Portfolio > Beads

West
Neclace
flame worked glass
2005
Raptor Ten
Necklace
flame worked glass
2002
Raptor
Necklace
flame worked glass
2005
Mother's Day Necklace
flame worked glass
1997
Mosaic polymer clay beads
polymer class historical reproduction of Viking Age beads
1994
Commission: 20 Anniversary Tournament Prize Necklace
Glass, gold foil, waxed linen
24" length
2017

I started working in polymer clay in 1993, creating reproductions of glass beads.

In 1994 I bought a kit from the back of a magazine and started making flameworked glass beads. It would be a year before they were good enough to use in jewelry. My first torch didn't have proper oxygen ports, bead release was simple kiln wash and the wire mandrels were curved. The beads, if they didn't break loose in the making, didn't want to come off the mandrel.

The glass was pretty though, even if it was just stained glass scraps, cut into

I am still a bit surprised I kept up with it, but my grandmother had a paperweight collection that had fascinated me since I was a little girl and I saw enough progress to stick with it.

Many of these early images were made on a flatbed scanner. I think it is important to track progression in one's work, even the images. I may take an image soon of my earliest beads, the ones that are puckered with devitrification, with sharp edges and odd forms.

I am now working to combine my contemporary art practice with the skills I have learned in making historical reproduction to create a new body of work.