Still Under Water!

Glass is always in a fluid state, even  your windows and drinking glasses, solid as they seem to be.  So, take a leap of faith and imagine a glass object with jellyfish and sea life existing inside it.

  These beads are so thrilling to look at, with wonderful colors, swimming jellies, seaweed, bubbles of air...all in beads!  This has been a very exciting week in my development as a glass artist.  I have dreamed of putting jellies inside beads, and here are some of them, fully realized at my torch.

Deep Spaces

I am intrigued by places I cannot go, those deep spaces outside my galaxy, and deep in the oceans of the earth. I have a wonderful book of underwater photographs by Sophie de Wilde, who adventured in most of the oceans of the world.

These beads are evocative of underwater miracles, living in an oceanic environment that allows them some pretty interesting forms and colors. I hope you enjoy these beads, in BullsEye glass, one of my favorites to work with! These are views of two beads, flattened to a smooth, comfortable shape.

Rain

It started last evening, a soft but persistent rain, the kind that gently soaks the earth.  But today the earth is hosting great puddles, and there is mud again.  In Maine we have mud for a while in early spring, then we never see mud again for a year, at least that is how I remember it.

So today is a wonderful day to post a couple of stone-like beads with spring irises on them.  I love to combine metals, like silver and copper leaf, and maybe a little reactive frit, to get these organic effects.  These beads evoke a little of the Japanese sensibility.  One has a suggestion of moving water in the background;  the vines are also metallic-based, giving them the look of venerability rather than that tender green of early growth.

A Bold Statement!

Some of my beads are pretty large, upwards of 4cm in length, and they need a larger "canvas" for themselves in terms of how they are made into jewelry. Lately I have been experimenting with non-precious metals, making hammered clasps, and some of them got to be pretty large themselves.

So, my mind being the inventive conjurer that it is, came up with this composition with a floral bead made with complex floral cane murinni which I developed last year. The clasp is copper tubing, hammered, presenting itself as the "new pink gold" in this world of atmospheric soaring costs! It is treated with Renaissance wax to prevent it from reverting to its true colors, like the carriage and the pumpkin.

The necklace is on black silk Embead material, with Chinese knots, and it sits just below the collarbones. It is also intentionally asymetrical, to challenge our sensibilities just a little.

Soft Spring Morning

These are some of the most beautiful days of the year, the air is cool, fragrant and promising. The soft rich smells of warming earth fill us with hope, and under all the mulching leaves from last year green shoots thrust themselves into the world, strong and ready to grow.

I chose this bead for today because it is soft and luscious, with a blast of spring green making its way from underneath the pale creamy petals of flowers.

Let me give you some ideas, Spring!!

I guess we shall have to tease the warmth out of spring this year. Just when we decide to leave our socks off it chills up again, and it is back to sweaters and regular shoes. But meanwhile, I have some florals to give major hints to Spring about what we want!

These beads are large, nearly 4cm each (well, one, the luscious one with lots of flowers is 4cm). They are shaped and pressed with Jim Moore's 2" lentil press, a tool so beautiful I pick it up sometimes just to enjoy the metals and the craftsmanship! So here's the show, Spring, your own personal catalogue of things you could throw our way. (We will have to continue the show next post. We could only put in four shots today.)

Freshet

I saw some murrini on a bead from an artist in Germany named Adi, and I loved the freshness of them so much I made them as a floral cane with stamen. In this bead they look like water flowers being moved by currents in a spring stream. The bubbles are compliments of copper leaf between layers of glass, which also renders the glass a deeper aqua. The bead is
nearly 4cm long and feels like a microcosm of water-life in the hand, very comforting and calming.

If you have ever made a bead you might know the intense focus that can take your mind off everything but the flame, the glass and the mandrel. If you enjoy working with glass you may also benefit from the near-healing qualities of the work......when the bead itself gives you even greater pleasure and a healing essence, you cannot ask for much more from your work, except to hope it does the same for others.