I'd rather be torching though, as creating is one of the greatest joys in my life. I wrote a post about it on the blog of the Etsy Team I am a member of, the Creative Scandinavians. Go here to read it.
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As for the lampworking - Glass beads first caught my interest in the summer of 2006. Somebody in the ATC group I used to frequent (the very best one for handpainted/drawn ATCs and friendly chatting: FineArtsATC ) posted a link to Wetcanvas.com I went to check it out, and noticed a glass section. Although I had never worked in glass personally, I have always loved the material and the proces of glass blowing. I took a look around, and was surprised to see it was all beads.
I spend days looking around, following peoples links, checking out ebay and generally enjoying this newfound wealth of treasures. It slowly dawned upon me that these artists were people like me, with families and jobs and other responsibilities, who were making these incredible and often intricate beauties in their own homes!
The thought that one could work in hot glass at home, and not need a million $ workshop + assistants and years and years of training, was a revelation to me. I looked and searched some more, and finally found a weekend course in lampworking, quite close to my home. I had to wait about 6 months, so my newborn baby would be old enough to eat proper food and not starve when I went away for 2 whole days. I think I were very patient, and the grin on my face as I made that first simple spacer bead was worth all the waiting in the world.
We were 8 on the course, and for two days we made beads. Round ones, square ones, dotted ones, they even taught us to make a tiger bead with our own twisties, which I thought was very advanced. In short - I had a blast :)
At the end of the course I ordered the starter kit of tools and equipment, and when it finally arrived, I set up a workbench in our basement. This was february 2007 and I have been torching ever since.
Life is good :)
P~
1 comment:
Very pleased to meet you!
I'm a working mom, too. We are all amazing and fortunate to be able to do all we do (albeit, a little crazed at times).
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