Beads & More Beads

I started making beads in 1994 when I tripped over a hot head in my Wholesale flat glass catalogue… In ’94 in the middle of nowhere Canada no-one was making beads… there were no books no Internet no nothing… I credit the fact that my beads even vaguely looked like beads in those days to Kate Fowle… as she did have a video which I bought after about 7 months of wonky window glass beads…. I was a full time stained glass artist then, so had lots of glass available but most ‘art glass’ smoked horribly on a hot head and looked blechy! I can’t say that my beads become wonderful over night, after I got the video… but at least I had a vague idea what a glass bead was suppose to look like! Moving rapidly ahead 6 months I bought a Nortel Minor torch (I am still using this torch 13 years later and it works just fine!)… I had to buy it from a Neon supplier in the US as Nortel wasn’t selling them in Canada other than through Scientific supply houses. My torch arrived got all set up and I broke my left hand…. How do you make beads with a broken hand… stuff the glass rods down inside the cast… I’m sure they were awful but I still work left handed.

Tried to stick an image in here... didn't work....
Much later... not the image I had in mind... but it's progress! That bracelet is circa 2003 that was my first bead press and I called those beads finger paint tabs.....