How long have you been working with glass? How did you get started?
Thirteen years. A co-worker just happened to know a lampwork artist who generously showed me how to do it and I’ve been working with glass ever since.
What lead you to start making beads?
I have always been an artist but had to give it up (or so I thought) when I had my first child twenty years ago. I was working at a successful marketing firm bet felt I was dying on the vine so I knew I needed to do something in my spare time that was creative. Painting was too intensive once I had a child so I went back to an old hobby – making jewelry. Trolling online auction sites for jewelry components, I discovered
handmade lampwork glass beads and, subsequently, fell in love!
What do you love most
about working with glass?
endless possibilities! Put a few rods of
glass in front of several lampworkers and each of them will make something
completely different, just like paints or pencils.
lampwork designs?
father is a retired heavy-equipment engineer who worked in the mining industry
for over 40 years. My home was filled
with specimens of every kind you could imagine when I was growing up. Naturally, my style ended up being organic. When I started, I wanted to make big, bright
happy beads but I just kept picking up the more neutral colours to torch with.
workspace like?
messy! I believe right now I have a pile
of shorts and half-used rods that is about 5 inches thick…not to mention all
the little bits from used stringers.
I clean my
space maybe twice a year.
else with glass, other than beads?
yourself or is it all about the beads for you?
the beads. Strangely enough, I never
wear jewellery made with my own beads.
I’m likely missing an excellent marketing opportunity now that I think
about it.
or bead makers that you’ve found particularly influential or that you
particularly admire?
bead communities on Wet Canvas and Lampwork Etc. We all shared so much information in the
early days about glass reactions, new glass, and new designs. I admire those fellow glass adventurers the
most. I also admire those new to the
craft. They remind me of where I came
from and why I keep doing this as my life’s work.
Thank you, Amber, for agreeing to answer my questions!
And just in case you’re feeling a sudden and inexplicable need to acquire more beads, here’s another link to her Etsy shop!
Bye for now, Claire
www.somethingtodo.etsy.com
www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com
www.somethingtodobeads.etsy.com