December 31, 2008
I am working with jewelry designer/metalsmith extraordinaire, Jane Estes, on the International Society of Glass Beadmakers’ Convergence Project. The fundamentals of this competition are that two artists are paired, a lampworker (that’s me) and a jewelry designer (that’s Jane), to created a wearable object of art that is inspired by the four elements of water, air, earth, and/or fire.
We’ve been planning, brainstorming, sketching in our notebooks and visiting each other’s studios in order to learn more about one another’s style, ideas, art form, and expectations. It has been exciting to collaborate with another artist on a project and we have gotten off to an incredible start despite one hip replacement surgery (me) and 4-year old twins (Jane)! I have found Jane to be a fountain of inspiration with an incredible eye for style and design. My most memorable moment so far has been watching Jane play with and pick out colors from my glass inventory, creating a palette from which I would create glass beads. Pulling out the pretty rods of glass is sort of like opening a brand new box of crayons, but without the fabulous smell. It’s good.
So far, I’ve experimented with nails and screws in glass beads (see last month’s posts) and I’ve really enjoyed creating the most recent Earth and Water inspired bead set which I will feature below. Next, I am going to focus on truly Earthen tones, and see what inspiration is derived therein.