Pinterest

Follow Me on Pinterest

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Early Beads Blog Hop with AJE

Hopefully there will be a bunch of blogs showing off old beads.. the link should be through here Art Jewelry Elements.. Early BEads Blog Hop
I started making beads on a hot head in the fall of 1994... Mid february I broke the scaphoid bone in my left hand which meant I had a cast seperating my left thumb from my hand and both my first two fingers were casted...however there was a hole in the cast between my fingers and my thumb big enough to stick a piece of glass... So I spent a great deal of the time I had the cast on teaching myself to roll the glass onto the mandrel by just twisting my arm.... I have no clue where any of those beads are... and 18 years later I still make beads left handed!
These pictures are all beads/jewellery made sometime in the late 90's while I still lived in Saskatchewan
 My encased 'DNA beads... think a smaller version of those may be showing up in the gallery later this year!
 Really old hollw red beads with Palladium
 This is actually a long necklace or it comes apart and makes a short necklace and bracelet
My chili pepper necklace strung on leather

Can't find my first necklace which is multicoloured and really does have 10 of my first beads on it...

Just a note here... in 1995 there was no internet, I lived in a small rural Canadian Community, I had never even seen a 'lampworked' glass bead when I started, I learned  from Kate Fowle's video "Lampworked Beadmaking  (an Introduciton)"  I didn't take a class until 2001, that's essentially when I was exposed to my first beads made by someone that knew what they were doing!


14 comments:

Jennifer Cameron said...

Those don't look like first beads! They're too good. LOL! So if you never saw a bead, didn't have access to internet, etc, how did you know you wanted to try it, find the video, etc. I think that story must be really interesting!

Islandgirl said...

Actually my first beads were made from window glass ... I cut 2mm glass into strips... that necklace is here somewhere, I'd forgotten about it! I didn't have any glass rods for at least 18 months... I tried strips of Bullseye and it came out as a smokey mess. I was a full time flat glass artist I saw a hot head torch in the catalogue... Since I'm a tool junky I had to have one!

brokenteepee said...

Glass is very addictive....it's the colors

Alice said...

I love your beads, both past and present! How admirable that you pushed on despite an injury and the fact that there were no other lampworkers around (or internet either).

Thanks for sharing your story!

LisaS said...

Great beads! -and sometimes its obviously a good thing to explore new techniques on our own before having an opportunity to learn from someone with experience ;)

kath001 said...

All beautiful. I especially like the black and white, and the fact that it's convertable.

So just curious...did being in the cast with first two fingers casted leave you giving a permanent Vulcan salute like mine did? :)

Monique (A Half-Baked Notion) said...

Great of everyone to share... I'm digging through junk drawers right now, Lynne! By the way, your beads look amazing!

Unknown said...

I had visions of you coming close to cutting that cast off several times. I know I would have. Great post for a great blog idea!

AntiquityTravelers said...

Oh man - what a great story! learning on your own, no internet, and jut a single video? wow! you're work is so gorgeous!

Sharyl said...

Sounds like a remarkable story! It's always nice to learn the story underneath what is visible to everyone else. Thank you for sharing that with us!

P.S. I really like your red beads, even if they were from the early bunch!

Islandgirl said...

Thanks! I think those red hollows are just as good as the ones I make now... Hollow beads are still really a hit and miss proposition for me!

And in regards to the vulcan salute, sort of on my left hand ... but on my right hand the three end fingers all naturally jam together since I smashed my middle knuckle on that hand when I was 12... I think Orthopedic surgery has come a long way since the summer of '68!

Unknown said...

I love it that you figured things out on your own - very cool:)

glassbead, isinglass design said...

Nice one Lynne! Love that convertible piece- you always have such cool ideas.

risa said...

I just love those red earrings and DNA bracelet. They will add a pop of color to any plain tops or non-printed outfit. Also, they remind me of Christmas.