artistic development

More beads…

ShebaMakeda 2 Comments

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Secret Garden:  When i was little i spent hours inside my head creating imaginary worlds and acting them out with whatever toys or random items i found nearby.  One of my favourite fantasies was the secret island of ME (yes that’s right, ME!!).  On that secret island i could fly (of course), the sea was made of Koolaid, popsicles and soda pop, the birds all sang my favourite songs and in my garden, the Dr. Seuss-style trees and flowers would dance with me tossing their leaves in the air and showering me with candy-flavoured fruit.  Hence these rather wacky beads…

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Modern Florals:  As i’ve mentioned, i’m not really the floral bead type even though i genuinely love flowers in real life.  Every once in a while though, i get the urge to try a flower bead to see if there is a style i can make that will feel natural to me.  These are a start…  just the bare suggestion of a flower, the backs are decorated with mendhi-style scrollwork.  These abstract flower beads were inspired by the very cool digital art prints of Jan Weiss – click the picture below to go to her flickr photostream…

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I started these two series last fall but haven’t yet had the chance to revisit them.  They both are made on plain bases with all the riotous colour coming from multiple overlapping layers of powdered enamels.  Over the next few weeks I would like to see how much further I can take these two very colourful bead styles…

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Goodbye beautiful!… and THANKS.

ShebaMakeda Leave a comment


This goddess bead started off simply as an experiment in testing a new colour and a more subtle female shape.  Then, over the past couple days I was introduced to the many different ways her shape can be interpreted – some of them, to be frank, quite traumatizing to my creative ego…

As of today though, my bruised ego has almost fully recovered and I am once again superbly proud of her.  Once I calmed down, I realized it’s actually kinda fun to hear what each person sees in each of my creations.  Sure, it may not be what i intended but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s a bad thing.

Once i really thought about it, I realized I never intended to create anything very literal – my own personal tastes run to art that can be interpreted in many different ways.  This is, however, my first time being on the receiving end of those interpretations.  So shocking yes, but i guess i better get used to it.  And pronto.

I’ve also come to the realization of just how very personal each of my creations have become to me.  With hot glass, even as a relative newb, what i create comes straight from my soul.  When i sit in front of the torch i can start off with the intention of creating something specific but by the time i’m done the result is usually quite different.  Part of it is the inherent lack of limits in hot glass, another part is due to my current level of experience, a significant part is my own personal taste and the final part is… i dunno – i suppose you could call it creative energy?

It’s that indescribable “creative energy” that determines the final look of each of my pieces.  It’s that same creative energy that ensures if you handed 50 lampwork artists the same glass rod, the same frit and sat them in front of the same torch you’d end up with 50 unique items.  And then of course, each piece would be interpreted in 1001 different ways…

Soooo, all this to say this beautiful goddess now represents a major step in my development as a lampwork artist.  I’ve become so very attached to her she’s not leaving my house.  And not just because she developed a crack across her butt.