Summer 2021 Creativity Challenge
Creative Freedom
Congratulations to Mary-Claire O'Neill!
Share what sparks your inner joy to help inspire others.
Artist Statement
Chapter: So Cal Flame Surfers (Southern California)
My creativity is often sparked by participating in the Beads of Courage Dream Bead program, where the children request a specific type of bead. The ant and football club jersey beads are examples, where I applied techniques learned from recent online classes or Gathering presentations to turn the child's idea into reality.
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Artist Statement
Hello everyone
This is my baby fish :).
I learned the technique about 4 years ago in a course by Claudia Trimbur-Pagel.
It was very inspiring.
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Artist Statement
I took Jennie Braid Lamb's "Beneath the Waves Reef Beads" class offered with The Gathering and had a great time making and setting murrini. So I thought I'd get out from "beneath the waves" and take my own little stroll "into the garden", using some of the techniques from Jennie's class. I am president of the New England Chapter ISGB.
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Artist Statement
The work I selected for this challenge is a brooch, hope everybody enjoys it as I enjoy doing it by mixing glass, textile, and metal.
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Artist Statement
Have been a Lampwork Bead Maker since. 2004.
I'm still as excited as the day I started.
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I'm Cynthia Konow-Brownell, from San Diego, CA. I've been lampworking for over 20 years and have always struggled with implosions. Bea Stortz's class changed all of that with her instruction in a very different technique. I'm having so much fun exploring!
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Artist Statement
This was my first attempt at trying to see what would happen if I tried to make a sculptural bead inside of a cupped bead. My 3 year old niece has a fairy garden at her house and we had been discussing the fairies who live there. She told me that they take naps in the leaves so of course I came home and thought I'd try one. If you are going to try one, the teacher in me has to add some pointers... be sure to think of the order in which to add body parts and then add finishing touches. The glass for the fairy often needs to go in a little hotter than usual and be sure to keep that leaf warm.
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I love to see the glass reactions when designing with shards and heat. It feels like painting with watercolor and exploring transparencies. Each bead holds surprises.
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In the year before COVID, I had the opportunity to take some workshops from Elena Hernburg and Bea Stoertz. Last Fall, while social distancing, I decided to work my way through my class notes. This is one of the many pendants that were inspired by time spent with these two wonderful lamp-workers, who challenged me to master some new and exciting techniques!
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Artist Statement
I volunteer for an anti-trafficking ministry, so this bead tells their story and allowed me to hone several techniques in one bead. The Table on Delk helps women in or at risk of trafficking or prostitution find hope and plans for a future by volunteers giving them encouragement, kindness, and resources to move from “darkness to light.” This bead has a beginning (base) in dark colors with messy and jagged surface, including copper mesh to represent the entrapment these women experience. There are drops of blood and tears to show the toll on their lives, and sometimes children, too. The “prison bars” break apart in pieces and there is a cloudy middle with some blue skies, and finally, clear blue sky, sun and a smooth surface at the top of the bead, to represent the ideal resolution we hope all women will realize. This non-profit is a faith-based organization, so there is a goldstone stringer cross to show the prominent seeds of faith that underpin everything, facilitating the transition from darkness to light. The symbol of the Table on Delk is a yellow rose, made with stringer, as this flower is given to each new guest to honor them and show them they are valued and worthy. Any of my beads I sell, all profits go to this ministry and other charities.
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Artist Statement
Pumpkin focal bracelet and matching earrings. The bracelet beads are soft glass, w/acrylic manufactured spacers, and the earrings are boro.
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I live in Alaska and enjoy the freedom that working in glass gives me, where every piece that’s created is an “original”, and I can’t wait to see each finished creation. The long Winter nights in Alaska are spectacular, with the millions of visible stars twinkling in the crystal clear skies, and the Northern Lights dancing across them. This pendant and earring set titled “Starry Night” is an attempt at recreating that view by using purple, blue and green dichroic powder, encased and floating in clear borosilicate glass over a black background.
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Here is my entry for the August challenge on my giant ring obsession after Kristina Logan’s Makers and Creators webinar! After not making giant rings for almost 10 years, Kristina’s outstanding demo got me digging out my large mandrels - from 1/2 to 1” - sanded off the rust and went to work! Once I got back into the groove, I did some in my popular Scheherazade series (left two) then combined the newly named Opulence Giant Ring series (right) with some hybrid (second from the right), too! It also opened a whole new world of combining fun colors in my stash - ASK, CiM, Vetrofond, Reichenbach 104 that I haven’t touched in years! What fun! Thank you, ISGB, for creating venues that continue to educate and inspire!
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Artist Statement
I decided to make a flower bead as they are my favorite kind of bead to make. Here are 3 views of the same bead. The background is Stoneground and Fire Lotus with some silver leaf.
I am a member of Silicon Valley Fireflies and Arizona Society of Glass Beadmakers.
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Creativity Challenges
Summer Entries
