Lampwork… my passion

I’ve always been interested in beads, but never thought I would ever be making my own.

Around 5 years ago I saw an ad on the Internet for a workshop to make glass beads. I asked my daughter if she wanted to come along with me … when she refused, I decided just to do it on my own. Anyone who knows me, knows that I had to be serious. Otherwise I would never do something like that on my own.

So I took the plunge and set off for a one-day workshop to play with glass. And although it was not easy to play with liquid glass, I had a lovely day with several fellow students. At the end of the day I decided to buy all the supplies I needed to make some beads at home.

This was a costly risk, because the burner and all the stuff together made a big dent in my wallet. How could I be sure, after that one day of “playing with glass”, I would continue to find this fun When my husband came to pick me up on that Saturday afternoon, we started looking where we could buy a propane bottle. I had to wait until monday to get me one of those. So… I was ready!!! It still took me a few months time before I had enough confidence in myself to finally ignite that particular burner with very trembling hands. That day the passion took over and to this day… it never left.

During those first months many beads cracked… it was before I had my kiln and I had to use vermiculite to “cool” my beads. That was not as bad as it sounds, because the result was not such that the beads were worth saving. Of course I did save them, because I was secretly quite proud of them even though they were not very round and they had sharp edges. It was difficult to get a round bead Despite the poor results, I persevered and gradually, the beads were getting rounder and less and less sharp edges to regret. Gradually I tried new techniques and the Lampwork forum was invaluable … all those people who understand your passion and want to help you every way they can. It all seemed so easy, but it was not. When I finally got my kiln, the beads were not cracking anymore and it encouraged me to do my best to make better beads.

Fortunately, every week I was getting a little better. My beads were far from worthy of being sold and to be honest I did not want them to leave just yet. Despite all their shortcomings, they were all very dear to me. Therefore I still have those first beads. I noticed that I began to develop a certain style and it were no flowers. I loved the organic beads that I saw on the internet – one of my favorite lampworkers was an American lady named “NAOS”. This is not to say I never make flower-beads… I let my mind and hands take the lead. The focal you see above was created in 2008 and not in that early period. In 2008 I was – on and off – making beads for about three years. I say on and off, because there have been very long periods where I’ve made no beads… not because the passion was gone, but because things happened in my life that kept me from making beads.

In june of 2007 I took my first real workshop from none other than Kimberly Affleck. With a dear friend I went to Hamburg to take that two day workshop. It made me clear I had so much more to learn and I would enjoy every minute of it. Since that day I’ve taken 6 more workshops with very great teachers; Sarah Hornik, pati Walton, Andrea Guarino, Dora Schubert and Corina Tettinger. All of those great ladies taught me so much!!! So far it’s been a great ride, one I hope to be on for a long time to come.