enjoy pushing the limits of my medium and
discovering just how far I can push the glass.
Shape, form, and texture really inspire my
work. I really like things that delight all of my
senses along with pushing glass as far as it
will go. Etching to make it look like polymer
clay, distressing it with baking soda to make
it look like stone, and embedding metal to
give it tendrils.
You not only sell your beads online but
you do bead shows too. How does preparing for each differ and which do you prefer?
Preparing for selling your beads online involves: making beads, cleaning them, photographing, listing, and promoting via social
media and blogging. It’s quite a computer
labor intensive process. So my week starts
out with lots of bead making and then the
rest of it to finish up the week and repeat.
Preparing for a show is a lot of work as well.
I had a good plan to put away half of everything I made each week for the show, but
that tends not to work so well. I mean how
can you deny your loyal supporters your latest and greatest work? So if you don’t end up
tucking things away the show prep can get
crazy stressful by cramming every night up
until the show. I think the last month before
Bead Fest Philly this year I lampworked 6
days a week and the one day I had off I had
to get out of the house and unwind. That’s
a very stressful way to do it and I would not
recommend that to anyone unless they work
best under pressure(unlike me ;)
I think I would say I enjoy shows most because you get to talk to people in person.
You can tell them about your work and put it
in their hands so they can see all of the little details. That really personal connection is
creativebeadchat.com
what I really enjoy most.
What do you regard as the most rewarding/frustrating/ aspect of your work?
I would say the most rewarding thing about
my work is having people love what I create and seeing their finished designs. There
is nothing more satisfying. I love giving my
friends work and seeing it on them.
The most frustrating thing is the general
public not being well informed on just what
goes into making glass beads. It really is a
special skill to have. New designers may not