Originally Posted by
Solunar Silver Studio
I don't think many people give lampwork beads a second glance unless they have personally tried to keep a gob of molten glass on a mandrel - let alone tried to decorate it! I did have a go at college - the knobbly and wobbly evidence of this is in my profile album! - but decided it wasn't really for me. The bloke I went to college with was really smitten though and has been buying all the gear in the last 2 years. Since he got his oxycon he's been flying! Unfortunately, he has been really ill for the past 6 months - but I go to see him each week and we discuss all things beady and he shows me what he has made and sometimes how he has made them. Watching him add 50 or more dots of glass one on top of another, over and over, all round the bead, creating amazing concentric ring patterns and taking ages just for one bead makes you very respectful of what lampworkers create.
I am lucky enough to be able to pick up his waifs and strays...and his 'sh*t beads' as he calls them for peanuts! He might not be happy with them but I can see posibilities!!
Amazing as they are - I wouldn't be able to afford to buy sets - and I can understand how people who don't know the process behind making them just view them as bits of glass - with no real intrinsic value! But isn't that the same with all crafts? You hear people say - "You don't have to pay that for it - I could make you one!" - when looking at a piece you know has taken hours and hours to make using skills honed over a period of many years! People think all this stuff is easy - until they have a go.....!!
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