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Me,
Me, Me it's all
ABOUT
ME!
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PART
3- The beginning of the end!
Well
for the past few years I have been happliy working as a
self employed artist, both making and selling beads and
doing the odd bit of work at Tuffnell Glass, until one day
just over a year ago when I realised I had become a full
time worker at Tuffnell's without even realising it. The
solution was to stop trying to sell my beads to pay the
bills and instead use my glassy knowledge to earn a wage....
YES a real live wage for doing something that I absolutly
love! How could I resist?? I couldn't! So these days I work
as a glassy type expert with the other glassy peeps at Tuffnell
Glass. I spend lots of time advising lampwork bead makers
on all things glass and tools and of course teaching bead
making. If that doesn't sound like a dream come true for
me then take a look at this.......
A brand new teaching studio.....Look at it! A thing of beauty
:)
So What about Bead
Envy? hmm that I don't know yet......watch this space for
part 4
PART
2 - On to pastures new
I
had fun at the Stained Glass Centre chatting with visitors
and demonstrating how to make beads but I found that I just
didn't get enough torch time in. So I've now moved on to
a shiny new studio and work with the guys at Tuffnell Glass.
Its really great to work with other Lampworkers with the
same drive and enthusiasm as me and of course I've now got
lots of time on my hands to design and develop what I love
best, yep you guessed it.......CRITTERS!
Here's
a few pictures of my new studio
PART
1-
So how did I become interested in bead making?
I worked at my Mum-in-laws Stained Glass Centre, making
Stained glass panels, Tiffany lamps and fused pieces and
I had been making Jewellery as a hobby for over 14 years.
In the summer of 2003 health and safety regulations made
workshop tours out of the question, without some major restructuring,
tourists to our centre would no longer be able to see stained
glass been made.
What we needed was something glass related that could be
made in a small corner of our exhibition room, but what?
Glass blowing? No, this would
require too much space.
Fusing?
Not much to demonstrate, as once it’s in the kiln
you can’t see what’s going on.
Lampworking?
Perfect, combine my jewellery making hobby with my love
of glass.
I went along to see
Teresa and Martin at Tuffnell Glass to see how it was done.
On that day my love for melting glass was born, I was hooked!
I bought a Hot Head Torch starter kit and rushed home to
make blobs of glass (well they certainly couldn't be classed
as beads) on my kitchen table.
I soon upgraded to a larger torch, as I knew this was what
I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
With lots and lots
of practice I started to improve, but I found round beads
boring to make and wanted to try something different. I
had a play around and ‘Peter the Puffin’ was
born, along with my love of all things sculptural.
Sure they were fun to make, but who would buy them? So I
carried on making beads with the odd animal or alien bead
thrown in, until two friends (Su Poole and Emma Ralph -
thanks guys) managed to convince me to take my sculptural
beads seriously. How? They showed me the wonderful work
of Sharon Peters. Wow!! Sharon’s work was amazing
and it really inspired me to do my own thing. After all
she made quirky sculptural beads too and more importantly,
she was making a living out of them.
That was all I needed to kick start my new obsession, Critters!
I have made all sorts
of critters from Cats, dogs and birds and fish to Aliens
and Special monsters designed and commissioned by my son
and his friends.
