Confessions of a Glassaholic

I shopped till I dropped, then I got up and shopped some more. This glass conference I went to last week was 5 minutes from my house, so no shipping charges!!!! As if I needed an excuse.

The economy continues to change how everyone does business, there were fewer vendors compared to my first conference in Minneapolis three years ago. Shipping goods to the conference is costly, and people from out of town are buying less because taking extra pieces of luggage on a plane is so expensive now.

So with less glass available I had to be first and fast, I literally went through and grabbed one of everything. When I get my stash organized I will take pictures. The glass rods above are the "silver glass" I use in some of my beads, it's pricey but the metallic and iridescent effects are wonderful.

I finally met Amy of Zoozii's bead presses, and she is as sweet in person as I expected. These were the first tools I purchased when I started lampworking four years ago, and I still use them today.

There were torches, scary torches like this one. I restrained myself and decided that my Bobcat torch does the job for me.

These tools with different shapes are used to make murrini. I purchased a flower shaped one from Zoozii I will keep you posted on how it goes.

A girl can't have enough tools. You know I love texture on transparent glass, so I purchased some new texture tools. I will share the results in the coming weeks. But the more tools you have does not make you a better glass bead maker. The skilled instructors that I had this week proved that you do not need many tools, and something as simple as a paring knife will do the job. It still comes down to a little talent and then practice, practice, practice.

The Thompson Enamel people were at the show, and you all know that I have been into torch fired enamel. I finally broke down and purchased the sample pack of all the opaque and transparent colors for metal. So keep an eye on the shop for some new colors in my enamel pieces.

As I have mentioned before Barbara Lewis was the one that turned me and many others on to torch fired enamel, and like glass it is a bit addicting. Most lampworkers already have a torch so it is a logical transition for glass bead makers to try this technique. When I wore my enamel earrings one evening at the conference, I was swarmed by lampworkers wondering about torch fired enamel. If I were you Barbara, I would stock up on those bead pulling stations.

I also saw a demo by Bronwen Heilman, she paints designs in enamel on beads. I love how one technique leads to another and another, there is so much to learn.

The Bead Bazaar is next, my first big show.

10 Day Glass Marathon

Today was the last day of 10 nonstop days of workshops and the 2010 ISGB conference. My first two days were spent with Leah Fairbanks. Leah makes beautiful vessel shaped focals that are encrusted with raised botanical designs.

Even though lampwork has been around for centuries it has only taken off in the U.S. in the past 18 years. Leah was a part of that original group, there were only a dozen lampworkers at the first ISGB conference 18 years ago. The 2010 conference in Rochester, NY had over 400 participants, and you know how many lampworkers are on etsy. Needless to say I was a little starstruck. Leah is a wonderful generous teacher and I would highly recommend her class. We also had a great group of women from all over the country and as far away as Australia.

Leah is pulling a cane here, when we talk about stringers and twisties this is what we are talking about. She showed us how to layer transparent glass to create colors that are not commercially available. These stringers were later used to decorate the beads with floral designs.

This is an example of one of Leah's beautiful beads, all those flowers on the surface were made with the pulled stringer. In the center of the flowers she has also placed precious and semi-precious stones in a bezel of gold. You can't see it very well but the top of the bead has been faceted at a grinder, this is called coldworking.

This is another one of Leah's beads.

In a glass workshop the instructor usually demos a bead and takes the class through it step by step. Then we all go back to the torch and give it a try. These are some of the beads that Leah demonstrated over the two days. Oh, to bad I don't have pictures of mine.

One thing that I got out of the workshop that I did not expect was improving my bead shaping skills. The above bead shape is a bicone, on my beads that middle part can end up anywhere on the bead. I now know how to get it in the middle of the bead on purpose.

Remember the cane that was being pulled in the top photo? This is a picture of a complex cane, is built up layer by layer and then pulled and twisted at the same time. This one was a rainbow design.

Maybe now I can live up to my name Gardanne Glass by adding some raised flowers to my bead designs.

Tune in tomorrow for the shopping portion of this series.