked in rubbing alcohol, a miracle occurred: the bits of glaze that were watered-down by the alcohol looked just like the smudges of grape jelly I was trying to replicate! Holding my breath, I messed around with it a bit more, and the creation you see here was born. I wouldn’t have minded keeping this one as a reminder of the value of persistence, but it was quickly snapped up by my favourite collectors. I couldn’t have found a better home for it!