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Sparkles in Spencerville!

fireseed — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:14:13 +0000

Hope to see you there if you are in the area!

What’s in a Bead?

fireseed — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:32:41 +0000

You might be thinking ‘duh… well whatever it’s made of silly!’ — I challenge you to think again! Two recent events have got me thinking about this question:

I have just been fortunate enough to take a workshop with Holly Cooper — if you aren’t familiar with her glass beads you can see them here.

For the first time as a bead buyer I could not make up my mind which of Holly’s beads to purchase – they are all absolutely amazing. Here is the one I finally settled on -

I’m leaving the pictures nice and big so that you can appreciate the details.

Holly Cooper bead

Holly’s stringer work is second to none – if you don’t know what stringer work is, imagine a thin strand of glass, not much thicker than a bristle in a hairbrush — Holly paints her designs onto her beads using these stringers. It takes amazing creativity and control to achieve this.

Back the subject of this post — one thing Holly said particularly struck a chord in me – she was describing how her design goes around the bead and that it added another element to the bead. That element was ‘time’, because the viewer had to turn the bead to follow the ‘story’ of the bead.

The second event that has led me to this post is that I discovered that some of my monkey bead designs have been copied by a Chinese bead making factory -

Chinese 'Bunkee' copy - notice the 'copyright' on their photo!!

I’m not alone in this, many beadmakers have had the same experience. At first I was angry and frustrated, then I continued my ‘what’s in a bead’ train of thought.

Holly’s beads have taught me that there is so much more to a bead than glass (or any other material) that has been shaped or embellished in some way. Her comment about the element of time for me goes back to the birth of the bead, when I look at her bead I now see and appreciate the time that went into it’s creation. When I hold it in my hand I am holding a few hours of that artist’s life, the thoughts that went through her mind as she made it, the concentration as the design was laid down and the song that came from her soul as the design was born – each of these elements completely and wonderfully unique to this particular bead.

Until now I had admired beads for their look, their colours and the way they spoke to me, but now I appreciate so much more.

What about the Chinese copies you may ask? I don’t know the quality of the glass, if they’ve been annealed or even cleaned, but so much more is missing from them than that – they don’t have that special element — they’ve been mass produced, quickly and probably with little thought – - there really is nothing of an artist in them. My only hope about them is that perhaps they may have helped put food on the table for a family who was hungry.

Next time you look at one of your favourite beads, take a minute to think about the artist and the little part of their life and soul that has been captured in that little treasure you hold in your hands. I guarantee that bead will take on a whole new meaning!

Just for fun here’s a real closeup of the wonderful texture of my Holly Cooper bead – it is amazing – Holly can spend up to four hours creating one bead! Visit her website here.

Inspirational Beading

fireseed — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:40:18 +0000

There is a blog full of wonderful projects, inspiration and jewellery of all types – it’s called Inspirational Beading, I urge you to check it out! It’s written by fellow Canadian and Etsyian Sages Cupboard who creates beautifully unique beaded jewellery.

I think my favourite is her swan necklace – isn’t it amazing!

I was thrilled when Sage’s Cupboard asked if she could feature my Goddess beads in her blog (click the link to see what we came up with!)

Here are some more items you’ll find in Sage’s Cupboard on Etsy!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
sagescupboard.etsy.com

Thank you for featuring me in your blog!

How do you make the world’s largest blown glass pumpkin?

fireseed — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:57:57 +0000

Here’s how! That is 70lbs of molten glass that the folks at Corning are playing with!! Makes my beads seem awful small!

For more information on Corning and pumpkins click here.

What is Lampworking?

fireseed — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:19:14 +0000

Maxine of Glass by Girlfriday has created a brilliant Youtube video that explains it in a nutshell.

Here for your viewing pleasure is What On Earth Is Lampworking.

Don’t forget to visit the website! Glass By Girlfriday

My workshop with Anastasia

fireseed — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:20:49 +0000

I feel like I haven’t posted in a long while – July has flown by and I was sick for a good two weeks of it, thankfully I was fully recovered for my beadmaking workshop with Anastasia that took place over the last two days.

Here’s Ana showing us how to shape the bead by adding glass to the base bead.

It was an incredible experience, partly because it was my first ever bead class but mostly because Ana was teaching us and we covered so many different topics.

Adding fine stringer
Sculpting with stringer
Using enamels
Many different ways of applying enamels
Shaping beads
Murrini making
Applying murrini

The workshop took place at Alex Hamilton’s studio in Manotick – that in itself was a treat and I hope that I’ll go back there for more workshops in the future. Grace Edwards made it all happen – THANK YOU so much Grace, huge thank you’s to Ana for sharing her wonderful teaching and beadmaking skills and also to Alex for putting up with 8 women at one time his studio!!

Me at the torch!

Beads from day one that focused on the skills that Ana uses to create her incredible tree beads. I don’t think I’ll be too much competition for her in that direction!

Thank You Periwinklesuz!

fireseed — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:09:09 +0000

Look at what arrived at my house today -

Isn’t it beautiful?! Its a fused glass pendant from Suzanne at Periwinkle Studio.

Suzanne recently had a giveaway on her blog and I was so lucky to win – I got to pick something from her Etsy shop

It was so hard to choose from all the beautiful fusing and silver, but I loved this piece, it’s called Clockwork Orange and both the colour and the design really appealed to me!

Suzanne also has a blog – Periwinkle Studio and if you go hunting you’ll probably find her on Facebook too!

Thank you Periwinklesuz – I LOVE my new pendant! )

A Monkee found, a Compliment AND a Surprise!

fireseed — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:42:56 +0000

WOW! I couldn’t have had a much better day than that!!

A Monkee found
I was so happy to receive an email from Dominique who let me know that she found Daisy -

Shhhhh, it’s a secret, but Daisy was one of my favourites, I love her cheeky little grin!

Dominique was in Merrickville for supper when she spied Daisy and has now taken her home to Gatineau – I love how these monkees are spreading out across the area! Mwahahahahah… little do their owners know that on that ‘special date’ all these monkees will leap into action as part of their plan for World Domination! Thank you for letting me know she’s safe Dominique!

A compliment
David and I were in Brockville yesterday and took half an hour to sit in the park by the river with some Tim’s. The bench we sat on was right by a walking path so from time to time people – walked by! One couple came by and we greeted each other as polite Canadians do, then imagine my surprise when the lady commented on how much she liked my necklace! I was wearing my Goddess bead! The biggest grin filled my face, but I didn’t have time to say more than ‘thank you’ as they were off along the path. It did make me feel very special!

A surprise
I went to the post office to mail some things and found that I had a package waiting for me, I thought it was from a Giveaway that I had won, but when I looked closer at the address I realised it was from my good friend Samma ! I met Samma through our little group on the Wet Canvas forum – she’s incredibly talented, her glass work is beautiful – so I couldn’t wait to tear open the package right there and then! So I did!

I need to take another picture this one does not do it justice, it’s the most beautiful pendant, and each time I look at it I see something different, one moment it’s an island floating in the ocean and the next it’s a bird with wings outstretched – thank you so much Samma!! I hadn’t realised but my name was one of the winners of prizes donated to the recent Beads of Courage challenge on the Wet Canvas Glass Arts forum. This is such a wonderful charity – and I’m just glad to be able to donate some of beads to help.

Happy Summer Solstice

fireseed — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:17:34 +0000

Happy Summer Solstice

This lovely image is called ‘Avebury Dawn’ by Anne Sudworth

To see more of Anne’s beautiful artwork visit her site here,
she has an incredible talent for using light in her images.

True Value in Lampwork Beads

fireseed — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:54:04 +0000

A recent blog post by fellow bead maker Mallory really made me stop and think about the value of the beads we create.

If you have any interest in beads you have probably come across really inexpensive glass beads in your travels.

If you don’t know much about beads you might be fooled into thinking they are great value, and might also be wondering why beads such as mine are so much more expensive. I’ll explain why!

Many of the inexpensive beads come from China where they are

mass produced,
created from low quality glass
not annealed (an essential part of the process) and
not cleaned

Each bead I create has come from thousands of hours of learning and practising.

My first torch and accessories cost approx $150

That kept me going for a little while, but I soon needed to upgrade to my present torch that uses both propane and oxygen.

New torch, Nortel Mega Minor $150

Oxygen Concentrator to create the oxygen needed $550

Hoses to hook it all up $40

Regulator for the fuel $100

Kiln! For annealing glass $760

And we haven’t bought any glass yet!

Ventilation – $700

That is just the equipment! Add to this the cost of fuel for the torch, electricity for the kiln and supplies such as mandrels and bead release.

Tools!! We all need tools – prices vary from under $10 to over $100

Eye Glasses! Needed to protect our eyes from the flame – $150

THEN comes the glass – this can range in price from $7/lb to $100/lb depending on the type !

Add to this

time spent learning this art,
cost of lessons which can be $200 per day
the little bit of ‘me’ that goes into each and every one
time spent creating and cleaning each bead by hand
days wasted when Muse is on vacation and beads are horrific!
other incidentals that go along with making these one of a kind pieces of wearable art

Each bead that I offer for sale is the very best of what I make. I’m very critical about what I consider to be a sellable bead and many just don’t make the cut for one reason or another.

: Lampwork bead with murrini – $38

You’ll soon realise that Lampwork beads are PRICELESS!

When you consider purchasing a bead or set of beads from any lampwork artist please take a moment and reflect on what is included in that price – you’ll soon understand why these beads are truly a remarkable value. You are purchasing one of a kind pieces of art that can last for generations to come.