July 2020 Creativity Challenge
Irregular Shapes
Congratulations to Cynthia Konow-Brownell!
Thank you to our sponsor! 
Artist Statement
Dear friends of glass
Whether cubic, angular and round, whether large or small, I like the glass beads All.
This time I was inspired by my coffee cups.
For these two glass beads I used opaque white and blue and in the middle of the square glass bead I put a murrini on all sides.
Pearly greetings
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Artist Statement
Filigrana discs and hollows with Swarovski crystal embellishments. Strung on a crocheted wire mesh.
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Artist Statement
As our world continues to navigate uncharted waters through the Covid-19 pandemic, I’ve communicated with friends who are finding it difficult to focus and motivate themselves to continue their work. It’s been a comfort to talk with some who have expressed the same disconnect from their artistic self and vision that I’ve been feeling as of late. I decided to look at some beads that I had made in the first year or two that I had been making beads, when I was experimenting with tools and pushing, pulling and squashing glass to any shape that might happen. This exercise and the resulting beads have allowed me to look toward additional design possibilities and allowed me to feel more of a connection with myself by exploring my past.
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Artist Statement
I’m grateful for this new ISGB challenge. I believe this type of proposal gives us a good chance to improve our skills and designs.
I had a huge brain storm and it took me a lot of hours to get my design to come alive.
Thinking on irregular forms allows me to focus on light, color and movement as the main aspect of my design. I worked with Murano glass, my piece has blown beads and twisted ones.
Then I assembled the beads in a silver/copper ring.
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Artist Statement
To understand my thought process, it's easiest to have a glimpse of how my brain works, so says my husband. So, description of a thing + first thought to enter my head + either instantly thinking of song lyrics or movie titles = end product.
When thinking of irregular shapes, I instantly thought of nature, then water, then the movie "The Shape of Water" (even though I've never actually SEEN that movie).
In these crazy irregular times I've found myself taking many isolated mindfulness walks to keep myself grounded. Living on an island most of my life I've always been drawn to the ocean to clear my mind and recharge my soul. Even though I don't live on that island anymore my heart is still drawn there and to my favorite spot on the ocean shore watching the waves come in, dance on the sand and retreat back to the surf.
This bead now resides in my garden catching the sun and reminding me of my island home. I'll get back there someday.
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Artist Statement
I'm Cynthia Konow-Brownell and I've been lampworking for over 20 years. Most of my work has been in soft glass, but I've been trying to branch out to borosilicate. I love its structural possibilities! I've been wanting to make a candle holder, or menorah, for the festival of Chanukah. The idea struck me as I was wasting time playing a video game that involved saving baby dragons!
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Irregular shape background: My challenge would be to make a "regular shape" bead. Sculptural glass lends itself to irregular shapes. This one is a little more complicated by making the pea pod on a slight angle and then filling it with a little dragon whose tail drapes over the side.
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Jody Lee of a Studio by the Sea is a native Californian who recently returned to her home state after many years in New York working as an illustrator in book publishing. Lampworking is a blend of hobby and secondary income stream. Most of her work in glass is inspired by the ocean, its colors and its creatures in tide pools. She tries to make whatever her inspiration and imagination takes her, and in this case, it was fairy houses!
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I love how glass can morph not only to mimic other material but that we can fashion it to tell a story.
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I had been working on the technique for blowing perfectly round hollow beads since the start of quarantine. This latest set is much more expressive of my current mood, and certainly more cathartic to create. The Hulk inspired the colors as well as the impassioned smashing. These squashed and pulled hollow irregular shapes represent "2020" much better than any perfectly planned and executed bead.
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I call this bead “Boston Tea Party.” While teacups are considered a symbol of hope and dogs represent loyalty, protection and love, I thought the pairing would create something uplifting for people to see in these challenging times.
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These are darkest Amethyst Purple w/raku accents that go through many stages to become the "Earth Fracture" that it is. Love to make beads that need no silver or accent beads to make a stunning necklace. These range from 26-25 mm wide X 32-21 mm hole-to-hole. Always make a pair perfect for earrings, very light weight; less glass, smaller barrel and pressed tight. They are first a barrel, where they are decorated, then a bi-cone for those perfect holes, pressed in a spiral mold and lastly cut into the bead, plus you can add dots after the flame bath to remove the marks the cutters leave. These beads lay so nice and flat against your body, perfect for chokers to full length necklaces.
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I love a challenge or a purpose when I sit at the torch, but often the glass just goes where it wants and I go with it. I have made many irregular shape beads, but this one just appeared when I was actually working on another project and it seemed fitting in so many ways. During these irregular times we are spending so much time on various screens that I figured my creative subconscious created this self portrait of me during these Irregular times.
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North Westcoast Totem design.
Traditional native designs are interpreted in this totem; with ocean spirits and surf. The raven sits atop the cedar hat watching for the Chinook.
This totem has been built from cedar block, 104 COE Effetre & Double Helix Glass. I form the ovoids of the design by allowing gravity to pull the placed dot formations towards the direction I preheat. This technique loans itself beautifully to the purpose.
I love being able to showcase my cultural influences in my work.
I have been glass working since 2001 and have learned a lot in my adventure in glass. I have studied under incredible teachers and have picked up may very interesting techniques, some from others, and some self taught and discovered. Glass endlessly evolves.
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This is the perfect challenge to unite my glass artistry with my love of rocks and stones. I often try to make unique and different things with glass and the Inukshuk had been on my mind for some time.
Rather than having a mandrel hole through each unit, I created each of these glass rock like shapes, off mandrel. I used an industrial epoxy to adhere them to each other.
The Inukshuk is a structure of stacked stones in human form, traditionally used by Inuit people as directional markers, landmarks or commemorative signs. They can also signify safety, hope and friendship that transcends borders to reach people all over the world.
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When thinking of irregular beads, I think of natural, organic shapes. Here are two baby sea turtles drifting over some coral reefs. My inspiration came after taking a class with Kim Fields.
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I was inspired to make seahorses after watching a video tutorial by Marcy Lamberson. I have been practicing them ever since.
I decided an under ocean scene would be perfect for an irregular shaped bead. I made a barrel out of CIM Kryptonite and then pressed it into a rectangle. I then used a brass rod to make the rectangle irregular. More irregular sea grass shapes were added.
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My Inspiration for irregular shapes was my mother's favorite brass frog ashtray that I always thought looked so weird! She passed away when I was 21 of lung cancer, she was 52, I now have the same battle. This is bitter sweet of course since it was always overflowing at her desk. I quit smoking and ramped up my health with exercise and healthy eating 5 years ago, lost 100 pounds rollerblading, but something was too late. Anyway, even with what it's for, this ashtray has always been very dear to me. I'm so happy I accomplished it!
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Nature is all about movement and gentle curves. I want you to want to caress this blown vessel; to feel part of the liquid it holds. The fairy on the bottle top carefully holds a single cubic zirconia like a glistening tear. It's a bottle for fairies’ tears.
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This bead is a very irregular variation on a design I have made for 14 years. It is ocean-like in its transparent colors when back-lit and hints at shells in its curling shape. I miss the ocean terribly, as I moved from the beach to the desert. Sun is good, but the ocean is still such a part of me that it often expresses in my beads. Can’t wait for regular travel to open up again so I can spend a long time at the ocean, walking the beach, looking for sea glass and shells.
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I'd like to submit my glass jewel: THORNY necklace. This is an iconic creation that belongs to my IRONIC creations.
TECHNIQUE Blown glass and sandblasting
About me:
I'm a researcher of forms; my creations have always been distinguished by this research, even in the period when I was training, during my studies, stages or workshops.
What I've found in glass and the glass blowing technique is the ideal and proper means to push this personal research forward.
My artistic path concerns the attempt to let Murano glass jewels which are tied to the thousand-year-old history of decoration since forever, to have a new contemporaneity.
Among the numerous glass-working techniques, I've chosen the blowpipe technique because it's based upon instant actions, and it requires precision and ability of gestures that make the glass even more versatile. This method allows improvisation to have much larger edges so I can better express my creativity.
Creativity is an urgency, a spontaneous gesture, a moment, a mood. I'm not in search of the perfect glass bead, but of an object that is in harmony with the environment surrounding it, coherent and close to my creative impulse.
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