Friday, December 7, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Monday, November 27, 2006
In the beginning....
...or how I became a lampwork bead artist:
In 1996 I had finished my graduate degree in Fiber Arts and was working as a graphic designer for a screen printing company in Southern Illinois when I first came across some video tapes by Lewis Wilson showing how to make lampworked beads. I had done some glass blowing at the furnace before then and loved hot glass, the way it moves, the range of viscosity, the softness and hardness and live qualities it has when you're working it. But I didn't love the hot, loud, oversized experience of blowing at the furnace enough to spend the time it would take to get really good at it. I tend to make small scale objects and I like to work quietly, alone. So when I saw Wilson's teaching video I was delighted to realize there was a hot glass technique that really suited my tastes.
I began making beads in the evenings after work, experimenting with the most basic techniques and making plain round beads and round beads with dots out of scraps of Bullseye glass. Slowly over about 6 months I began to learn enough about the glass and its movement in the heat of the torch that I could make simple beads I was happy with. I had ordered 5 different colors of Moretti glass rods and was beginning to put together some very simple bracelets and necklaces for friends and family.
I soon had friends encouraging me to sell my beads, and although I liked the idea and had been selling jewelry made with polymer clay beads, I really didn't feel I was advanced enough in my designs or my knowledge of annealing to expect people to pay for my glass beads yet. I think it was almost another whole year before I offered my glass bead jewelry for sale at the local farmer's market. People were pretty responsive and I had a really fun summer showing up on saturday mornings at 7:00am with trays of beads and enjoying a few hours of great social time (everybody went to the farmer's market on saturdays. It was THE thing to do in town) and selling my wares.
It wasn't much later I came to realize that a couple of hours of time at the torch each evening wasn't going to allow me the rate of progress with my work I was longing for. Eventually, although I liked my design job and loved the people I worked with, I left the screen printing company and started my own small business called, Caitlin Hyde Design.
In 1996 I had finished my graduate degree in Fiber Arts and was working as a graphic designer for a screen printing company in Southern Illinois when I first came across some video tapes by Lewis Wilson showing how to make lampworked beads. I had done some glass blowing at the furnace before then and loved hot glass, the way it moves, the range of viscosity, the softness and hardness and live qualities it has when you're working it. But I didn't love the hot, loud, oversized experience of blowing at the furnace enough to spend the time it would take to get really good at it. I tend to make small scale objects and I like to work quietly, alone. So when I saw Wilson's teaching video I was delighted to realize there was a hot glass technique that really suited my tastes.
I began making beads in the evenings after work, experimenting with the most basic techniques and making plain round beads and round beads with dots out of scraps of Bullseye glass. Slowly over about 6 months I began to learn enough about the glass and its movement in the heat of the torch that I could make simple beads I was happy with. I had ordered 5 different colors of Moretti glass rods and was beginning to put together some very simple bracelets and necklaces for friends and family.
I soon had friends encouraging me to sell my beads, and although I liked the idea and had been selling jewelry made with polymer clay beads, I really didn't feel I was advanced enough in my designs or my knowledge of annealing to expect people to pay for my glass beads yet. I think it was almost another whole year before I offered my glass bead jewelry for sale at the local farmer's market. People were pretty responsive and I had a really fun summer showing up on saturday mornings at 7:00am with trays of beads and enjoying a few hours of great social time (everybody went to the farmer's market on saturdays. It was THE thing to do in town) and selling my wares.
It wasn't much later I came to realize that a couple of hours of time at the torch each evening wasn't going to allow me the rate of progress with my work I was longing for. Eventually, although I liked my design job and loved the people I worked with, I left the screen printing company and started my own small business called, Caitlin Hyde Design.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
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