♥ New Year, New Skills!

Another year has pretty much come and gone, and I am looking forward to expanding my education in glassworking over the upcoming 365 days. Starting in January, I will be taking a weekly workshop in glass fusing at a local stained-glass shop. I am excited to try my hand at working with glass in an entirely new direction, and am certain that my flameworking will be both influential as well as influenced by the experience. The first project I will be undertaking will be to make myself a set of funky ‘n’ functional glass coasters since I so desperately need some and it’s quite the trick to find any that suit my sense of style and design... Necessity is often the mother of creation when you are a true DIY grrrl, and this certainly holds true in my case!

The second endeavour into expanding my skill-set is a week-long class in boroscilicate marble-making taught by Christopher Rice at the Corning Museum of Glass. I was fortunate enough to take a trip out to visit the CMoG this past summer to browse their extensive collection of art glass as well as learn of their world-class education facilities - even more fortunately, I have been accepted into Chris’ boroscilicate marble course this winter! You can be sure that I will be sharing the results of both the marble-making and glass fusing classes as I progress thru them.

Other than that, I’ve spent my holidays sketching out some ideas of what I would like to experiment with once I return to the torch in my spare time in the new year, as well as updating my online sketchbook to share that process - there can often be some interesting twists and turns along the path of bringing a hand-drawn image into the sculptural reality of the third dimension, so be sure to check back as I update with the newest postings.

Finally, as I have been enjoying this winter wonderland rather than working in the studio, I will leave you with an image from this past summer’s trip to the CMoG while I go back to enjoying a glass of wine by the fireplace and wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2010!

♥ Successes & Failures

Glass is a fickle medium.

Some days you can do no wrong and other days you can't buy the most simple of success in even forming a round bead for love or money. Yesterday was one of those days.

So rather than dwell on having spend the beautiful afternoon indoors behind a torch to the tune of not having anything to show for it, I decided to post some of my past successes that I haven't shared here before... Feast your eyes on my latest earring designs!





The Mod Earrings feature my handmade glass, sterling silver, a small round petrified wood bead, and tiger ebony wood frame. The St.Basil Earrings (so-called as the beads remind me of the onion domes of St.Basil's Catherdral in Moscow) feature my handmade glass beads, sterling silver and a Swarovski crystal. The crystal can be omitted should one prefer a more simple earring with less dangle.

While I currently have only the Mod Earrings up for sale (the St.Basil's have already been bought, sorry!) I will be in the studio making some more in the coming weeks. Custom colour requests are welcome, so please drop me an email if you'd like to order a pair for yourself or as a gift... Each set sells for $30, and can be shipped for an additional $5 or picked-up if you are local to Toronto.

♥ Autumn Amber Bead Set

Inspired by the beautiful fall colours after an afternoon wander thru the sunny woodlands along the Niagara Escarpment, these amber and ivory beads are sure to keep the spirit of a sparkling clear autumn day alive long after the leaves have all fallen to the ground and the snow flies. These beads are currently available in my Etsy Shop.

♥ Art Show

My hearts series of jewellery is on display along with some paintings from other artists-in-residence from Walnut Studios at The Public Butter for the next month, so feel free to drop by and have a look!

♥ Colour Shifting Barrel Beads

Just a quick snapshot of some barrel beads made with colour shifting and metallic glass that were recently removed from the kiln. I'm looking forward to experimenting some more with this shape and technique. Both beads are currently available in my Etsy Shop.

♥ Dutch Delft Blue

These beads whose colour was inspired by the famous Dutch delft blue pottery have been described as being reminiscent of sea creatures by those who have handled them. I have to agree that the patterns, linework and dots do remind me of the sea urchin shells we find washed up along the beaches in Florida. This set of beads would look spectacular combined with either freshwater pearls or sparkling Swarovski crystals.



This is my first bead set on offer in my Etsy Shop that shows off some of the pattern work I've been exploring. It takes quite some time to build up the patterns and layers, I spend close to 20 minutes on each bead. I am very fond of this collection of beads, the colours are so pure and saturated, and they are as interesting to explore visually as they are with your fingertips, the raised dots giving them a nice textural aspect as well as catching the light for added sparkle.

♥ Dare I Say I've Tamed Luna?

I haven't seen too many artists working to great effect with Double Helix's Luna2 which is kind of surprising and not so surprising all at once. Luna2 is an expensive glass, costing $80 a pound and it takes quite a bit of time to figure out how to get the colours to develop. I've gone thru numerous experiments trying to get results that I am happy with, but when everything is just right the effects are quite stunning!



Named "Rainfall In Jupiter" this is the first set of beads made with Luna to be featured in my Etsy shop.

♥ Note To Self: Creativity Is Good For The Soul...

Sometimes when life gets really hectic, I forget just how beneficial the process of creation can be. Going in to the studio after a long day at werk can feel like a task rather than a pleasure, so during those times where I am feeling pressure in other aspects of my life, I can get into the habit of skipping my sessions at the torch.

The other night I finally made my way into the studio to work on a commission after about a month and a half away. Granted, I don't get into the studio much over the summer months, besides my space not having air conditioning - which can become unbearable when you factor in the heat of the torch and nearby kiln - I figure that these warm sunny months are better spent outside. Knowing that the cooler months will be spent happily torching away really gets me looking forward to the fall and winter. In the meantime tho, my productivity in regards to glass drops dramatically so I was fortunate that a custom order gave me the kick-in-the-ass that I needed to make it back to the workbench.

After I had completed the work for my client, I decided to mess around with a few colours and patterns and just have some fun. I was really pleased with the results - not only did I get a lovely bead out of the process, but at the end of the session I felt a certain clarity, peace and lightness that hasn't been present much in my life of late. Rather than feeling like a chore or yet another pressure to be dealt with, getting down and working on something I am passionate about elevated my mood considerably. Sounds simple, but this is something I really need to note for future reference.

And the bead (pictured above) I'm most happy with from the other night's experiments? I am currently enjoying simply wearing it around my neck on a silver chain as a reminder that creation is truly good for the soul.

♥ Photography Breakthrough!

I finally hit on a way to photograph my work and get a clean white background with minimal time and effort invested... Check out this quick mock-up:

Now to work on the lighting... It's really tough to capture the colour and ethereal quality of glass. So, while I am content with the cleaned-up background in this image, the actual photo itself still has a long way to go before I will be quite happy with it. Baby steps!

♥ 23 Beads

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!