Website & Blog:
Solstice Glass
Solstice Glass blog

Mark has graciously offered a special discount to Jewelry&Beading readers: if you type BEADING into the box for the coupon code, Mark will give you 10% off your entire order before shipping.  This offer is valid through the last day of November 2009!  Thanks, Mark!

Mark, how do you describe your work?
My work is inspired by natural organic forms and colors, and I work with borosilicate glass because the color palette has more of an organic feel than soft glass does.  Most of my designs are scenes such as a sunrise or things such as flowers or turtles that can be found in nature.

What is your creative process like?
My creative process is mostly unplanned and sometimes chaotic.  I don’t try to create new designs unless I’m in the right mood and can feel the creativity waiting to be expressed.  Then I sit down at my bench and just start playing with different glass colors.  I just relax and enjoy the process until something emerges that gives me an idea of what I might want to create.  Occasionally during the process of playing around, a finished piece will take shape without any conscious direction at all.  Those are often the best ones!

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I’ve had very little formal training in lampworking.  Before I had access to a glass studio, I spent a couple afternoons with friends who were lampwork bead artists.  They gave me a little lesson and let me spend a few hours melting glass on their torch.  Then a good friend moved to town and it turned out he had just learned the basics of lampworking.  He had only been lampworking a couple of months himself but taught me what he could.  From there I went on to teach myself by experimenting a lot and reading a couple books on lampworking.

During my 12 years as a lampworker, I’ve also spent time at different friends’ studios and learned various techniques by observing them at work.  Most of my work is based on the techniques I discovered through practice on my own though.  I feel that being self taught gives my work a unique flavor that I might not otherwise have developed.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
Pure silver.  I file it up, fume it, or cut little pieces off a silver wire and embed it in the glass.  It’s extremely versatile and creates some of my favorite effects in lampworking.

What inspires you to create?
My work is inspired by the time I spend in nature.  Hiking in the forest, kayaking on a river, or enjoying a beautiful sunset inspires me to express that natural beauty in a glass pendant, bead or marble.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
When my work gets frustrating it’s usually because I’m not relaxing and letting it flow.  What often works is to do something to take my rational mind off my work.  Listening to an audiobook can keep my rational mind occupied while my more creative mind creates.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
You can’t go wrong with lots of practice and that usually means paying for lots of materials.  So find a way to sell your work online or at a local artisan’s market…it will allow you to spend more on materials and get more practice.  It will also give you valuable feedback about your work as you progress.

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
I also own Web Weaver Services, a web design, marketing and SEO company that specializes in helping other artists and small businesses be successful online.  When I’m not making glass art I’m usually working on a web project for a client.

What’s your favorite hobby?
River kayaking is my favorite hobby and I usually run class III and under rivers.  I enjoy trips of around 20 miles or overnight kayaking/camping trips.  There’s nothing that relaxes and rejuvenates me like a day spent moving with the rhythm of flowing water.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

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 running.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Yesterday I told you that Wendy Talaro has graciously shared her tutorial on fusing glass.  I’m so glad, because even though I’ve tried it a few times, I feel in no way qualified to speak at length on the how tos!  It’s a lovely thing when folks are so willing to share their expertise

Glass Fusing Primer

So What Is Glass Fusing?
Glass fusing is the process of assembling pieces of fusing compatible glass (i.e. glass that has the same rate of expansion/contraction when heated or cooled) and melting those pieces in an electric kiln until they stick together, becoming one single piece out of many. The look of finished pieces could be described as stained glass without the leading.

Don’t let the equipment intimidate you. Just think of a glass fusing kiln as a very expensive oversized electric oven on steroids. That said, let’s move on now to describe the qualities of the glass that you will be using to create your art and to define compatibility.

Glass Types and Manufacturers
Technically any piece of glass is compatible with itself. For instance, you could smash a Coke bottle and fuse all of the pieces into a new form or take an ordinary pane of window glass, cut it up and fuse it together again. Glass is a curious material. Neither crystalline nor liquid, it is a solid at room temperature. By adding heat generated by a kiln, glass can be made to visibly flow.  There are three principles to remember when glass liquifies and becomes viscous: temperature, gravity and surface tension. The hotter the glass is, the less viscous it becomes and the more it visibly obeys gravity and the less surface tension constricts its flow.

Solids expand when heated. (A notable exception is water, which actually expands when it is cooled to the temperature until it forms the solid we know as ice.) Glass also expands but different formulations of glass have different rates of expansion depending upon the manufacturer, batch, color and chemical composition. Glass is composed primarily of silica (the primary component of sand), soda ash, and lime. The quality of glass can be improved by adding lead and potash, the coefficient of expansion lowered by adding boron, and colors are created by the addition of sulfur, cobalt, gold, and other metals.

The term “coefficient of expansion” describes the change in length of heated glass as a function of change in temperature measured in degrees Centigrade. Glasses that share the same rate of expansion are said to have the same coefficient of expansion or COE. The three primary manufacturers of Tested Compatible (i.e. factory tested in labs to verify the coefficient of expansion) fusible art glass are Bullseye, which is based in Seattle, Washington; Uroboros Glass Studios, which is in Portland, Oregon; and Spectrum Glass Company in Woodinville, Washington. Below is a chart that lists several manufacturers of glass and the measured ranges of COE.

Effetre 104
Murano 105
Bullseye 90
Uroboros 90 and 96 COE
Spectrum 96
Bottle Glass 89-92
Pyrex or Borosilicate Glass 32
Float Plate 85-87

Float plate or what is more commonly referred to as window glass has a COE range from 85 to 87. This type of glass receives its name from the manufacturing process. The molten glass is fed to a float bath of more than 120 tons of molten tin and the glass thickness is determined by the rate at which the glass is floated onto the tin, thus producing glass with the characteristic doublesided smoothness associated with modern production methods.

For project success, it is necessary to use glass that has the same COE in the same piece. Mixing glass of different coefficients of expansion results in stress fractures that form as the fused pieces cool. Effetre and Murano are commonly used in lampworking, which is working molten glass in an open flame produced by a torch. Bullseye, Uroboros, and Spectrum are used in fusing and lampworking. Borosilicate glass is frequently used in scientific labware and for elaborate sculptural figurine lampworking with fine details. The low coefficient of expansion of borosilicate glass allows for sculptural flourishes that would be impossible with other glasses.

Bullseye and Uroboros manufacture glass for fusing in primarily two thicknesses, 1/16” and 1/8”. The thinner of the two is favored for jewelry and other small items because of the ability to layer the glass for different color effects and visual textures without adding a lot of bulk or mass to a finished design. It may help conceptually to think of designing in fused glass as a sandwich. Design with consideration for the thickness for the finished piece. Four layers of 1/16” thick glass results in a piece that is 1/4” of an inch thick.

The thicker the piece, the longer it has to anneal in a kiln. Annealing is the process of creating temperature uniformity throughout a fused piece and then cooling it slowly so that stress fractures do not form. Stress fractures can be very sneaky. A piece that has been well-annealed is structurally stable at the molecular level, whereas a piece that has internal stresses may not manifest those stresses immediately, nor will that stress be visible to the naked eye. A piece can look fine day after day only to inevitably crack of its own accord eventually due to the buildup of internal stress that was present from the day the piece emerged from the kiln. Other pieces manifest stress fractures due to glass incompatibility immediately.

Tools and Equipment
Glass fusing is not inexpensive. As a hobby, the materials are costly, particularly when you start to include dichroic glass in your pieces. This is to say nothing about the cost of the kiln itself, kiln furniture, and shelves and adjunct optional tools such as a diamond blade saw or a grinder with multiple grades (coarse, medium, fine, and extra fine) of grinding bits. At a minimum, you will need to invest in the following equipment:

Oil reservoir glass cutter – pencil or pistol grip configuration
6” or 8” running pliers
Breaking / grozing pliers
Non-skid cork backed steel ruler 12”
Cutting mat 8.5” x 12”
10 or 12 square per inch plastic canvas
Safety glasses
Gloves that allow manual dexterity and feeling but still allow you to protect
your fingers
Drafting table brush or dusting brush

The type of glass cutter chosen will be a matter of personal preference and comfort, as will be the choice in running plier size. Eight inch running pliers will provide more leverage for running scores in thicker and larger pieces of glass. Grozing pliers are good for removing small pieces that do not break off readily along the score line. The cork-backed steel ruler allows you to cut straight lines, using the ruler as the cutting guide while you run a glass cutter along the ruler’s length. The cutting mat provides a firm, non-scratching surface for cutting glass pieces and plastic canvas allows the fine splinters of glass to fall through the grid. The drafting table brush or dusting brush is for cleaning off your surfaces of glass small debris. Whatever you do, do not use the side of your hand or your fingers to sweep debris off the cutting surface! You’ll be picking glass splinters out of the side of your hand for hours.

Other supplies that will be desirable to have are as follows:
1) Sharpie or Staedler permanent marking pen (extra fine point)
2) Toothpicks for applying white or cyanoacrylate glue
3) White craft glue for securing cleaned glass during assembly before firing: Elmer’s, Sobo,
Aleene’s. Cyanoacrylate glue is less likely to leave residue after firing, although the fumes
produced during burnout are considerably more toxic than white glue. All glue is to be used
sparingly, just enough to secure the pieces in place as they are assembled and then
transported to the kiln for firing.
4) Fine tweezers for manipulating small pieces of glass
5) Morton grid system for production or precision cutting of glass.
6) 90% or greater isopropyl alcohol or commercial grade acetone (please don’t use fingernail
polish remover) for cleaning glass of cutting oil, marker ink, and fingerprints before final
assembly and firing
7) Plastic bags with zipper enclosures for carrying scrap glass or work in progress. Freezer bags
are highly recommended due to their thickness.
Pad of paper or notebook for sketching and/or recording ideas and design strategies, graphite
pencil or colored pencils, eraser
9) Band-aids and tea tree oil (cuts are almost inevitable)
10) High quality respirator mask with changeable filters (to be used when scraping and sanding
spent kiln wash off kiln shelves). This applies if you have your own kiln and shelves. Do not
skimp on safety equipment.

copyright 2009 Wendy Talaro
Image: Wendy Talaro

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Glass artist: Wendy Talaro
Website: Fawkes Artglass

Wendy writes:

The 9 1/2″ x 9 1/2″ slumped pastel plate is a prototype from a series titled “Spring Celebration”. (There’s a companion plate with a similar pastel palette but in blue and green.) The detail shot shows the dichroic accents across the plate and in the corners. The dichroic accents in the center of the plate were prefused onto 1/8″ thick pastel Bullseye glass, which was then cut, into 3/4″ squares, and fused onto a piece of 1/16″ iridized Bullseye glass. The dichroic accents in the corners used prefused strips of alternating colors that were bandsaw cut crosswise, ground, assembled and fused into 1 1/4″ squares. The 1/4″ color strips along the edges had to be precision ground for fit. The slumping form for the black and iridized white 9 1/4″ x 9 1/4″ shallow checkerboard bowl (shown below) was a light fixture cover, believe it or not.

The surface tension of glass is such that it will naturally pull itself into rounded forms until viscosity overcomes surface tension. At that point, glass, like water, will fill up corners as it flows. My peak kiln temperatures never exceeds 1450 degrees F, so keeping lines crisp and clearly defined is challenging. I use the kiss fit edges of the pre-fired pieces in assemblage to constrain the flow of adjacent pieces. In other instances, I use weights on top of the glass to force adjacent pieces to flow into each other, thereby achieving the same effect with pieces of much smaller mass, i.e. 1/16″ adjacent to 1/16″ pieces.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Websites & Blog:
LilianaBead
LilianaBead.etsy
LilianaBead.blogspot

How do you describe your work, Liliana?
My business name LilianaBead reflects my dedication to expressing my aesthetic ideals in glass. Each bead is a result of my journey alongside glass and fire. My commitment to the process, the medium and the design underlies everything I make.

My Heart

Color and form dominate my collections. The finished pieces continually remind me how much I love color. Color in glass is particularly rich because of its interaction with light; the possibilities of layering are limitless. The eternity of glass is partially determined by its roundness, as it shapes how you encounter the colors. Light envelops the glass piece; it has depth, dimension, and movement; it is truly “round color” (a concept evident in the curves, prisms, and layers in my designs).

What is your creative process like?
I started working with glass in 2000 in a workshop with Caitlin Hyde. Slowly, I got to know glass while perfecting techniques shown by Caitlin as well as those revealed in the Lampwork ABC book by Cindy Jenkins, Making Glass Beads. I developed a rigorous schedule. I lampworked 6 hours each day for many months on a map/hot head set-up. This was my self-imposed boot camp, after which I was ready to begin refining my own style.

The next few years I practiced and practiced, working on several techniques which started coming together in curious-to-me ways. Interesting combinations and possibilities came in dreams, conversations, observation and interests, including fine art and crafts. The aesthetic preferences of my customers played a role in how I presented and assembled my work as well.

Apple Cores

These days I stay faithful to my style simply because it appeals to me the most. Nevertheless, I often stretch my designs and challenge my style by doing custom orders, by participating in concept-driven projects (e.g., recently I’ve been playing with metaphors of “doors” and “windows”) and by letting myself play at the torch.

Themes can move me but most often my process is triggered by an emotion or feeling that results from images, relationships and moments of serendipity. While I’m grounded in knowledge of and skill behind a technique, to some extent my work – especially my vessels – also emerges from improvisation and happenstance. Books of ancient and modern arts containing beautiful imagery and visual chronology represented by development of design are important resources for me.

Some of my products are in ongoing collections and some (like vessels) are one of a kind. Currently I have several collections which include Galaxies, Aurora Borealis, The Apple Core, and The Berry Extraordinaire. The Berry Extraordinaire Collection consists of four designs I’ve developed over time: the Berry, the Berry with Seeds, the Berry Flower and the Berry Blossom.

On average I work every day , like most people. The voice of National Public Radio is my most desirable companion. About 5pm the programs start over again so I either turn to WERS – The Emerson College Radio Station, or an audiobook on my MP3.

Reef Jewel

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I was an artist-in-residence at the Worcester Center for Crafts when they asked me to teach two lampworking classes. The thrill (and the anxiety) of sharing my knowledge and skill with people as excited and sometimes more excited than me felt wonderful. At the time I was also teaching public speaking courses at Emerson College and Suffolk University. Seeing my students nurture and push their love for glass and the lampworking process had a lot to do with me dropping my public speaking engagements to stick with glass completely and more relentlessly than before.

Selling my work in galleries and shows, the delightful one-on-one relationships with my customers, in addition to my enjoyment of the process, all provided a clear affirmative answer – I wanted to do this full-time and every day.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
Glass and metal, fire and oxygen, good health and brain matter

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
Process. Process. Process.

Work gets frustrating more often than I care to admit. Unfortunately, it happens when I have deadlines. Before, I would push to try to complete the task at hand. Now I often go back to basics and allow myself to be a beginner so that I can get back in touch with the material and the process.

Playing at the torch sometimes results in what I call carbohydrates; These are pieces that are so big that the wearer is guaranteed to stay on the ground on a very very windy day. I will keep working on a piece till I absolutely have to stop because I need to use the restroom and can’t hold it anymore 

A source of relief for me is designing and making jewelry. I spend as much time designing with wire as I do with glass. Most of the connections have to be cold so I devote much time engineering and creating them. This process can be quite entertaining, especially when I succeed.

I like taking breaks and looking through books and magazines.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
Sense of humor and perseverance are two important traits one should acknowledge and practice at all cost.

It is very easy to doubt and question one’s work and process. I’ve certainly done my share of that and still do. I’ve learned over the years to
1. acknowledge the artisans before me by learning the history and the techniques behind their work.
2. understand the reasons why I’m attracted to the medium and why I chose that medium for expression.
3. find my voice and articulate it in ways that are intelligible to me. I should be able to recognize that voice over and over again by accentuating primary factors that drive my expressions.

Arabian Nights

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
My entire family, including my parents, my sister and her two boys, has moved in with us over the last three years from Moldova. Attending to family needs and working harder than ever to increase income have been taking most of my time.

Whatever time left    I like to spend traveling with my husband Phil. I like to read. I love to walk. Once in a while I enjoy a noisy and fun party where there is lots of laughter and great food. Speaking of food.…

What are some of your other favorite things?
If I could have a thousand hobbies I would. Every time I see something beautiful I want to make my own version of it.

My favorite food is Moldovan potato stew. I also love food made with curries.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Usually I profile glass artists who make wearables on this site, but I had to make an exception for Doug, because as you’ll see, his work is exceptional in every way! I think you’ll really enjoy reading what he has to say about his artwork, his process, and his business tips!  He stresses how much hard work goes into building a successful business, and that is true in any creative field.

Doug, how did you decide to simply use your name for your business?
I picked the name of the business because as a High End artist I felt that being a brand with my name is really the only way to go. You speak to so many companies that started in a different name and wish they used their name. It just makes it more recognizable like a signature (no arrogance involved).

What is your creative process like?
The creative process happens by sitting down and coming up with a functional series. I will draw a picture where ever I am my sketch book follows me almost everywhere and from the take the creativity from past experiences and pieces to create new pieces that still have my signature look and appeal. I like my work too not only be fun and creative but festive and usable. The pieces that are created should be enjoyable “conversation piece” and I like them to bring a little brightness to the Collectors day.

When I work it is either for a commission or for product so I pretty much work seven days a week either in my studio or in the shop. Both are different processes. It just depends on how I can plan or budget my time.

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
My experience primarily comes form a Man out of Tucson Arizona named Tom Philabaum. He not only gave me the opportunity to learn but also really made me learn the basics. Through this process his staff made me a firm believer in learning the basics in glassblowing. The basics in turn help you to be more creative because you learn how to manipulate the different consistencies of glass itself. I also served in the Marines From 2001 to 2009 partially in the reserve’s and Spend a year in Iraq during the invasion as Part of the first marine divisions push. This gave me the discipline to learn how to actually blow glass at a professional level.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
When times are tough I remain doing the things that work because I know that things will turn around but just don’t know when. To make it in this business you just have to work a little harder. Many people think that artist are “lazy” and the live a free life style. But reality at least from my perspective you are really working almost all the time. Whether it be traveling, Packing, Producing, and Getting new clients and so on. Sure you get gratification but sometimes the work is just work. There is a major difference between being a hobbyist a professional.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
My advice for those who want to rise to a different level are go out there and get it. It is not just going to happen for you. Be yourself and try to find somebody that is a SUCCESSFUL (There are plenty that are not for some reason) artist that can train you and pay you. But typically they are not going to find you. As artists we tend to be passive and not aggressive but the art industry is a dog eat dog world and if you want to succeed you need to go get it yourself. You need to learn from your mistakes try to make the right decisions for you and what might benefit you and make yourself better. Pulling the trigger is hard but learn form your experiences especially in this economy.

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
Real work for my company and how to better my company For example I do everything like packing shipping, paperwork, PR, and producing. It is hard work. And not very much fun sometimes but that is part of life. It can’t always be fun. That is what my time is pretty much spent doing.

What’s your favorite comfort food and other activities?
My favorite food is whatever is in the fridge; my favorite books are The Dove by Robin Lee Graham and, It’s Not about the bike by Lance Armstrong. I tend to read more motivational stories and stories about perseverance. Real life, interests me. My favorite color is all that uniquely collaborate. Favorite hobby, enjoying new experiences.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Visit Linda’s blog and you’ll be enchanted by the lovely photos of flowers, glass, and the outdoors.  It’s pretty easy to see some of the things that inspire Linda, that’s for sure!   A visit to her website shows you immediately how many different ideas she likes to play with.  Glass is a never-ending source of delight for Linda.

Linda writes:
I love glass! I love wearing it, how it feels against my skin. It can feel light & airy like my earrings or more substantial like my chunky glass bracelets. The pendants I make are everything in between. No matter where I am people are always commenting and complimenting my jewelry.

When making jewelry or personal adornment, I start out with matching sets, including earrings, bracelets, barrettes, ponytail holders and pendants. I don’t worry about breaking up sets, just think they’re fun to make and increases my collections of each category to offer my customers.

I delight in playing with color, shapes and sizes, and am notorious for not being able to just make one of anything. Take earrings for example, I had a custom order for a pair of red earrings, but in the process, I ended up with over a dozen! Even though I knew exactly what my customer wanted, I start wondering ‘what if’… What if I make the earring longer, shorter, with red as the base (and which of three reds will look best!); or black at the base and ooooh oooh ooooh, look at how the iridescent red makes the earring sparkle! I let myself stray from the original task, traversing down each of these paths and end up with a set of choices for my customer and an entire tray of new earrings to offer other customers. I love getting lost in the process and love seeing all the finished pairs of earrings in my tray! Then I begin the matching bracelet….

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Liz writes:
The Lampwork glass vessel wine stopper is made with Italian glass 104 coe. After annealing the vessel, Lily pads, and top I applied my PMC3 design and re fired it according to the PMC3 schedule. The vessel is sitting on 3 Lily pads, one of PMC3 and two of glass. The Top that looks like a the sorting hat in Harry Potter is glass with a PMC3 collar. The top is glued onto the top of the wine stopper. I then assembled the pieces, screwed on the top. PMC3 and glass are great combos!!

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

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 2 additional classes at Beadfest Philly for working with boro glass. I wish there were more local classes to take advantage of.

I had a very hard time coming up with a business name I liked. LA are my initials. Pretty simple when you think about it. And Jewelry Designs is fairly self explanatory, though I have expanded beyond just jewelry making.

What is your creative process like?
I first decide which COE (coefficient of expansion) glass I want to work in that day. It’s important to keep glass of different COE’s from getting mixed up or the beads will crack. COE is really just a measure of the rate at which a particular type of glass expands when heated. When you have glass expanding at different rates, the beads will crack, which is something you want to avoid at all costs. Imagine spending all that time shaping & decorating a bead only to have it crack….not a good thing.

After that, I sometimes have a particular style bead that I want to work on, but more often that not, I just let the glass “talk to me”. I’m not particularly fond of making sets, preferring to let my creativity flow, creating one of a kind beads. Though, oftentimes when making a particular bead that I like and picturing how nice it would look in a necklace design for instance along with others in the same style, I’ll just get into a zen like mode & fire off dozens of the same bead. This is where having the jewelry making background comes in handy as well.

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I took a basic lampwork class at a local art league….and I do mean basic. LOL! But it helped me get over my fear of how to light the torch, taught safety precautions and some basic beadmaking techniques. I knew from the start that I loved working with glass so I saved my pennies & as soon as I was able to, I went out & bought whatever equipment I needed. I joined several lampwork forums & poured over the all the information. I found some great tutorials and just went ahead and played. I find it a fun medium to work with because it’s ever changing & you have no choice but to try new things. Even if a particular session doesn’t turn out well, I still learn a lot, whether it’s how certain colors react together or how to shape my beads better.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
Great question. With lampwork, there are several tools that are required, but I just love my torch. Since working with boro, I upgraded to a “big girl torch” that has an inner ring and an outer ring that’s helpful for larger pieces. And though I don’t often work that large, there have been numerous times when I’ve found myself turning on the outer rings to get that extra boost of heat needed for a design.

What inspires you to create?
I love working with all the different colors of glass available today. I find that for me, the glass itself is what influences my work. There are many new silver infused glass rods that are currently on the market that create beautiful special effects, which I love to experiment with. And then using tools in different ways to get special effects. It’s all fun!

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
Knowing that tomorrow is another day. Some torch sessions I can do no wrong & others I can do no right even if I’m trying to duplicate a bead I’ve already made. So, though some days are very frustrating, I simply love seeing the outcome the following day when the kiln has cooled down. Even if the bead doesn’t come out as planned, I may come across a new color reaction that I can use in subsequent beads.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
PPP (practice, practice, practice), which is something I still need to do a LOT more of!

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
I love to read and have recently taken up knitting again. And, of course the internet.

What’s your favorite comfort food?
Chocolate is the hands down winner. I wish I liked dark at least, but I never developed a taste for it. I love milk chocolate with some almonds or caramel or both. YUM!

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Nancy writes:

Fourteen years ago, my passion for glass led to me wonder if it was possible to make glass beads by hand. I soon found out, not only that is was possible, but that it was grand fun as well.

Over the years my glass love continued to grow and evolve. I went from collecting jelly jar glasses to telephone pole insulators to paper weights to vessels. My work at the torch evolved in the same way…. my desire to melt glass, taking it from something it was not and turning it into something functional, collectible, drove me to create many types of beads. The range of shapes and colors continues to drive me today, and I have recently been working on this series of Pomegranate Clouds, combining familiar bead styles with brand new colors.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading