About her exchange, Leigh says: "
I was inspired by a thick and incredibly hard gourd with a sublime form that was pitted with bug munching holes. I put fused glass into the holes and wished the bugs had munched a little more! So I gouged out my own version of bug lunches and put glass into it. Then I sat down with the detail master and whimsied while I listened to a book on tape. A couple hours passed seamlessly so I grabbed the yucca I had traded for (from Karen in Ohio for the gourdfest). I didn't get to work on the coiling though, so the next evening when I had a 3 1/2 hour board meeting to attend, I hauled the gourd along and had the greatest old meeting ever. Each time it (the meeting) got so heavy and difficult that I was not sure I could endure it, I swooped up into the air "freestylin'" with the blue yucca fibre. I endured and so will Shelly's new wall basket. "