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Tips, Techniques, and Questions -- Technical questions or tips

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  #1  
Old 2011-02-11, 12:50pm
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Fine Folly Glassworks Fine Folly Glassworks is offline
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Default QUESTION - How Did YOU Get Started?

Everyone has a unique story of how they got into this wondrous artform... what is YOUR story and how did you get started? What was your path once you caught fire?

I bet a lot of us would love to hear how others got launched and proceeded to where they are now. And how about posting pics of some of your favorite pieces too?
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  #2  
Old 2011-02-11, 1:12pm
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Charli! Charli! is offline
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I started because I was making polymer clay critters, and I was too broke to afford nice glass eyes. Thought I could make lots myself by buying a lampwork setup (HH) and making excess glass eyes for sale! Four years later, I've spent a fortune, and have never yet made any glass eyes. I also still have a mountain of polymer clay that I haven't touched in years!

I've continued to make beads because of the allure of the flame! I don't really sell anything (I make the odd thing that friends buy to give to other friends), but I make a lot of presents for people!
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  #3  
Old 2011-02-11, 1:20pm
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I started because I was in love with large fusing projects. I had been stalking the glass shop for a while, but since I was saving $$ for my soon to arrive son, I couldn't afford the kiln I wanted. My momma bought me the beginning lampworking set for my birthday in '06. I loved it, and managed to get my large kiln about 6 months later. It is a little over the top for bead annealing, but it works.
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  #4  
Old 2011-02-11, 2:42pm
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I was watching a craft show - Carol Duval I think or That's Clever! and they had a lampworker on there. I thought it looked intriging. When I went to Hobby Lobby to get supplies for something else I ran accross their beginning bead making kit on sale and thought if that wasn't a sign I didn't know what was so I bought it. Been hooked ever since!
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  #5  
Old 2011-02-11, 2:57pm
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Since I was about 7 I have wanted to do this! Not make bead nessarily but work with a torch and glass. My grandpa took me to disney about 11 times before he died.......I LOVED watching the men work there and each time I would buy one of their glass creatures to take home for my nana. I have them all now since she has alsheimers but she gave them to me before it got bad so she knows I have them
It wasn't till I was like 38 before seeing it again in kentucky at the glass school, we went on a tour there. They talked about classes there and thats when it made me realize that maybe I could do it. I started searching the internet and found out about the glass show in vegas and at 41 we went there and I bought a kit at the show. I got it from heritage glass and they showed me how to make a round bead and then gave me a try........I've been torching since the day I got back home. Never had a class but maybe someday!! I have a list of teachers I'd LOVE to learn from
I love every second of being on the torch and get on as much as possible!!
I LOVE bright colors so this is mostly what I do.....I occasionally stray but thats not too often LOL
Sue
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  #6  
Old 2011-02-11, 4:15pm
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Well, where to begin. I first got into glass when I was 15. I was very fortunate to have known someone that knew someone. I knew the GM for Frabel Glass in Atlanta. I never even heard of lampwork. He was telling me that they needed to hire a glassblower. I asked what you needed to know. He said, nothing. He set it up for me to "try out". They asked me to try a couple of things, and hired me. They said I was a natural. I worked there for couple of years, then moved away and didn't know anyone that did this type of glass, so I tried my hand at neon for a year or so. I finally ended up getting into construction and have been doing that every since. I'm 43 now. I recently had to have brain surgery to remove an AVM. (if you want to know more about that, there is a link in my signature). So last year, while I was between operations and couldn't work, I ended up getting a torch and meeting some of the best people I have ever known right here on LE. I started watching youtube videos and bought a few tutorials. I am constantly learning more and more. I don't ever think I'll be a famous artist, but i really love to create things with glass. I'll add a couple of things that I really liked. Pardon the pics. That is still on my list of things that need work. Thanks for looking and I really look forward to growing in this art with everyone.
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  #7  
Old 2011-02-11, 5:10pm
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I worked at a college that had a furnace glassblowing program and finally got up the nerve to take a few classes. I loved the glass but hated the intense heat. When I signed up for a borosilicate sculpture lampworking class the other furnace workers teased me that I was going to be a beadmaker. I didn't want to be a beadmaker-what jerks!! I went to Salem Community College to study glass there and one summer I took a beadmaking class-I was HOOKED!! I have tried just about every form of glass and I just love making beads. I love the community and support LE provides and I love the accessibility of beads. I am proud to be a beadmaker-screw those furnace guys!!
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  #8  
Old 2011-02-11, 7:06pm
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Back in the late 80s I was making beads with Fimo. I read in a jewelry magazine about making beads using a plumber's torch, coat hanger wire dipped in kiln wash, and shards of stained glass. Hooked! I quit for several years because of family circumstances taking up too much time and energy, but eventually got back into it.
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  #9  
Old 2011-02-11, 7:12pm
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First I made celtic inspired jewelry and my friend was making handbags. We decided to pool our talents and she would sew handbags and I would embellish them with beads and beaded straps, etc. Before long, there were fabric patterns and designs that I wanted to match, but couldn't find the beads I wanted. Decided to look into making my own.

Bought the set-up to make beads....everything...and in two weeks found out I was pregnant. Not knowing much at the time I opted not to lampwork until after my baby was born. I read and studied everything I could get hands on for 11 months.

Lit the torch, made a few beads and realized it was going to take a long time to make beads good enough to fill the need I had. It no longer mattered. I was so hooked on glass that I dropped both the jewelry and the handbags and the rest is history.

Here I am. 7 years later.
~~Mary
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  #10  
Old 2011-02-11, 10:13pm
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I studied lampwork with books, videos, and the Wetcanvas forum for a whole year before I first lit up the Hothead. That was in 2002, so a year later in July 2003 I lit that fire and became hooked. I discovered lampwork in a Bead and Button issue and then bought many artisan sets and focals on ebay long before I made my own. I had deep pockets then, and got into many bidding wars! But then found it worth it every time if I was the lucky one that won.
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  #11  
Old 2011-02-11, 11:47pm
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I have a good friend who does glass, beads mostly, and is an accomplished artist in several diciplines. He is also one of this areas authorities on fly fishing and has a 'classic' book out on the subject. I was always good at drawing and visualizing but never put it to artistic persuits. One day my friend invited me to go with him to Mike Frantz's shop and he would show me several places along the route that are good salmon fishing spots. Somehow I still haven't made it back there to fish While at Frantz's shop I'm wandering around sort of bored while he gathers up the supplies he came for. Bingo! I spot a Mike's collection showcase of glass work, particulaarly a group of glass fish that are just mind blowing and lifelike. "I gotta do this!". A couple hundred dollars, a hothead, and bead release later we are headed home and I'm questioning my friend like he was a used car salesman. I did beads on the HH for several months and then found a used 8M on eBay complete with regulators and hoses. About that time I tried a few marbles and that has been my major focus since. I became good friends with Momka, took several classes at her shop/studio from Sabina, Kobuki, and others and attended her early open houses where I met a lot of the NW glass artists. A couple years later I attended AGI two years in a row where I learned a tremendous amount and met some great people.
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  #12  
Old 2011-02-12, 12:30am
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What a neat thread!

Well, my story is kind of a long one...I'll give the short version here so as not to put y'all to sleep!

I've long been fascinated with glass! Much like Sue (Glassymom) said above, ever since I was a child I gazed longingly at the glass blowers at Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm and Olvera Street in the heart of Los Angeles. I would always be so excited to go to those places...but not to play the games or ride the rides! Just to watch the glass blowers...! As much as I loved it, I never thought it was anything I could "DO".

Then at the age of 45, I was at my local bead store searching (but not finding) some beads for a project I was working on. I bought the July-August 2005 issue of "Step by Step Beads" that featured Kim Fields darling tutorial to make her "Bumble Beadz" - bumble "bees" of course! I thought they were the cutest thing in the world and was determined to find a way to try it! It happened that this bead store offered "beginner" classes in lampworking (which sadly they no longer do... ) and in late 2006 I took the one and only class I've ever had with an instructor by the name of Dee Danzinger.

It was a 4 hour class; the first 2 1/2 hours reviewed safety, theory, COE, how to light the torch, etc. Then, at last, it was "lab" time. We were instructed how to create a simple round bead and we all set to it. I made my first round in 3 minutes, added dots, and since I'd read Kim's Tutorial about 1000 times before that class, I tried making my first bumble bead. Here's a pic of them both; the date stamp is 2007 since that's when I got my first REAL camera! :



I've had many challenges since then but have found some of my greatest encouragement, support, kindness and guidance right here on LE - sometimes from people who's faces I do not know and whom I may never meet...but they have become like beloved family to me! It is for this I give back as much as I can, when I can...

Finding glass and learning to work with it - as well as the love of my two children and my LE friends - gave me the courage to become a sober living person after years and years of self abuse; I am proud to say I'm now nearly 4 years "clean", and will NEVER go back to that life style again...EVER!

I find glass gives me such joy...it's my reason to wake up every day, to believe that things only dreamed of as a child could truly become a reality, and that with patience, practice and self-love anything is possible!

Here is a photo (which you guys have probably already seen too many times! ) of one of my best accomplishments to date...my "Divine Image of Jesus" murrini. I am not a religious person, per se, but I have to believe that working with glass has helped me immensely in becoming a more "spiritual", caring person!



I don't get to torch as much as I'd like...average about 5-6 hours per week if I'm super lucky, and I'm about 4 1/2 years into it. I can only hope my eyesight and nerves hold out...as I plan on doing this til the day I die!
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  #13  
Old 2011-02-12, 5:45am
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I've always been fascinated with what glass does to light, and with all things molten and glowing. Part of that is most likely due to the fact that both my Grandparents and my Parents collected art glass. Mostly I love marbles, especially ones that you can look deep into and see a world that exists no where else. I started lampworking in August of 2010, partly as a creative outlet and partly as plan to provide some extra cash when I retire. Currently I torch about 2-3 hours a week, mostly on weekends first thing in the morning.
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  #14  
Old 2011-02-12, 6:52am
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Pia Kaven Pia Kaven is offline
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I was born in a small glass town in Finland, and my father and grandmother both worked in a glass factory. The factory was closed down a looong time ago, and I never really got to learn much about the glass blowing. Years and years later when I got burned out on nursing career, I decided to go to art school glass blowing as my major. I was excited to finally learn about glass blowing. Well while in glass blowing school, part of the program was to work in glass business for a 6 month period. Half of that time I worked in my artist friends studio hot shop, and the other half I spent in England, where this sweet lady had promised to teach me how to make beads. Lampworking was something I had never seen, nor had I much heard of it, but just browsing glass pages online just saw some gorgeous beads, and knew I needed to learn how to do that.
That was almost 9 years ago, and even though there has been some long breaks, I never for a second thought that I was done! I still plan on getting back to glass blowing, but that doesnt mean dropping the lampworking, no way!
Especially now that I have found the LE, and all the awesome peeps here, I feel like I have some support and amazing network of people to share my interest with, this is the most inspiring and motivating community!
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Old 2011-02-12, 5:31pm
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Always loved glass. Always loved beads. I've been making (assembling) jewellery on and off for the last 20-odd years. I've always had a love of rough Indian (subcontinental Indian, that is) glass beads, as well as wires and metals. I'm a bit of a hippie at heart, so I suppose it comes as no real revelation, really

However, actually getting to make my own beads came only recently. I lurked on here for months and months before being reminded that life is too damn short for dreams. Major events in recent years taught me that to wait for the 'right time' is to waste your life completely. So, with a bit of encouragement ('Hey, did you know that such-and-such has beginner kits for only $this much?'), I was away.
I don't have much time to do much, but glass still invades my sleeping and waking moments
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  #16  
Old 2011-02-12, 5:43pm
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I've always loved glass. Several years ago, I lost a child (my daughter was born too early and didn't make it). I was so absorbed in grief that I honestly thought I would die. In an attempt to try to lift me out of my depression, my husband encouraged me to register for a weekend class that focused on small boro sculpture. That was the beginning of my love affair with glass. Within a year, I had my own HH set up in the garage.
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  #17  
Old 2011-02-12, 7:36pm
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In college, in my nutrition class, I had a study buddy. One day, she wore this beautiful watch/bracelet made out of lampwork. I wanted to buy one but when she said she got it at discount of $180 because she was friends with her, my mouth hit the floor. There was no way I could afford that on a college budget. So I thought, I would make similar ones. I bought lampwork from a few different people. I never got "that" look. So then I was curious how the beads were made. I went to Barnes and Nobles and looked for a book. That book happened to be Cindy Jenkin's. From there I searched where to find the equipment. I found a local art studio who carried a kit with hot head for their beadmaking classes. The classes plus the kit would have been too much money. So I bought the kit and with my book I took off. A few years later I took an intermediate lampworking class at that art studio and I perfected the things that just couldn't be explained in a book. ....years later... it would have been a helluva lot cheaper to buy that bracelet!
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  #18  
Old 2011-02-12, 8:00pm
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I love hearing everyone's stories. Here's mine: Starting with stained glass in 2000 to get my mind off of the exchange student that had gone home began my glass addiction. Needless to say we had become extremely attached and I was truly sick with broken heart. Stained glass kept me busy.

The next step was a little underhanded. My husband didn't want to go to my 25th class reunion...well, I told him that we didn't have to go but it was going to cost him. In order to get out of that class reunion he needed to buy me a bead making kit. The next day we drove to Delpi. ;o) I took one class after playing with it on my own, other than that I'm learning from the kind people here.

Finally I got my feet wet in fusing when my husband (who likes to spoil me) suggested that he buy me a kiln so that I could make accent tiles for the house we were building. We used stone tiles and then I made brightly colored 2" and 4" tiles to ramdomly mix in. I stamped the glass prior to fusing with an embossing medium and dusted with pixie dust. Some of the tiles have flowers, the word, "Beleive" and other things that we like. I have to say that I love my kitchen. For the most part I use this small kiln for batch annealling my beads. Every once in a while I'll take my broken beads and make cabs out of them or do a little fusing. Not much though.

I was able to work with a glass blower for a day and totally loved it but my one day will probably have to do. I have four pieces to show for it (all proudly on display).

Kristina you had a great idea with this thread !!!
Thanks again for sharing your stories everyone.
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  #19  
Old 2011-02-12, 10:28pm
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I was in Payson Arizona, at the Pizza Hut! lol I had started to make jewelry with my friend and I loved looking at the Bead magazines. While waiting for our pizza I was looking at my magazine and I ran across an article about a bead artist. I showed it to my husband and was like omg how cool is that, I was dreamy over the idea that people actually made beads, wow! A few months later I found out there were classes locally and I signed up! I loved it right away! My poor friend went with me but she ended up being terrified of the torch. It's okay, she was much better at making jewelry than I.
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Old 2011-02-12, 11:23pm
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I was a beader, just stringing storebought beads to make bracelets and necklaces. I was always on the hunt for a focal piece for my necklaces. The bead stores were always so limiting. And back then, I had never even seen lampwork beads for sale in the bead stores. I didn't even know they existed, really. Then a friend at work showed me some glass beads she had made. I thought they were amazing! I said "how on earth!?!?!" Then I said, I have to learn that. She came over that week, brought her hothead and everything, and taught me the basics. I'm forever grateful. She has since stopped making beads herself, she is always on to something new. But she always asks to see my stuff and has bought a few pieces from me. =)

I love everyone's stories! I see a lot of people saying they dream about glass. Me too!
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  #21  
Old 2011-02-13, 1:21am
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Like many have already said, when I was young, on a school fieldtrip to Jamestown, I was so taken with the glass blower that the teacher had to lead me away so we wouldn't miss the bus! I would have "one more minute"d us into a very long walk!
Later, the glass bug got me with stained glass. Had a lovely time with that for quite a while, but somehow that wasn't quite "it" either.
Fast forward to about 10 or 12 years ago, and my supportive hubby bought me the much coveted (but alas a bit too expensive) Glass Bead Making kit with the HH torch, book by Cindy Jenkins, and very basic array of stuff to start. Add MAPP gas and you were in business! It was possibly my favorite Christmas present ever!
With a new baby, it was hard to find time to really get into it like I wanted, but I would poke at it off and on for several years.
I live in a very rural area, and until recently had not even heard of any place to take a class, so I was completely self taught (such as it was!) Then one day my boss told me she had found a gal who would come to us and teach a class on glass bead making, and would I be interested in attending? I jumped at the chance, and of the group of us that took the class with Karen Stavert, I am the only one still melting glass. I enjoyed that class, and learned that it is OK to make beads bigger than an M&M! Up until then, I had always made tiny beads so they would not crack in the cooling process.
My next big issue to overcome was making the comittment to purchase a kiln. Kilns are expensive, and I am so apt to hop from thing to thing, I was afraid to lay out the $$$ and not get the use of it. Well, a sudden loss in my life opened my eyes to how quickly things change. I made the leap, bought a kiln, and have been delighted to seriously play with the glass for the last two years.
I am a jewelry artist by trade, and recently have felt confident enough to put some of my glass beads into earrings for sale, and have been delighted and grateful with the reception. It somehow feels more "real" to offer beads I've made, and every time someone likes what I've done, it affirms that I have stepped in the right direction.
I have always felt the path of an artist is a different journey than most, and I have made many false starts and taken strange detours, but always seem to come back to the glass. This is a great topic, and it feels good to see I'm not the only one who felt mesmerized by the process from an early age!
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  #22  
Old 2011-02-13, 3:53am
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Way back, when I was attending the MD Institute College of Art, my mother would not allow me to intern with Dale Chihuly. I've harbored a desire to work with glass ever since. Two years ago, a friend began treatment for hep B and needed something to obsess over besides her health. We decided to teach ourselves how to make beads. Now I'm hooked and she's healthy!
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Old 2011-02-13, 2:44pm
LemonwoodStudio LemonwoodStudio is offline
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I got started last March ... because my daughter broke her arm 2 weeks before we were due to go on a skiing holiday in Panorama, BC, we decided to go anyway as she could still have fun in the snow .... So whilst the other 2 kids were off doing ski classes each morning either my hubby or I had to stay with my eldest. So one morning when it was my day 'off' I decided to check out the little glass hut at the bottom of the ski slope (Bavin Glass), signed up for a class and have never looked back. I am TOTALLY addicted!
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Old 2011-02-13, 5:27pm
Adrian Goertz Adrian Goertz is offline
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I just had a child and quit social work. there was a festival downtown and an artist from another town was showing her jewelry with her lampwork beads. i had never seen anything like it. i feel in love with her bracelets but her prices where astronomical.

after i left her booth, i ran across an older couple demonstating for the city making glass beads. i stood in front of their booth for two hours asking any and all questions i could think of. he mentioned that his wife gives a four hour class for $100. first 2 hours was spent on safety, then 2 hours on torch. i was so afraid!

following month for my b-day my hubby purchased a complete set-up with bead kiln! every bead i made was given away and hubby thought i needed to charge minimum fee to purchase more glass. spent 6 hrs average on torch first few months and was ready to do shows and be in galleries. it's been six years and i have not looked back. i love this art, it is who i have become.
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  #25  
Old 2011-02-13, 5:48pm
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PerfectDeb PerfectDeb is offline
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i'm a chef by trade but my family business has been jewellery for at least 40 years. i started working when i was 15 or so for my sister and BIL making simple little drop earrings that they sold by the thousands, real sweatshop stuff - to this day i can make 10 pairs of earrings all at once in about 3 min!

when i retired from being a chef (wrecked my feet) i started working for my BIL, my sister had died about the same time and he was drowning trying to run the business on his own, i ran the business for 7 years for shit pay just to get him going again, i did all the importing and travelled regularly to China - it was there that i first came across lampwork beads in the markets. i found i really loved buying components and loved the bead markets so i decided to quit my job and open my own business as an importer of beads and jewellery, i did this for about 5 years, good business, but i found that what really facinated me was the lampwork beads.

hunting down the info for lampworking over here wasnt as simple as in the US, i finally found LE and the Aussie GBM site, bought Corina's book, devoured that for about 6 months and finally bought a torch and glass, that was 2 years ago
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  #26  
Old 2011-02-13, 5:51pm
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patienthand patienthand is offline
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I was 18, working as a cocktail waitress and trying to live on my own and go to college. Then I was just cocktailing and felt like I was getting sucked down a sewer. IN highschool I had a study hall in a chem class and we got to play with the bunsen burners and pipettes, I got fascinated with melting glass then.

So, I was in the mall one day and saw a kiosk with a glassblower, decided I wanted to do that as a job and stayed there all day every day for a week pestering the shit out of them. I finally got sent over to the warehouse/factory building and started working doing soft glass blown swans. I was the beak and tail maker, then graduated to popping holes in the backs, then to bodies and last necks, along the way I learned ornaments and vases and bells etc on my own time. that shop closed and I went to apprentice under Gene Boutz in florida.

Then abck home to virginia and I learned neon signs, and a few years later worked in alab learning lab glass till that closed, back to neon again, but i always had my hand in the ornamental glass end of things. Went to Holland and lived there a year teaching the american style of neon, came home got in the wreck, and bought a furnace. Still doing neon between surgeries and rehabbing.

Eventually had to stop doing glass completely for 7 years, sold the furnaces and neon equipment but kept my other torches. Now I do mostly beads because its more body friendly for me. 34 years and I am still hopelessly helplessly addicted, I now have a little lathe and am branching back out into blown work again,....and toying with building a table top gloryhole
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  #27  
Old 2011-02-14, 10:34am
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bshelle bshelle is offline
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Being the big jewelry, color, and 'making things' enthusiast that I am, the idea of making my own beads was very intriguing for some time. I had seen the glassblowers at Cedar Point growing up and thought it was pretty darn cool.

Fast foward....

It was 2007, I was looking for something to do during Spring Break. I was a first year grad student with a little money burning in my pocket. I had seen Hobby Lobby's glass bead making kit there before, and I had a 40% off coupon, so I bought it. I stopped at Home Depot for some Mapp gas on the way home. I got set up, and with no instructions other than "dip mandrel, allow dry, wrap glass, put in fiber blanket" I made these!



I think they are hilarious! But hey, that's a puckered hole in the green one! Beginner's luck.
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  #28  
Old 2011-03-11, 11:41am
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choschiba choschiba is offline
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I found Kirima's website by accident. Saw her incredible beads and thought THIS IS IT!!
When I finally went to her studio to take my first lesson a was so nervous like I haven't been for years!! After I had about 4 lessons I decided to buy the whole equipment to set up a small studio in my flat. I'm soo happy.

Last edited by choschiba; 2011-03-11 at 3:31pm.
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  #29  
Old 2011-11-18, 2:20am
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AVTrout AVTrout is offline
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I had wanted to go to art school when I was in high school, but was pushed into our family business of senior health care. I went to nursing school and obtained my LPN license. After about 6 months of working as a nurse I decided it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do forever. I was 20 years old and I was already a shift charge nurse (nepotism). I approached my father about dropping down in my hours so I could go back to school. I had decided I wanted to try to pursue a degree in art so that I could become a teacher. He said no. Actually, he said a lot more than just no! So, I settled in for the long haul and went back to work the next day. During that time I worked in every aspect of the business: nursing, housekeeping, dietary, administration. I got married and we had two boys rather close together (20 months apart). For the rest of my 20's I helped raise my husbands 2 daughters and was a mommy to 2 active little boys and worked full-time. I didn't have time for any hobbies, not even time to enjoy my lifelong love of reading.

At the age of 30 I was burnt out and couldn't stand working with/for my sister (she was my boss even though I was her equal partner). I quit and started working at another one of our family business, selling durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, scooters and the like. My husband was the only employee and had already been running the business for 3 years. Early in this phase of my life I discovered jewelry design. I've always been craftsy and although I don't remember exactly how or why, I got some tools and components and began playing around in the evenings after we put the boys to bed. Eventually I discovered lampwork beads on ebay. I bought many sets and made them into beautiful jewelry, however, I always had a price limit set on how much I'd spend....because some of those lampwork sets sold for over $100! Back then it seemed almost ridiculous to me, although now I jealously wish I was the one who had created them. I used to think, "if all these different people can make these beautiful beads, it can't be that hard!"

I spent countless hours looking online for information. I discovered a woman who taught private classes at her home (Sandy - can't remember the last name) and I took one. I took to it right away and made a few beads, one of them I still wear as a necklace to this day. I remember sitting beside her and thinking that I was so comfortable, though I thought I'd be scared to be that close to a torch. I found out that Wale Apparatus was close'ish to our hometown, and in 2007 for my birthday, my husband took me to Wale. I bought a bunch of stuff including a Carlisle Mini CC, and I had previously bought a Paragon Bluebird from Clay King (online).

We spent many evenings and weekends working in our basement trying to get the ventilation system correct, but I still had a fuzzy feeling after torching, so I stopped altogether. I found a bead shop that was close by and offered torch time, and sometimes I'd go there and spend some time torching. Their version of ventilation was to prop the side door open, and one Saturday afternoon after torching for 2 hours, I was so out of it that I drove away not even knowing which way my house was located. I quit going there immediately. And instead, every now and then I'd traipse down the basement stairs and stand staring at all my glass goodies. That I couldn't use. Finally, about 2 1/2 years ago I decided - this is it! I told my hubby I was moving to the garage. It took us about 3 or so months to set-up the ventilation in the garage and get my stuff moved. With 2 big garage doors thrown open, make-up air was no longer a problem, and I was torching as much as I could on the weekends.

During that time my husband and I worked together selling medical equipment. In spring of 2010 we decided that we wanted out. Medicare was killing us with no reimbursements, the bills were outrageous and every month I'd have to borrow money from Dad just to pay our payroll. We decided to move to Florida. We helped my Dad sell the business, we sold our house and moved.....to Hawaii! We had changed our minds just 7 months before the move, but it was the best thing we ever did (aside from having our boys, that is).

I packed up my glass stuff and when we got to Hawaii, we unpacked everything and I was back to torching. Because I'm now a stay-at-home mom, I have much more time. I'm fortunate to be able to spend 4-6 hours daily at my torch. Because I'd been in it and out of it and back into it, I had forgotten many skills. I've been enjoying re-learning old and learning new techniques and skills. I love love love working with glass!
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Old 2011-11-18, 6:13am
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Deb L Deb L is offline
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I had always wanted to take a stained glass course. Every time I signed up at our local community college the class was cancelled due to not enough people. When we purchased our 1850's Federal-style farmhouse (and farm) it was perfect for stained glass. I called all over and finally found a real glass store that gave classes. I made my first window and was hooked.

I continued making windows for many years. Every time my glass supply catalog would come I would drool over all the glass. At this point fusing was really beginning to take off again. I was lured in and joined the crowd. Melting glass was fun! There is something special about designing a bowl, making the components and fusing the project. Opening the kiln was like Christmas...and sometimes Halloween

One day I decided I wanted to make some twisties like I had seen once in that glass catalog for a fusing glass collaboration on the warm glass board. I bought a hothead torch and tried my hand with some glass strips I cut. It took a while but I made some usable twisties for a project. While they weren't great, they did allow me to make my vision of a fire. http://glassquilt.wordpress.com/deb-lewis/ and http://glassquilt.wordpress.com/

I was hooked! On my next fused glass order I bought a few real rods of glass in my coe thinking that if I didn't like beads I'd just nip them into dots for bowls. Oooh, making beads is addictive, even if I'm not very good at it! Thanks to many of you I am learning every day and enjoying lampworking.

I'm beginning to think I have an addictive personality
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