Having Fun with Glass, Metal, and Fire
I have been showing my jewelry and art glass at art festivals in the Greater Atlanta area as Inclusions Arts since 2015, and as one half of Copper Dancer Designs since 2011. In addition to such places as the AFFPS Festival on Ponce, Ormewood Makers Festival, Pine Lakefest, Virginia Highland Summerfest, Grant Park Summer Shade Festival, ArTucker, and numerous other pop-up shows in the area, I also show my work at Art Clayton Gallery in Jonesboro, GA.
I love color -- and working with fire, hammers, and tools is an added bonus. My journey into glass and metal began when I was learning to bind books, of all things, and was exploring the scroll form. Since I couldn't find the precise scroll handle I wanted, I began to pester my sister, a beginning lampworker, for a custom bead. Instead, she plopped me down in front of a HotHead torch. Since I didn't dare tell her I was too scared to light the thing, I gulped and dove in -- and by the end of the session I was a confirmed glass junkie!
Well over a decade later I have branched out in multiple ways. First it was elementary metalsmithing -- cold connections and simple findings, hammering and texturing. Then I took a week-long workshop with Kim St. Jean at the William Holland School, and began to expand my skills. At the same time, my former business partner and I purchased the entire jewelry -tool estate of a friend's deceased husband, who had been both a priest and a highly skilled stone setter. I kept most of the tools that we didn't recognize, and I am glad I did -- every time I want to expand my skills, I find that I have most of the tools already from Jim's store of them, or I find myself wondering about a tool and going to find out what it does -- and then, well, I just have to practice! That has led to short classes with Joanne Hernandez and Susan Saul at the Spruill Center for the Arts in gemstone setting and in more advanced metalsmithing techniques.
As the decade passed, of course, my professional life has also increased its demands. I found that I had less and less time to sit down and do the sustained work that glass beadmaking requires, between advising, program development, professional development, teaching, and managing our department's ePortfolio system. Still, I wanted to include the colors and organic style of glass in my work, and I began to experiment with vitreous enamels. I really enjoy playing with glass that has different expansion rates -- it pools and makes beautiful random patterns that I can't control. However, I also enjoy sgraffito and pen-and-ink styles; a three day intensive class with Anne Havel was a real inspiration.
I also believe in supporting independent artisans and business who practice in sustainable, ethical, and thoughtful ways, and who connect to their community and their environment. I don't live in a corporation: I live in a community, and I do my best to nurture that in as many ways as I can. In my jewelry I use recycled silver and copper, not newly-mined; I employ safe studio practices to preserve my and my family's and neighbors' health; I source materials carefully, locally when I can and from other artisans: and I give back. A portion of my proceeds every year go to benefit people -- the Wounded Warrior Project -- and animals -- Great Pyrenees Rescue of Atlanta.
At home, I am owned by three rescue dogs -- a Corgi-Beagle, a Labrador-Spitz, and a Pyrenees Shepherd. They think they rule the roost, but the real manager of the house and Supreme Being is my rescue cat, Walker.
If you love to bead, be sure to stop by my other Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/UppityBeader for unique peyote stitch and bead loom patterns.
And if you don't see what you like here, check out my sister Leslie's shop, Iron Mountain Arts. https://www.etsy.com/shop/IronMountainArts Leslie is an accomplished lampworker and metalsmith, and her boho and sterling work is unparalleled!
