Member Intro Lesley Nixon (Mad Cat Glass)

A new feature for the FHF team Blog get to know our members and what makes us tick.

First up is the lovely Lesley of Mad Cat Glass a lampworker and sometimes jewellery artist she makes some funky focals.


My name is Lesley Jane Nixon and I am ALMOST 40 years old. I have been working with glass for almost 7 years from my home studio in North Staffordshire.

Lots of different things inspire me as I have lots of different 'styles' ... everything from our beautiful countryside, to friendly aliens inspires me :)

It has to be one of my vikings ! To be honest, I can't really single one specific bead out, but discovering my vikings was a real victory for me ... I really felt as though I could finally call a particular design my own :)

Visit Mad Cat Glass on Etsy and see Lesley's  Work

Featured Artist - Dawn Price

Dawn's Bead Boutique

Well, where on earth do I start, I suppose I'll have to go back a bit first!

My name is Dawn and I'm from Wirral, Cheshire. I'm married to my love Lewis, and have two lovely kids. I'm lucky enough to have my studio in the garden, a very spacious large shedio just for me.

For years I have been searching for something I could do that would use my creative skills and make a career out of it. Once the kids both start school next year I hope to achieved my goal, it won't make me rich, but at least I'll be happy!

The creative streak goes way, way back. I was top at school for art, so off I went to art college, I did fine art, ceramics which I adored, enamelling, and the boaring bit - history of art. I was a good artist, but hated art school. Then I got into horses, owning them and getting a job in a saddlery shop, I soon learnt the art of saddlery. Life took over and I put the tools down permantly. The arty side was never far away though, I tinkered with polymer clay, something else I adore and am planning a return to very soon. Then came jewellery making, card making, back to jewellery making. One day, when I was searching for books I came across Cindy Jenkins book on making lampwork beads.....you can guess the rest!

Artist on the edge.....

This featured artist thing has come at a very odd time for me, I am indeed an artist on the edge. I did beads up north not so long ago and stood admiring my work, it suddenly stuck me, I was never going to have work like that again, you see I feel everything I have done so far has just been learning how to make beads, but not work I can call my style. Then the other day I was telling a customer about my work, that I like doing dots and twists and what I had been doing in the past when a thought stopped me in my tracks, the dots, the twists, the pokes, it's like a complusion to mess up the glass, I LOVE TEXTURE. Then I knew why, ceramics, polymerclay, saddlery, carving, wood carving, power carving. It's all about hand applied TEXTURE! It's like a bomb has gone off in my head.

Early beads with twists......

More beads with dots and twists......

My favourite beads.....

See what I mean! these are typical beads for me, these bead sets typically are all made along the same lines.

The work that follows shows more recent beads, that are typical of what I like to do.......florals and silver glass, more dots!




Artist over the edge......

But the winds of change are a blowing and whipping up a storm, you see on top of the texture revelation somes another realisation, that I have come full circle. Two years of making beads has taught me how to make beads, now I have this desire express and create my own, not just make, if you see what mean. This work is me on the way.......I'm starting to explore colour, teamed up with the theame 60's flower power. I'm also exploring chinese knotting.......... there will be a lot more of this to come......


And beyond........

Two nights ago I shocked my self. You see I was ill, and still in a quandry about what to make with my head still in bits, so I just picked up a rod and thought I'll have a go a horses head pendant, well I made a horses head, not a pendant, a head. It has ears, eyes, neck, cheeks, nostrils, it has details, and it is most definitly a horses head. I have never made one in glass, I have in clay, and I have painted them countless times, but not in glass. I know I can do better still, and I will.

My Dawn Horse...
Well, I'm now over the edge and into the next chapter, so whats next. Sculpural horse beads, pendants for sure, flower power and big bold bright beads that reflect the 60's hippy chick look. It's going to be fun and fab. Do check back, because this journey is going to be fun.

Love all,

Dawn, Lampwork Artist.

Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/dawnsbeadboutique
Website: http://dawnsbeadboutique.co.uk/

Featured Artist - Vicki Bowring

VeeBeads

I have always been a creative person, art was my favourite subject at school and I studied it to A level. It was around the time of my A levels that I first became interested in jewellery making and beads, I even had a stall at a local craft fair once! Then, of course, I went out into the big bad world of full-time work, and the craft fell by the wasyside. I still did bits here and there, I once made some great crepe paper flowers for a window display, started making the family Christmas crackers every year, writing poems, that sort of thing. But it was something I used to do from time to time, when the mood took me.


Anyway, as I became more settled in myself I started craving craft again, and about 5 years ago I started paper-crafting. This led to me amassing huge amounts of stuff as I got more into it and got the rubber stamp bug! I never buy Christmas or birthday cards, I make all of them myself now.

Early in 2009, I was shopping in the craft section of The Range, and I came across some colour themed boxes of beads. The jewellery spark was re-ignited! I gradually bought all of the boxes, and I started looking on-line at all the gorgeous beads that were now available. Lampworked beads always caught my eyes and oh how I wished I could have a go at making them myself! The more I looked at them, the more I wanted to have a go. Then I came across the Hot Head kit and I got very excited. Suddenly lampwork was accessible to me! I bought the kit from Tuffnell Glass, found a supplier of Mapp gas, and I made my first bead on 15th April 2009. I was instantly hooked. But, as I got more ambitious, and wanted to spend time making more complicated beads, I hit a brick wall. The Mapp just kept running out too quickly, and I became frustrated. I couldn't afford to go on bulk, and as I work in the front room of my flat it soon became too cold to work with the window open, and the cold was affecting the pressure in the Mapp cans giving me less and less time to work on a bead. Grrrr.


After a frustrated rant on the Frit Happens Forum, I made a descision. Until I could afford the bulk conversion kit I would give up lampwork and concentrate on learning more about bead-weaving and wire-work, both of which I had just started to play with, so that I could actually make jewellery with my beads. And so I took a self imposed lampworking break of 5 months.


It was the best thing I could have done. My beadwork and wire work are improving all the time, and I have made several pieces of jewellery that I am immensely proud of. And now that I am back at the torch I find I have a new sense of purpose. I make beads that I intend to use, I make sets and turn them into jewellery, and I love it!


The thing that inspires me the most for bead making is nature. I have an organic style (at the moment) and love trying to recreate natural forms or phenomena in miniature. Having said that, ideas can be sparked off by something someone says, a piece of wallpaper, a dress.... The list is pretty endless. I'm also fascinated by the reactive glasses and with reactions in general. Silver foil over ivory is a current favourite, actually, silver with everything could be my middle name at the moment! With jewellery making I find that history influences me a lot, as does the culture and traditions of far away lands. I like to create pieces that combine the disciplines I have taught myself, bead-weaving, wirework and lampwork, and I love being able to say "I made the whole thing, from start to finish." With each new piece I find I am learning more, usually a new bead-weaving stitch or a new way to manipulate wire. I love learning new stuff and expanding my knowledge of the universe, and the world of jewellery making is no exception.


Weekends are my lampworking times. Friday night is "play" night where I generally just mess around with molten glass, or try out new ideas that have popped into my head during the week ( I keep a note book which is full of random scribbling!). Saturday and Sunday most often I'll make sets, though I usually have at least three sets in mind so that I can hop between them to stop me getting bored ( I have the attention span of a gnat). Weekday evenings I try to spend time making new pieces of jewellery, or component parts for something new. And as I travel by train quite a lot, I always take my beading kit on long journeys and when I have to spend the night in a hotel. It's amazing just what can be achieved at these times!

You can find more of my work at:
Etsy shop: http://www.veebeads.etsy.com
Gallery: http://s630.photobucket.com/albums/uu26/veebeads/
Blog: http://veebeads.blogspot.com

Featured Artist - Rachel Elliott

Rachel Elliott Glassworks

Hello, my name is Rachel and I am a glass-aholic / full time glass artist! I have been working with glass for nearly 10 years now since discovering stained glass through an evening class and then deciding to study it formally as a degree at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 2007.



I've been running my own business, full time for just over a year now and I guess the ultimate goal is to be able to make enough of a living from the small gift glass that I make and teaching classes, to be able to attend at least one workshop a year and also have time to make sculpture. The main thing about the sculpture is I don't want to have to think about whose going to buy it or where it will go, I like it to be all about the free expression, which is difficult when you are aware that you are spending time on it when you should be making money.

I now work in my own studio, which is a 200 square foot unit I have rented since October 2008 and renovated from scratch to accommodate the equipment and workbenches I use on a daily basis. I also teach from there but it's really too small to share permanently with anyone else who isn't working on exactly the same things as me, at the same time.My inspiration comes from all over the place, but mainly I work with the realistic and representational. Of course there are subliminal meanings behind much of my work but I like everyone to 'get' it on some level, I don't like art that isn't accessible to people because they don't understand the back story of it. I also like people to smile at my work, it's the greatest feeling in the world to see someone come to your plinth, space or stall and beam at what they find in front of them. I know it's really cliche‚ but there are so many other people's work I admire, both in glass and other materials that I couldn't begin to list or even narrow down favourites. I admire all those that strive to create something unique and share both their creations and knowledge with the world.

I really enjoy making and the challenge of figuring out how to make a piece too, sometimes it can be a real struggle to continue to be engaged with a piece once I've overcome those obstacles and usually one a piece is finished, I don't like it and am usually already embroiled in the next one.

Having said that, I really like my 'Storm Troubled Sphere' bead which is in the Tempest bead exhibition. It was a chance opportunity that came at a unique time when I was undertaking work experience at John Hardman stained glass studio in Birmingham, who allowed me the 3 weeks it took to make the bead, as well as my constant holding of tiny pieces of glass in front of the painters asking 'Do you think it needs more detail?'



Colour, hmm, colour and I have a difficult relationship. My favourite material is clear lead crystal as it is great for making the things I want to from. I love the idea that I am creating something that exists yet is transparent, a ghost of a thing. When I was a kid, I remember telling myself, if a picture isn't coloured in it doesn't exist and I think that was quite perceptive of me as that is how our eyes perceive the world, through the light which reflects back into them. So yeah, I have a real problem using colour as for me I have to ask myself, why am I using it? Is it the colour the thing is in real life and does it need to be? So I usually revert back to the clear safety net!

My kilns are all blue, I have 3 and they are called 'Big Blue', 'Little Blue' and 'Wee Blue' for obvious reasons. The studio is littered with inspiration and I have a strange collage on the back of my fold up cutting table which features Myra Hindley and always raises an eyebrow!



Usually the more methodically I'm working, the more I get easily sidetracked by other little projects, for example during my latest sculpture, my glass allotment, there have been cars, police boxes, Mo'ai and submarines sneaking into the firings to distract me! Deadlines are the biggest deciding factors to the work pattern too, the week before one, its bedlam. I think that's one of my failings, that even if I know something is coming up and I have X number of weeks, I still won't start something till the last possible moment. I also find it impossible to delegate anything to anyone else, or ask for help with things either.

However I do take a pride that everything I make, whether it's jewellery, a bead or a sculpture has been painstakingly made by me and I work very hard to ensure that the piece is unique and not available from anyone else except my studio too.



My main website is http://www.rachel-elliott.com and there are links from the home page to my various other web presences; Facebook, Twitter, Etsy and the like.

Featured Artist - Shahlaa Walsh

All That Sparkles Beads

Hello! My name is Shahlaa Walsh, I’m 24 and I have been making lampwork beads now for 20 months. I gained my interest in lampwork as many other artists did by purchasing them to make jewellery with. I got so addicted to buying them that I thought it might be nice to have a try at making them. I was privileged enough to be Sam Halliwell’s (of Aurora beads) first student and learnt to make my first beads with her summer 2008. I then started building up my glass collection and renting torch time in a local lampworker’s studio. This is where I began my lampworking adventure. For the past 10 months I have had my own “studio” in my parents’ garage in Surrey where I make my beads on a dual fuel Nortel minor torch. I don’t get too much torch time but I try to get a few hours in each week. My main job is studying at medical to be a doctor but I grab as much time as possible with my torch as it relaxes me and gives me a creative outlet.



My inspiration for lampworking really varies. There are a couple of artists whose work has inspired me to persevere and find my own style. I have been blessed to have a one-to-one session with Julie Fountain of Lush Lampwork; I love her simple but effective styles and her use of colour. I also truly admire Keiara Wells of Wishing Wells Glass. She has a way with glass that I can only dream about; she makes the most beautiful kitties and cupcakes! But I also gather my inspiration from my everyday life. Because of my science background I love to see reactions between different glasses and the viscosity of the way glasses work with each other. I think I’m still finding my style with beads, but the lentil is definitely my favourite shape and I adore my new heart press which makes the cutest puffy hearts! I like to take ideas from what I see around me, I recently made a union jack heart focal from a vintage heart hanging in my living room! I love to work with pixie dust as I love the shimmery goodness of a sparkly bead. I suppose that’s where “all that sparkles” fits it!





Probably my favourite piece I have made so far was a focal I made on my hot head a few months after I started making beads. It took me an hour to make this focal but it was great! I love it because it is often so difficult to make big beads on a hot head without them cracking! My other favourite beads are anything with silver glass! I love silver glass, it shines, its sparkles, and its unpredictable. I’m still experimenting to tame the beast that is silver glass but I’m having great fun doing it!





I love the fact the within lampworking there are so many colours of glass to experiment with but I am guilty of working too much with my favourite colours! I love blues and pinks and can’t keep away from them! When I see new glass come out I can’t help myself if it’s blue or pink to buy loads of it! Eeeek!! The way I work with making new glass totally depends on my mood. I do try and write a list of things I need to make and ideas I’d like to try in a notebook but I often forget to get it out so end up just playing about! But sometimes things just come together and then it works and looks great, other times its a bit trial and error! My strengths definitely lie with getting to grips with presses early on and creating good shapes and colour combos. My weaknesses in glass probably lie with creating bigger beads and having the patience for making sets! Its not that I don’t like sets, it more because I have such a limited torch time each week I try to fit in as much as poss and sometimes sets just take too long!! My goal for my glass art in the future wholly depends on my future career as a doctor! When I qualify I will have less time for it but I plan on keeping it going even if it’s on a very small scale and I will hopefully one day move all my kit over and have a little studio as part of my own home.

If you like my beads and enjoyed reading about me, you can find me here:
Blog: All That Sparkles Beads Blog
Etsy: All That Sparkles Beads

You can join All That Sparkles Beads on Facebook, and if you would like to receive my newsletter, please drop me a line to shahlaa@hotmail.co.uk.

Thanks for reading, happy beading!

Featured Artist - Jean Munro

Ceardannan Jewellery

1. How did you get started in lampworking/fusing/jewellery making:

I started making jewellery when myself and my husband were travelling around Greece in our old Mercedes motorhome. I saw a pair of earrings I liked in a local shop by the harbour but they were 80 Euros and I couldn't afford them. My mum said, "Well , if you look on the internet I am sure you would find some earwires and stuff to make something for yourself. " Yep I blame her for the rest; it all just grew from there. I soon came upon lampwork beads and started to find out all I could about them. I knew I wanted to make beads myself. The first lampwork beads I ever bought were made by Mike Poole.


2. How long have you been lampworking/fusing/jewellery making:

I have been making jewellery for about 5 years now. When we came back to Scotland 2 years ago I went to a lampwork taster session in Edinburgh, followed by a workshop with Rachel Elliot. I loved it! I was hooked. I now have my torch set up in a great space at the back of the house. It's a utility room which wanted to be a conservatory but never quite made it, but it's perfect for lampworking and making my jewellery. I spend as much time in there as I can.


3. Where do you find your inspiration:

My inspiration really comes from my love of colour. From the wild flowers of Crete, to my mum's back garden, it's only little but it is a riot of colour. I often sit there when the weather's fine and it is so beautiful. Purples teamed with yellow and bright oranges and reds all vying for their space and looking for the sun. When I'm making anything I'm fickle really and get bored easily so I just let whatever rod of glass, lampwork set, or focal takes my fancy lead the design and I know its right if I'm smiling when it's finished.


4. What is your favourite piece of your own work:

I don't think I have a favourite piece as such although I think the first ever necklace I made with lampwork has a special place.

5. Who's work do you admire most:

To say whose work I admire most would be difficult indeed. I love lampwork beads and there are so many artists who's work I admire, as can be seen from the variety of beautiful beads I have in my collection and from my etsy favourites page. I would however like to own one of Sabine's beautiful roses in every colour, I have one so far. As for jewellery making, I really admire Nia from Gemwaithnia who has a lovely way with colour, Lynn Davy for the intricacy of her designs and George for her silver workmanship.

6. What are your goals for the future:

For the future I want to continue to make and sell my jewellery and to be able to incorporate some of my own beads in my designs. I enjoyed last year's craft fairs immensely and will be doing more this year. I also aim to fill my website and etsy shop as I have lots of jewellery waiting to be photographed and uploaded. I would like to have more lampworking lessons, take a silversmithing course and I would love to join the lapidary association and learn how to find and cut semi precious stones and put them in silver settings. There is so much to learn and this is a journey I could never tire of; there is always another new idea to try, a new skill to learn and so many beautiful beads, stones ribbons and metals to play with.

If you want to know more about Jean and her art here's how to find her:

Etsy shop: Ceardannan Jewellery
Blog: Jeanie's Blog
Flickr: Jean's Flickr Photo Galleries

Featured Artist - Sabine Little

Little Castle Designs

photo by Richard Downton

1. How did you get started in lampworking/fusing/jewellery making;

When I was pregnant, my husband and I went to Venice for a 'last dash' before I was too far gone to fly. I'd done silversmithing, and so am always on the lookout for artisan jewellery...which, in Venice of course, meant glass! Sadly (or fortunately?), we had trouble with the bank, and I only had very little money to spend, on a few simple black, white and red beads. Not long after, my husband had to go abroad for work - I'd usually have joined him, but was no longer allowed to fly. Determined that I would have fun, too, I booked a one day glass bead making course. I remember telling my teacher - Mike Tillerman - that I had no intention of continuing with glass bead making, no matter how much I enjoyed it, that my heart belonged to silversmithing. 72 hours later, my starter kit arrived...

2. How long have you been lampworking;

I've been lampworking for about 2.5 years now, the last 1.5 years were the time I started specialising in sculptural beads.

3. Where do you find your inspiration;

I find inspiration...anywhere! It can be quite frustrating, actually, because I don't have the time to follow up half the ideas I have! I see colour combinations in leaves, curves in architecture, animals on Flickr...and I love words! So many poems and quotes I read are very visual to me, sometimes, I see a complete piece of jewellery in front of my eyes as I read.

4. What is your favourite piece of your own work;

I think it's very much always the most recent piece that was a bit 'different'. I loved the first dragonfly I made, I still have it, it's waiting for some kind of special bail. More recently still, I started making asymmetric necklaces, based on poems and quotes, and I love the 'Mad as a Hatter' lariat, because a lot of jewellery I've made to date is quite shy and retiring...this isn't!

5. Who's work do you admire most;

There are too many people I admire to mention individually - as a group, they have the common denominator that their work is always of high quality - no shortcuts, no excuses. I think that, if you do sell your work, you ought to do it as professionally as you possibly can - not in the 'how may I help you today, Ma'am' kind of way, but by producing the best possible quality you can, and being self-critical. And that's not just your actual work, but everything around it. I myself know that I could learn lots from other people in the way of photography, for example.

6. What are your goals for the future;

2010 will be the year when I 'turn pro' - lampworking full-time, teaching lampworking / glass bead making, and making jewellery. So, my most immediate goal would be to make that leap without too many mishaps - hopefully, getting more ideas from paper to finished piece. I've got two websites - http://www.littlecastledesigns.co.uk/, where I sell beads & jewellery, and http://www.nowforevermore.com/, which specialises in wedding jewellery and celebratory jewellery, as well as a selection of both on my etsy shop (http://littlecastledesigns.etsy.com/) - I've got this year to understand how to work all these to their best potential...if I find the holy grail, I'll happily share it! ;-) Being home in daylight should also help with those photos!