So lately there has been a HUGE movement in using silver glass in beads. When I first started (13 years ago) there was no such thing as silver glass in COE 104. We had color reactions between two glass colors (ie ivory/turquoise) and Michael Barley was using silver leaf to create beautiful reactions in his beads.
Now silver glass is the new "hot" thing. It is beautiful don't get me wrong and I have seen many beautiful beads using it, but I have also seen less and less of basic skills, and regular glass being used lately. Beads begin to all look the same.
I love the restrictions that regular glass and basic tools put on a glass artist. It forces the artist to think out of the box and use your basic skill sets in a new a different ways. How can one persons dot look different than another artists dot. They can, it just depends on how you see your dot.
I have played with silver glass and I do like it, but my heart belongs to using good ole moretti and my good ole tools and what my little ole head can dream of.
Want some great inspiration, from some great artists?
Off the top of my head how about Dustin Tabor www.dustintabor.com. Holly Cooper
http://www.hollycooper.com/, Sarah Moran http://www.z-beads.com/, Kate Fowle http://www.katefowle.com/, Lucie Weir http://www.etsy.com/shop/lunacyglass and finally Tom and Sage Holland and my hero Jim Jones (see picture attached). They push all my creative buttons.
I absolutely, totally agree! As a soon-to-try-it-out lampworker, I'm much more interested in playing with BullsEye and Moretti and color than working the chemistry. I had enough chemistry in pre-med.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of beadmakers are coming up with such interesting beads using the basic skills we have been taught (or should have been taught), but they seem to be over looked because the focus seems to be on the success of the silver glass reactions rather than the innovative skill sets of the artist.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I was able to have a lampwork setup briefly in Hong Kong at my last apartment (maybe 4-5 months) and since it had been a while since I had been able to get to the torch, I went back to basics. I'm a little scared of the silver glass because it's expensive. I want to master my basic skills before I even attempt the silvered glass. I was playing with swirls with just basic colors and getting some pretty cool effects with just the basics.
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