Introduction: Laura Sparling

I’m almost certain I was a magpie in a previous life. I’ve always been drawn to anything that shines, sparkles and glimmers. As a child I collected stones, shells and bits of beach glass just because they looked pretty. I would spend ages sorting through my Mum’s jewellery box trying everything on.

Mum also had a button jar which kept me entertained for hours. Oh and marbles. When it came to glass marbles I had more fun looking at them than I did actually playing with them!

I’d also spend large chunks of my childhood ‘making and doing’ as my sister and I liked to call it. Hours were spent painting, drawing, sticking, coating things with copious amounts of glitter and foil sweet wrappers, making things from old boxes, containers and milk bottle tops. We must have driven our Mum crazy with the amount of mess we’d make and then she’d patiently say ‘Oh that’s lovely, darling!’ and find some shelf or corner for our creations to live in.

When I was about fourteen one of my Christmas presents was a bead loom kit. I spent that Christmas day turning loose seed beads into strips of beaded fabric and I was hooked. I needed more beads!

One weekend I went to a bead shop and that was when I fell totally head over heels in love with beads. I had fifteen pounds to spend and I picked up a little basket and began to fill it with beady treasures - one of these beads, two of those ones. Then I set about teaching myself how to turn all those beautiful beads into wearable things. I could knit, crochet and sew but I had no-one to show me how to make jewellery so I’d sit and play with beads and thread trying to figure things out for myself.

A few years later a wonderful thing happened. The internet. I remember typing ‘beads’ into a search engine and lo and behold there were bead weaving, beadwork and jewellery making websites aplenty! I was in my element. I’d print out patterns and I’d sit and make earrings, necklaces and little seed bead creations.

Just over four years ago I found a copy of the US magazine ‘Bead & Button’ in my local post office. An actual magazine all about doing beady stuff! That was such a novelty because a few years back there was next to nothing about beads here in the UK.

I loved the adverts for all these amazing bead shops and websites. Then I saw it. An advert that said ‘Make your own glass beads!’. That got my brain in a whirl. Making my own beads? From glass? Was this something I could do? I mean, I’d seen glassblowers working before but surely there was no way that I could create things from glass? A bit more internet research showed me that yes, it was totally possible and I bought myself a copy of Cindy Jenkins’ ‘Making Glass Beads’, a Hot Head torch that I called Horace, a few rods of glass and a couple of basic tools.

Dad set my torch up in the back garden and I was away. The minute I made my first bead I knew that this was a hobby that was going to last. After a few lampwork sessions in the garden Mum let me set my torch up in the kitchen and I made beads in the evenings after work. I got myself a little kiln and eventually started to sell my beads on eBay.

After about eighteen months of making beads on Horace the Hot Head and after setting up my website, participating in lampwork forums and generally being totally obsessed with lampworking I got a phone call from Corina Tettinger. She’d seen a post I’d made on a forum about Hot Heads and she told me that I should try a ‘big girl’s torch’. I explained that I was happy with Horace but Corina said that I’d find a bigger torch a lot better and to prove her point she sent me a Carlisle Mini CC as a gift! How nice was that? I moved into the old garden shed with my new torch setup and I’ve been happily making beads in there on my Mini CC ever since.

Beads were always a part-time thing for me up until March 2006. My wonderful Mum died suddenly on the Mothers Day of that year. My parents and I had run our family business together up until that point and the day Mum died Dad and I decided we couldn’t carry the business on without her. That was when I made the decision to do this lampwork lark full-time. I knew that Mum would have wanted me to give it a go. She was always so supportive and proud of me and my beadmaking.

So now I melt glass almost every day and I sell my beads on my website. I work with Moretti/Effetre glass. My beads are detailed and my designs are very precise. I love working with stringer - the finer the better! I also like to constantly challenge myself and learn new techniques. I’m one hundred percent self-taught. I’ve never had a bead making lesson and everything I know I’ve learnt from books, websites and good old trial and error! I’ve been a beadmaker for four years now and I look forward to many more years of playing with the magical, addictive and shiny medium that is glass.

Laura Sparling is a full-time beadmaker in Southampton, UK. She sells her beads through her website www.beadsbylaura.co.uk.

In the Brain of the Creator: Lisa Rippee Introduction

I’ve been asked more than a few times, “What goes on in the brain of the creator of those mouths?”

A little over three years ago, having been a right-brain person trying to fit into a left-brain world far too long, I would have answered “total chaos.” Life was a constant struggle to find where I belonged in this crazy working world. I’ve been blessed with the dexterity of being a fast typist, a fast learner, with the ability to tackle skills such as court reporting and medical transcription. But let me tell you, that type of blessing is also a curse to someone with a little condition I call right-brain-itis.

I’d come home from a miserable workday to my latest creative endeavor. Oil painting, drawing, sculpting clay; anything that could allow me to delve into the one place I felt at home. Right-brain thinking. Meditating through the entire process, hoping that I would someday find a place to belong.

Then in March of 2005, I picked up a torch and some glass rods. Having been accused of thinking backwards most of my adult life, I found an art form that thrived from my brand of thinking. Instantly I knew a sense of belonging. I knew the years of meditation on my quest had yielded an answer.

Self-taught for the first year and half, I learned how to work with my lack of technical skill. “So what if I can’t make a perfectly round bead,” I’d tell myself. “I’ll sculpt something that requires asymmetry and a bit of imperfection. ”

Less than a year later, I left that left-brain world for good, and started working for a local stained glass store. I can attest to the joy a person feels when they stop fighting their nature.

While I have taken classes with some of the greats, Sharon Peters, Tink Martin and John Cramer, Brent Graber, and Loren Stump, and am acquiring technical skill, I still find my backward thinking quite useful in my glass work.

These mouths were born of continual mistakes that I turned to my advantage. I still can’t make a perfectly round bead, but I’ve decided I really don’t care. I’ll just continue letting my backward brain come up with strange and unusual creations, and letting my mind do what comes naturally. Create!

You can see more of Lisa Rippee’s work at her Etsy Store.

Introduction: Rosemarie Hanus

Hi, my name is Rosemarie Hanus, I melt glass on a torch shooting out flames of about 1600 degrees F, and I am going to give you a glimpse in how I think. Trust me, you should be afraid. Very, very afraid.

I’m just kidding - you do not have to be afraid. I really am fascinated by the whole process of making glass objects, the melting of glass is so mesmerizing, and I would like to share this with you. I currently make primarily large glass beads and a few small marbles.

My foray into glass beadmaking started early in 2003. At the time, I collected marbles and paperweights, and this voice in my head said, “hey, maybe you could make some of these yourself.” I started to poke around on the internet, and low and behold, there was a glass studio near me that gave classes, including beadmaking. In February of 2003, with Sandy Osborn as the instructor, I lit a torch for the very first time, and melted glass. (Well, other than a plumber’s torch – but that is another day’s story.) Cue the Choir of Angels here. The beads were not so great, but I was absolutely hooked. I think that is a sentiment shared by many beadmakers – just a little taste, and the addiction begins.

Soon after that, I bought a tiny Fireworks torch. Now, this is not a very powerful torch in the hierarchy of torches, so my beads were small. However, I did learn a lot about heat control on this little torch.I soon moved to a larger torch and my beads also began to get larger. I took a few classes at the studio (Steinert’s, which sadly has closed.) I learned how to make twisted cane, which basically is different colors of glass together and is used as a decoration. Very much of my work involves the use of this twisted cane.

I would also like to tell you a little more about me. I was born in Akron, Ohio, and currently live in nearby Bath Township with my children, husband, dog, cat, and fish. I am an engineer, and I have been working in the aerospace industry for more than 25 years, with a specialty in image processing. Starting in grade school, I played in the band, and recently, I learned the French Horn in order to play in a local brass choir. I guess I like to learn new things and to keep busy. My Grandfather said it was better to wear out than rust out, and I guess I really bought into that!

I am really excited by the Watch Me Create blog, because I really would like to give some insight into the process of how I develop my beads. I would like to try and focus on my thoughts as a series of beads progress, and to convey the process as I problem solve. So, see? I really want you to to see how I think.

Rosemarie Hanus is a glass artist who writes from her studio in Bath Township, Ohio. Her website is www.spawnofflame.com because her name is hard to spell.

Photos by Stephen Curless of Dreamscape Photography.

Introduction: Lydia Muell

From the time that my tiny fingers were able to clutch a writing instrument, I left my artistic influence wherever possible. . .My first choice in mediums was a black Sharpie on freshly painted Pepto pink walls. A tiny mural of a busy city with sky scrapers, cars and tiny stick people. Over the duration of my childhood, my bedroom walls became a huge pink canvas in which to express myself, and to some it likely resembled a graffiti covered run down building in Queens.

As a child I wasn’t exactly encouraged to follow a path in the arts. While my parents were both appreciators of art and music, they pushed me to focus more on the “Three R’s”. My accountant mother especially believed that art was an impractical choice of career paths. A result of her own upbringing, as her mother was a highly gifted artist who enjoyed many mediums. Her true love was pottery and her work was amazing. She never allowed herself to use her artistic talent as anything other than a hobby. Her career as an RN provided a home for her children and paid for their college tuition, while her art gave her an escape from the stresses of everyday life. Perhaps that is why my mother never saw the arts as being a potential career choice for me.

Giving up the ideas of finding myself as an artist, I chose business as a major in college and went on to NOT enjoy a long career in sales and marketing. Weekends, evenings and vacation days, found me working in the homes of friends and patrons on a sundry of Trompe L’Oeil, Fresco and Venetian plaster projects. I also enjoyed making mosaics and I often incorporated them into my work as and interesting way of framing a fresco job.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, it was a trip to a stained glass store in mid 2005 that would launch my obsession with melting glass. The Moretti rods were displayed proudly by the shop owner and I was positively mystified as he explained how they were used. . . My excitement only escalated when he put on his safety glasses, fired up the hothead torch and demonstrated the process of making a lampwork bead. Suffice to say, I left the store swiftly with rods, mandrels, and torch in hand to begin my journey in this exciting new-to-me medium.

From the very first revolution of glass on my mandrel, I was hooked. Inspiration seemed to blanket my mind with limitless ideas of creative expression. . .From my grandmother’s Russian Christmas ornaments and delicately patterned French salt and pepper shakers to the Pompeii brothels and Egyptian tomb paintings that I studied when doing Trompe L’Oeil work. A version of each wanted to be captured in glass, but I had no idea how to do it. My first year behind the torch brought me the understanding of the basic techniques. Although I couldn’t express the ideas that were dancing around in my head, I still enjoyed making lampwork beads anytime that I had even a second to spare.

In 2005, I lost my corporate sales job. My husband encouraged me to stay home and make beads for a living. Knowing that we would be taking a huge risk, we mortgaged our house, and upgraded my studio. The remaining proceeds helped cover the loss of my salary for the first year. It was during that time that I devoted 6-12 hours per day to my torch. As my skill set and work evolved, I finally began to find myself as a lampwork bead artisan. Today, I realize that my journey will be a long one, for there is MUCH versatility in glass and I very much look forward to continuing it’s exploration.

Lydia Muell is a glass bead maker who blogs in her studio from Lexington, NC. For more information please visit here website at ashtonjewels.com.

How AngelinaBeadalina Was “Born” at 40

All my life, I’ve been Angie or Angela Faye or AnFaye, but last year AngelinaBeadalina was born. After 40 years of gestation, I think my true self was born in the flame of a lampworking torch. Unlike lots of artists, I don’t really have any childhood stories about my artistic inclinations. I’ve always been creative, always been the one to fix the bulletin boards or make a special card, but I never felt like an artist until I started sculpting glass.

I’m the high school valedictorian who wouldn’t take art because the highest possible grade the teacher would give was a “C”. I’m the psychology major who graduated with honors but wouldn’t take any art classes because I didn’t know how to draw or wear funky clothes. I’m the woman who learned to use whatever materials were already on hand to create nursing home or daycare bulletin boards and sets but never thought to try a scrapbooking class. I’m the mom who drew dozens of pictures for kids (my own two and others) to color in the early morning at the daycare but wouldn’t dream of letting grownups see those same simplistic sketches of Thomas the Tank Engine. In other words, I’ve always felt creative but never felt worthy of artistic endeavors. . . until I started melting glass!

Then, in February 2006, I turned forty and got my lampworking setup. A month later, the kids and I “retired” from the daycare job and lampworking quickly became my obsession. I spent most of the spring and summer making small round beads and trying to “find my voice” in beadmaking.

Late last summer, a teenage friend of the family asked for a peace sign bead and a yin yang bead. While looking for a yin yang symbol to use as a pattern, I discovered a whole world of inspiration in a single paperback volume. God: A Brief History by John Bowker became my creative and spiritual guide to the world’s different religions and cultures. I started using glass stringer to “draw” Tao symbols and Buddha faces on bigger and bigger beads. Before I knew it, I was sculpting more and more every time I went to the torch. I made tiny sculpted glass temples with intricate stringer decoration. An especially ugly Nefertiti (and a well-timed snarky remark about studying museum sculptures) goaded me into figuring out how to do faces in glass.

Over the course of the fall and winter, chinless Nefertiti evolved into sexy Cleopatra with sculpted eyelashes. Chunky goddesses became curvier and grew long, seductively flowing hair. Standing in line for the safari ride at Disney World the week after Thanksgiving, masks practically jumped off the walls and into my brain. The only way to get them out was to start making my own masks in glass, and I’m still hooked on making masks inspired by everything from Ganesh to Mahakala to Maori warriors.

Themes come and go with me, sometimes taking center stage, sometimes resting in the back of my mind while another dances to the forefront, but the ones that return most often are those inspired by spiritual pursuits. I feel like the world just invited me to a cultural and spiritual buffet, and I’m gonna sample just a little bit of everything if I get the chance!

Add to these inspirations a more than occasional insistent urge to try to distill an emotion and pour it into the glass. Another recent obsession? That would be finding ways to make my overgrown beads into finished pieces of art, some with a functional role, some just very evocative pieces of glass. This is where I am as I jump onto the Watch Me Create ride. You wanna come along?

I’m quiet in person, but AngelinaBeadalina is fearless when it comes to glass so you’re guaranteed all sorts of ups and downs and sideways twists and turns as I explore ideas. “Wasted” glass, not-quite-what-I-expected’s coming out of the kiln, and big-time WoooooHoooooo-I-finally-got-it’s are all coming your way!