23 beads from The 30 Beads Club - this image represents most of the work from my daily habit of going in to the studio to make one bead per day. The very first bead is in the bottom left corner with the lime-green spots down the center, and the last is the round delft-blue bead in the top right corner. Some of them are wonky, some I am downright proud of. All of them exhibit practice from what we covered in class: disc shaped beads, round beads, spacer beads and bicones; dots, stringer, twisted cane and raked decoration.
The 30 Beads Club was an idea I gleaned from the
Kristina Logan weekend workshop I attended in May. Seeing how glasswork is a hobby of mine rather than a full-time pursuit - and unlike all of the other participants in the workshop, my studio is located off-site rather than within my home - I had asked her thoughts on working within this medium part time and about the hardships of progressing when one doesn't have the ability to both work at will for an extended time nor light up the torch for a brief period before heading off to bed. She kindly suggested to me that I try to get into the studio and just make one bead a day. That's it that's all - just one bead. The idea behind this was that I would be working in an incremental fashion, and not forcing myself to try and make a full set of beads everytime I sat down, nor even a matched pair. Just focus on the one bead and get it right. Well, I have to say that this idea took flight with me... While I am out of town most weekends, I have been fairly religious about making it into the studio on a daily basis during the week, and my work has taken on an entirely new direction which I am rather pleased with.
I've made some new jewellery designs with the some of beads you see here and hope to photograph and post on this site shortly. For the time being, I still aim to nurture my daily habit of dropping in to the studio to make one single, solitary bead while continuing to push forward and experiment. I also aim to eventually get this photography thing downpat - there is a certain trick to photographing small glass objects to be sure! For the time being, natural lighting from the window and a white plate as my backdrop will have to suffice.
Oh, and if Kristina is ever giving a workshop near you, I highly suggest you take it - she is an incredibly inspirational and talented teacher who gives her students her all!
