be a glass artist

I’ve dreamed of working with glass since I was little (I especially liked glass marbles). So I got off my butt and took a glassworking class at the Crucible in Oakland. It was awesome. My teacher, Kaj, was really encouraging about having me start working glass on my own, but not having a permanent place to live precludes setting up a home studio. My next steps are: find a good place to buy glass rods, and find a studio to rent time in. Public Glass in Bayview seems to have good rates (much better than the Crucible). Now to find the time…

I tech at 2 studios here in brooklyn, and I like it alot, I teach, blow, coldwork, and charge just like I used to, just as it should be.

I want to start by covering my first guitar with a stained glass mosaïc and progress onwards from there. I’ve been fascinated with glass ever since I was a child, from marbles to Tiffany Dragonfly lamps and full scale church windows I’ve always thought it was beautiful. I love the look of blown glass sculptures even more but I cant realisticly expect to be like Dale Chihuly and still have time for all my other ambitions. Thinking of a pattern seems to be the hardest part at the moment. Do I try to reproduce an image, stick to a certain colour scheme or simply go for an all out sporatic opus palladianum ? I was thinking of trying to do bleu II by Miro or maybe a colour inversion of a Mondrian piece that would use no white. I think a colourful Mondrian would look nice but if I only have one go at this I would like to use different tiles rather than a series of squares.

I have a degree in glass, and I know a hell of a lot of tricks…
wtf is my problem?

I want to make beads that other people will love and want to buy from me. I’m not sure yet exactly what style of beads I will be making, but it will not be just today’s hot style of beads. I’m going to make beads that I love, and then let other people that love them have them.

As of now I have been flameworking for almost eight months, though for the first three I did very little since I didn’t have my studio and equipment set up. I can make basic round beads somewhat consistently; I can make barrels and olives that look more or less like they are supposed to, though they still need control. I don’t have much consistent control over pressing yet. As for decoration, I can sort of handle frit, but I need PPP with stringers and dots.