Dream Job

A little while ago, Keirsten of Lune Designs commented: I imagine like the rest of us you have a to-do "wish list", like all the things you would do with your art if you didn't have a day job. So! IF you were suddenly liberated from the day job, and were able to spend all that time doing your art, what projects/new skills/designs would you pursue?

I'm now off in a warm daydream of being liberated from corporate America, escalations, 3am conference calls and all the office/PC catch phrases like "the net net is..." or "piggybacking off what she said..." or "it's not that she's lazy and doesn't do her job worth a flip, but is really just a little less than exemplary."  If I had the equivalent of a regular work week filled with torch time every day, I would do more things that I don't find as much time for now.  Right now, while I do enjoy making the beads I make, I spend the majority of my time making beads I believe will sell.  I can't have a bead hobby if it doesn't pay for itself, right?  As a result, I don't spend as much time making focal beads or worry stones because these take significantly longer to make (both in the pre-planning of what colors/design to work towards, but also in the whole melting/bead creation process time at the torch).

I would love to master the Double Helix colors that are filled with silver and other metals to elicit beautiful reactions and metallic finishes.  Julie Nordine and Karolen Dupree are two lampworkers that I greatly admire for their abilities to control Double Helix and other high-dollar, silver glasses.  Compared to the $11-30/lb cost of much of the glass I use, the silver glasses are $80-100/lb.  Significantly more expensive, so I tend to hang on to them and use them much more frugally than the vast majority of my glass inventory.

I think Julie Nordine of Credit River Art Glass does a wonderful job bringing out a large spectrum of colors using the silver glasses.  I had the pleasure of meeting her last August in Philadelphia at Beadfest 2009.  She has only lampworked for a few years, but her work is absolutely amazing.  I am in awe of her talent for the designs/patterns she creates, the colors she brings out of the glass and the colors she chooses to use together in new and interesting combinations.  But then, this should be expected when you bring a previous interior designer into the world of lampworking.  Here is a picture of some of her beads that I think are so phenomenal. 

I admire the beads of Karolen Deupree of Bead Abundant and her ability for showing off metallic lusters of silver glasses or encasing them to highlight stunningly brilliant purples, blues and greens under layers of clear.  She has an incredible control of her reducing flame with these special glasses that I have yet to even remotely control.  I am in awe.  See these gold beads?  I can get the metallic/mirrory finish over the belt of the bead and then it pretty much just disappears on me the closer I get to the hole or it's just plain splotchy.

And these blue and purple beads. Gorgeous.  Karolen is so consistent in her ability to reduce silver glasses and either leave them all cool and mirrory (yes, mirrory is a word in my world) or encase them and get these delicious colors.  Again, this boils down to flame control that I do not have.  I intermittently lose the bold colors in the encasing process.

In addition to yearning to improve my abilities with silver glasses, I would spend more time honing my skills at detail work.  A lot of this is working with stringers (really, extremely thin rods of glass that are about as thick as toothpicks) and making sure they don't melt all over the bead while in the flame and make a mess.  But also using them to pull and move the glass in order to make the design.

Caitlin Hyde has awesome stringer control for making geometric patterns and a gift for simplifying designs into the bare minimum.  Caitlin taught classes in Atlanta (which I couldn't attend) in February and then did a demo at our monthly glass meeting (which I did see).  She clearly explained how she made each component of the bead and sent me home so inspired to try new techniques. See the curvy black/white lines at the top and bottom of this bead below?  They don't bleed into each other.  They are perfectly laid out on the bead and just making that portion of the bead before going into the animalian or geometric designs took close to 30 minutes.  Such patience!  And then Caitlin spent an almost equal amount of time making the crow, moon and geometric design appear on this bead.

Each one of these ladies has created a style that is easily recognizable in her own beads, no matter the color or shape. They are all cohesive because each lampworker sticks to mainly the same color palette and/or technique. Without their names associated with the beads, I'm fairly certain I would know who the lampworker is with any of their beads if they were spread out on a table in front of me, along with hundreds of beads from other lampworkers.  

I feel like right now, I'm all over the place and I don't know that anyone would really know by looking at my beads that they are KELLEYSBEADS.  Perhaps with my nuggets?  I'm not sure that many other lampworkers are into making nuggets.  Or worry stones.  But then I don't spend much time surfing Etsy for other lampworkers to see how I compare or what (if any) are the latest trends.

I'm interested in what you all think of when you hear Kelley's Beads.  Do you think of my beads?  If so, which beads?  Or do you think of my blog?  My photography?  My Little Horse?