It's all about melting glass
Lampwork explained in a very simple way: You take rods of coloured glass, a metal rod called a mandrel, and you melt the glass around the mandrel, poke it, prod it, squish it, add other coloured glass etc until you have something you are happy with, and then pop it in the kiln to re-stabilise the structure of the glass. Bit of cleaning etc and ta-daaaaa!
My studio is in my garden, in Buckinghamshire, England. It's a shed - a 'shedio' if you will. It's sweltering in the summer, and freezing in the winter, but I love it because I get to melt glass all day!
I live in a little house with my husband and my two little Jack Russels, Dexter and Annie, and many many fish - I have several fishtanks. We sadly lost my Harry cat (pictured) back in February 2014. Harry cat was diagnosed with diabetes in October 2012, and this meant regular monitoring, close regimentation of his diet and twice daily injections at the same time each day. I've blogged this extensively so that anyone else who is faced with this is better armed with information than I was at the beginning!
Dexter and Annie are black and tan jack russels. They keep me busy as they are still youngsters, and I take them on a nice long walk through the fields opposite the house straight after my torch sessions.
I've always loved glass. I still get that 'catch' in the back of my throat and the hairs standing up on the back of my head when I stand in front of gorgeous stained glass windows, and I still collect glass stirrers and those little glass sweeties and characters - the latest being from Spain and from Prague! But I didn't connect the dots to glass work until after I'd been silversmithing for a few years. I love diy, and power tools and crafts, and silversmithing ticked all of those kind of boxes for me. Then someone introduced me to Artisan beads and life was never the same! I took a days lesson in Feb 2011 and got my setup in March, and here I am.
My style and influences are generally quite natural. I love colour and I love tactile things so I always seem to make beads with elements that you want to touch or stroke. My favourite bead-making activity is sculptural, where I can manipulate and poke and prod, add different elements like murine and cane that I also love to make, and use gravity to get what I want.
My love of animals has come from spending a lot of my time in rural Normandy, France. I have friends and family there and consider myself to have been half brought up over there. I adore chickens and all their beautiful colours, and have spent many a cold winter morning and evening rounding up the cows and milking. All animals have their own little personalities and that's something I definitely try to infuse into my beads - although it's difficult in such a small area with a medium that you can't touch with your fingers. I love the countryside and the outdoors and there is something about the fresh clean air in Normandy that rejuvenates me on my regular visits and brings me back to fresh ideas and designs for the beads.
I am also a Reiki healer and have many year's background in all kinds of alternative healing and spirituality. This is projected mainly through my lovely Goddesses, the positive meditative energy that they give me when creating them can only pass on to their new owner in a good way!
I also have some gothic influences still, I love skulls and vampires and all things dark. This doesn't regularly make much of an appearance in my bead making but sometimes you just have to go dark!
I don't just do lampworking though, you will see the odd other creative medium creeping in from time to time. I'm a total craft butterfly but Lampworking is the thing that has held my attention for the longest time, thanks in part to the total flexibility and scope and partly because it's just awesome!
