.jpg)
I make all the glass beads (except for the itty bitty beads in the crochet rope) and copper plated beads and do the bead crochet in my studio on Whidbey Island in Washington State.
Each piece that you see here is one of a kind. While I may get into a groove and do a number of pieces in the same color scheme, I rarely replicate a necklace or a bracelet (unless requested).
I began making beads more than 20 years ago as a stress reliever from my day job as a high school English teacher. Now retired, I have more time to explore and play with glass.
Making glass beads is about control and lack of control, about gravity and heat, about color and form, about intensity, about fast and slow, thinking and doing, about fluid and frozen. And unique to glass work is the solitude of beadmaking. I love it all.
Except for modern torches and tanks, I use all the same process of beadmakers of long ago. The beads are created one at a time working in an open flame. I love the solitude and focus of the proccess. I enjoy the heat and the fluid molten glass. I feel part of the continuum of bead makers that dates back to early human history. I enjoy the feel of the finished bead in my hand. I hope you sense all that when you wear my beads...that would complete the cycle.