Jannine Scott has ten years experience working with glass, using mostly Italian soft glass.  She loves working with the hot molten color, and particularly is fond of encasing designs in clear glass to obtain a magnifying and floating effect.

Jannine has shown her work at both the Bead & Button show and also the Tuscon Gem and Mineral show.  She has been featured in Lapidary Journal and the glass magazine The Flow.

You can reach Jannine through her myspace page at J9Glass, and soon her website will be operating as well, which I’ll post here just as soon as it’s up and …read more

Bead & Button Magazine has published a catalog of over 70 glorious photos for Bead Dreams 2009 competition in pdf format.  Subscribers can download it for free at the Bead & Button website, and non-subscribers can purchase it for only $5.95.   Included are winners from these categories: lampwork and glass, polymer clay, metal clay, beaded objects, seed bead jewelry, crystal jewelry, and finished jewelry.
There is a video preview that you can watch on the website as well.

Artist: Lea Avroch
Business name: LA Jewelry Designs
Location: Long Island, NY
Websites & Blogs:
http://www.lajewelrydesigns.com
http://www.lajewelrydesign.blogspot.com
http://www.lajewelrydesigns.etsy.com
http://www.lajewelrydesigns.artfire.com
http://twitter.com/lajewelrydesign

Lea, your beads are beautiful!  How do you describe your work?
I make handmade wearable glass art and unique jewelry. I started out as a jewelry maker (self taught), mostly stringing and simple wire work and most recently to beadweaving. I’ve always been fascinated with glass. I have a collection of some lovely art glass sculptures in my home so when I saw that a local art league was offering lampwork classes, I quickly signed up. It was a beginner class, which gave me the basics. I since have taken …read more

The International Society of Glass Beadmakers promotes the growth and recognition of glass beadmaking as as an art form.   This year the ISGB held its annual Gathering (yes, that is a glass pun) in Miami Florida at the end of July.  Classes, presentations, and opportunities to network and shop are the highlights of the show.
A special video was put together from members’ photos that they sent in prior to the event.  If you’ve got any interest in glass beadmaking, this may be the organization for you.  Don’t they look like a fun group?

Artist: Kim Fraczek
Website: Kim Fraczek
My jewelry celebrates the movements and colors of the organic world. I like watching the way an octopus curls his tentacle, the way the sunlight passes through the thin veins of a leaf, the way seeds grow inside its pod… Working with a material such as glass, I can sculpt these tiny moments, yet still allow the glass to maintain its own natural tendency as a material. It has a beautiful way of balling up, dripping, swirling… I like to utilize these movements in my design.
It’s remarkable to have the experience of creating little glass “creatures” …read more

Help me out here…did I miss any good ones?

Lampwork Etc Forum

Warm Glass Forum

Glass Line’s Hot Glass Forum

International Society of Glass Beadmakers Forum

National Bead Society Forum

Wetcanvas Glass Art Forum

The Glass Haven

What’s Up Wednesday

The Complete Book of Glass Beadmaking
by Kimberley Adams
I still love Cindy Jenkins’s book called Making Glass Beads, because it was the first lampworking book that I bought. But I have to say that if you are just beginning the artform now, I’d have to recommend Kimberley Adams book. There have been some changes in availability of different tools, torches, kilns, and glass since Cindy’s wonderful book was published, and Kimberley writes of her gratitude to her early teachers.
I found this book to be a wonderful refresher on the basics, plus it had intermediate and advanced sections with …read more

It’s pink. It’s powerful. It’s inspirational. It’s a necklace made by a bead buddy of mine, Judy, and then she let me photograph and write up the directions so she could share: Pink Power Lampwork & Wire Necklace.

A super inexpensive get-a-way slash jewelry school experience is found at the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts located in Young Harris, Georgia. This is sort of camp-ground setting, so those who don’t like to rough it might not be too thrilled with the accommodations. But, the cost of these week-long classes is super economical and they have pretty much every sort of class you can imagine from lampworking to metalworking.

Barbara Becker Simon really has a distinct look to her lampwork beads. When you see them, you know them. This talented artist also has a number of classes she teaches. Check out her class listings, and then go drool over her gorgeou beads!