Relating to Similar Art Glass Experiences

The blog that I found to be worthy of comment was Folkly McFolks’ Blog, In The Woods Design. The author chose to speak with jeweler and lampwork bead artists Carol Bartok. Upon reading In The Woods Design Blog I found that my own experiences and fascination with glass parallel that of artist Carol Bartok.

Both Carol and I started off doing stained glass. After several years of constructing stained glass pieces I wanted to venture out into other art glass techniques. One of the first art glass techniques that I learned was lampwork bead making. As with Ms. Bartok, I also signed up for a class and shortly after completing that class I also purchased all the necessary equipment to create lampwork beads. It didn’t take me long to realize how difficult and challenging it was to create some of the more intricate beads. As with stained glass, bead making takes a lot of practice and patients. Although I did not follow the lampwork bead making path as did Ms. Bartok, my lampwork bead making experiences lead me to experimenting with “hot glass” techniques using a kiln and ceramic molds. Some techniques were as simple as cutting a square piece of glass, setting it over a mold and place in a kiln until the glass slumps into the shape of the mold. Or you could create a more interesting look by creating layers of transparent glass or add frit (finely crushed glass) sprinkled on top. Fire that piece in the kiln until it has all melted together then do a second firing to slump the glass into a mold.

I would have to say with all my experiences with art glass, bead making, and hot glass techniques were the most challenging. The trial and error aspect of both of these styles of art glass were always learning experiences. What I learned about the characteristics of glass when I first signed up for the lampwork bead making class I carried over into my experiences and understandings of hot glass work using a kiln.

This is my post for my Second Peer Response