lampwork beads Archives

Artistic collaboration: A sparkling virtual art show

November 12, 2020 1 Comment

Celebrating collaboration

As an artist, I’ve shared before how inspiring and uplifting it is to collaborate with fellow creatives. Just recently, I started back to meeting weekly with my local artistic ally, Kathleen Mattox to talk about all things art. Even if we’re physically distancing, this connection is vital.

Last month, when I saw two of my favorite lampwork glass artists’ gorgeous online show, I just had to cheer. Kerri Fuhr Keffeler and Stephanie Dieleman have been friends for almost 15 years and, in Kerri’s words, “met over their mutual love of beads.” Their creations end up in my own designs all the time.

In this month’s post, I want to celebrate their inspiring collaboration. If you’re a fan of beautiful glass lampwork beads and jewelry, you’re in for a treat! Feast your eyes on their stunning work from a recent online show and look for an announcement about upcoming plans.

(c)Kerri Fuhr Keffeler, used with permission

(c)Stephanie Dieleman, used with permission

Stephanie: “We’ve always done shows together — you only have to pack half the boxes! We usually do artisan shows in US and Canada, but they’re all closed. I wanted to place to sell not just jewelry and interact with customers. We’d been losing that.”

(c)Stephanie Dieleman, used with permission

(c)Kerri Fuhr Keffeler, used with permission

Kerri: “Selling online is much less hassle, gives us more time to be in the studio creating beads and jewelry for our amazing customers. We each have a large customer base and many of our customers purchase from us both, so it seemed practical to group everyone together into one online space where they could easily purchase from both of us.”

(c)Kerri Fuhr Keffeler, used with permission

(c)Stephanie Dieleman, used with permission

Perhaps some would not be willing to share the spotlight, but Kerri and Stephanie understand the many benefits of collaborating with other artists.

Stephanie: “We’re there to support each other. ‘You make lunch, and I’ll post on Facebook.’ It’s nice to have a partner, since we make beads by ourselves all the time!”

(c)Stephanie Dieleman, used with permission

(c)Kerri Fuhr Keffeler, used with permission

Kerri: “It’s so much fun being able to do this together since we know each other so well and we are used to working together as we have in our travelling show days.”

(c)Kerri Fuhr Keffeler, used with permission

(c)Stephanie Dieleman, used with permission

Kerri: “The beauty of online shows is that we can host a show together, even though we live far apart. It’s also really helpful to have two of us to take care of group administration and make sure that our shows run smoothly and that we are able to keep our customers happy and entertained.”

(c)Kerri Fuhr Keffeler, used with permission

(c)Stephanie Dieleman, used with permission

Announcing the next Stephanie and Kerri Show: Black Friday weekend

Stephanie: “The next show is massive—three days starting November 27th, the day after U.S. Thanksgiving. It will be the biggest show of the year with the best bonuses and giveaways.”

If you would like to view and participate, join their Facebook group. I’ll be there too, cheering them on!

The Stephanie and Kerri Show (Facebook group)

Creativity while recuperating

June 30, 2020 Leave a Comment

It’s surprising how often we need two hands or a healthy shoulder to make art. We don’t realize it until something is out of commission.

Last month, I finally had a postponed elective surgery on my left shoulder, and I’m recuperating well. However, it’s curtailed everything from cooking and sound sleep to creating art. My work has come to a screeching halt.

Thankfully, while my shoulder mends, my imagination and creativity can still play. Somehow not being able has me thinking more than usual about what I would create if I could.

Lately, my mind has been returning to a project I was working on last fall—creating pendants with art glass (lampwork) animal beads. Some of the beads feature realistic heads and faces in beautiful detail like this Heron by artist Kerri Keffler that I’ve set in silver wire.

Others are playful, like these charming character beads by Catherine Steele.

Another of my current favorite beads are by artist Tammy Mercier. Her beads are stylized, realistic-looking animals that feature striking color combinations. The leopards below include silver and pink!

If I could use my shoulder, I’d be working on this series of sophisticated critter necklaces. In fact, I have a couple in the works that I need to pick up again once I regain the strength and dexterity in my left hand.

One of my Works in Progress (WiP) is this Lion bead by Kerri Keffler in a scrolled, embellished wire setting.

While I recover, I’m missing my wire. Creating beautiful jewelry with these stunning beads is one of my favorite activities. In the meantime, using my imagination is helping me feel excited about getting back to my bench. When I’m healed enough, I look forward to creating again!

Inspiration for setting focal beads

June 16, 2019 Leave a Comment

Big beads deserve a special setting.

Have you ever struggled with setting focal beads? If you’re like me, you have at least one large, gorgeous bead tucked away that seems almost to beautiful and precious to use.

The problem with saving those special beads is that they never get the attention they deserve. In this post, I hope to inspire you to finally bring those gorgeous beads into the light by sharing some of the ways to listen to what your bead wants to become.

First, some inspiration!

Setting focal beads can be surprisingly easy when you ask the right questions. Any time I’m about to set a dramatic focal bead, I ask myself What’s the theme of this bead? In other words, what do I want to highlight and tell a story about? The bead might have a playful feeling that reminds me of blowing bubbles as a child. That image can inspire lots of creative details and use of color with accent beads and wire embellishments. Start with curiosity.

In the following examples, you can see how each bead inspires the setting and design:

I adore this bead with little birds in a row. I knew that I wanted them to be sitting in a tree, so this inspired the circular, leafy setting around it.
Bead Artist: Jessie Tesolin

This unicorn bead by Keri Fuhr reminded me of a carousel horse. While I didn’t want a literal amusement ride, my thought is a setting of whirls and swirls to convey movement.
Bead Artist: Kerri Fuhr

I love dragons, can you tell? This baby dragon has quite a personality and seemed very royal to me. Befitting a prince, I gave him a formal and ornate setting.
Bead Artist: Kerri Fuhr

With this beautiful heron lampwork bead, the place where these birds live inspired a setting that evokes water and reeds. The setting echoes swirls of water and aquatic plants.
Bead Artist: Kerri Fuhr

This stunning collection of focal beads needed a dramatic setting that would highlight their beauty without concealing a single detail. The resulting piece, Breatplate for Ninsun, was an entry for Bead Dreams a few years ago and one of the first times I played with a really special setting.
Bead Artist: Gail Crosman Moore

BreastPlate for Ninson wire art necklace (c) Melanie Schow

This is a character bead—almost cartoon-y—and it didn’t really need anything fancy. Instead, the setting is made up of just a few accents that pull in the bright ketchup and mustard colors.
Bead Artist: Tammy Mercier

Second, a challenge and a class!

By starting with curiosity, you can create magic. If you struggle with setting focal beads or have a few languishing, I challenge you to spend some time looking at each one to see what themes or stories it brings up. How you would use your artistic skills and techniques to highlight them?

You’re invited to try setting focal beads with me! If you’re close to California, consider attending my upcoming July class at Creative Castle called Framed: A Dramatic Wire Setting.

In this one-day class, you’ll bring a focal bead you love (or buy one there) and learn how to use your skills to highlight its unique-ness and beauty. With my guidance, you’ll design a custom setting that frames and really shows off your treasure. I can show you how fun setting focal beads can be! Whether it’s stone, pictorial, or beautiful glass, you will end up with a bead that shines—and new confidence to work through your neglected stash.

See full details here!

Give your focal beads some love

Are you ready to be brave and creative setting focal beads? Open up the stash soon and discover how fun it can be to listen to your beads.

Cows or no cows, creativity finds a way

October 23, 2018 4 Comments

At the risk of repeating myself, running a farm takes a lot of time. I’ve been pulled in so many directions this year that I’m not creating wire art as consistently as in 2017.

Here’s the amazing thing. When you’re creative, you almost can’t help but make things no matter what is going on. Whether a giant tree comes down on the power lines or a cow ends up in the neighbor’s pasture, creativity finds a way to keep flowing.

This post is a show-and-tell to share ways art is still finding a way into my life.

Creative outlet 1: Moodboard

I’ve been creating my own Project Runway. Design your Fall Collection, a class on Seamwork.com, helped me identify my personal style and inspired me to create a turtleneck dress. This is the 38-piece printable pattern I’m working from (invisible tape not included).

Although it’s been years since I sewed, the creative muscle memory from Home Ec in 7th grade is still there. Sitting in front of the machine, I know what I need to look at, where things go, and it’s like riding a bicycle. I love it!

Creative outlet 2: Beads

Just because my studio time is limited doesn’t mean I stop looking for new inspiration. My love for lampwork glass beads is unending. This recent arrival from Russia (by artist, Olga Vilnova) inspires me. Just look at the detail and colors!

Creative outlet 3: Shows

Ask any artist. Having a deadline to show your work is motivating. I was thrilled that my In the Doghouse piece was juried into the Celebrate Agriculture with the Arts event last month. While I was finishing that for the deadline, another piece was brewing. For now, it’s resting (that’s an important part of the creative process), but I love it.

My vision is of bees flying their curlicue path among the flowers and barbed wire around the farms where we live. It might become a display with a wearable art pendant, but since the “Ag Show” is here and gone, I’m thinking about next year’s Blossom Trail art events. Sneak peek! Here’s what it looks like so far.

Creative outlet 4: Quilting class

Invited by my dear creative friend and artist, Kathleen Mattox, I’m taking a quilting class and have already started on two pieces. The first is a baby animals quilt. Of course there’s a calf in it.

The other is a fun and colorful birdhouse quilt. Here it is, laid out in pieces on the kitchen counter (because where else would you put it?), ready to be sewn together.

Creative outlet 5: Knitting

At night while we relax in front of the television, I’m knitting with fibers I love for their texture, color, and variety. My hands are on the go! This lovely gradient shawl is one of my works in progress.

When you love color and texture, all the sparkly, colorful, and shiny things just work their way into your life. It’s fun to show you what I HAVE been up to creatively and see it all in one place. It’s a reminder that even as farm life happens around me, being creative is just who I am.

Top of Their Glass: More of my favorite lampwork artists

June 13, 2018 Leave a Comment

Lampwork artists work magic with glass and extreme heat. Each bead is a tiny world that draws you in with its graceful, flowing lines. A second look reveals details you didn’t notice at first. It doesn’t take long to fall under the spell of this magical art form of molten glass and perfect timing.

When I hold an artist’s glass bead in my hand and inspect it under my magnifier, it reminds me of my days studying botany. The closer you look, the more you can see the heart and talent of the lampwork artists who create these tiny works of art.

Making jewelry with art glass

Often when I’m looking closely at a lampwork bead, I have a moment of clarity and inspiration: I know what I’m going to make with this! Almost as if the bead is showing me how to turn it into art. Sometimes I notice a subtle color in the background, a cluster of flowers, or waves in the glass as they twist and swirl that speak to me. I follow that. Almost always, you’ll see the lampwork themes echoed in the final piece I create.

More of my favorite lampwork glass artists

Continued from the feature in April, I’m delighted to share with you three more of my lampwork artists’ inspirations. I collect these creations for my art jewelry (and I sometimes have favorites I don’t want to let go of!). I love these artists’ creativity, sense of humor, and willingness to stretch outside of their usual genres and experiment.

Please enjoy this picture-filled post of their unique styles and the work they inspire in me!

Kathleen “Kayo” O’Connor

Every one of Kayo’s glass beads has character and personality. Her black cats are always making mischief or looking innocent. Her lampwork beads are fun to turn into pendants for colorful whimsey. Here are three of my pieces featuring her work.

Tammy Mercier

One of my favorite things about Tammy Mercier is that she’s not afraid to try something new. Her work is inspiring and diverse—from abstract to floral, and from realistic critters to heirloom pieces.

“Free-form horses are the most challenging,” she told me. “It’s hard to find a place for the hole. And because of the shape of the horse’s head and neck, I have to fight the entire time for it not to form a ball.” Not surprisingly, each of her whimsical, colorful beads take up to five hours to create.

Melanie’s necklace with Tammy’s work

This greyhound is one of Tammy’s beads, and I just love its character. From the lampwork bead design, I pulled in the rosy pink with pearls that show off this girl’s classy side.

Joy Munshower

As an experienced bronze sculptor and ceramicist, the level of detail in Joy’s lampwork wildlife beads is stunning. Her Etsy shop is like a walk through the jungle, a swim in the ocean, and a stroll through a pasture full of horses. I marvel at her ability to capture animals’ personalities—and even facial expressions—in glass.

Melanie’s wire art with Joy’s beads

I fell in love with one of Joy’s otters, which became the focal piece for my wire art sculpture, Same Ocean, New Tide. I entered it in the Madera Circle Gallery show, A New Journey. Notice how Joy’s flowing aqua waves surrounding this playful creature continue into my metal swirls and scrolls.

Another of Joy’s beads became Morning Song. This handsome rooster anchored one of my first entries in the Madera Art Council’s Celebrate Agriculture and the Arts Show in 2015. In wire, I imagined his call spiraling out to greet the morning.

Artists for artists

I love the interplay between these lampwork artists creations and my own. If you enjoy the art you see here, be sure to follow these talented artists’ social media accounts and say hi!

Lampwork glass at the heart of my art

April 18, 2018 Leave a Comment

Lampwork glass and wire, together

Lampwork is the art of making glass beads in the fire of a lamp or torch. At the center of my wire art jewelry, often, are other artists.

I love working with wire. I love its challenges and the creativity that wire inspires in me. Although I’ve dabbled in other mediums, wire suits me best. But I also love the depth, color, and variety of lampwork focal pieces.

As I watched glass artists at their craft, I realized that no matter how gorgeous, I didn’t want to learn this craft just to have beautiful focal beads (plus fire—ack!). It is intricate, delicate work. So instead, I’ve become a connoisseur of lampwork and the artists who create using glass.

Borne of fire

Each lampwork bead has layers and layers of glass from rods and tiny shards that artists work in a flame. The flame makes the glass fluid; it melts as they work, so they have to keep the piece in motion to keep it from dripping to the floor. It’s mesmerizing to watch.

Some of my favorite lampwork artists

This month, some of my favorite talented lampwork artists are allowing me to feature them in this post, hard at work. Read on for a sneak peek into some of the art they’re creating right now.

Gail Crosman Moore

Gail’s studio is in Provincetown, MA and has won many awards for her glass art. She uses various types of glass and her use of materials continues to expand. Often her work features metal or fiber along with the glass.

Gail’s glass art in progress

Here are three of Gail’s recent works:

My necklace, Breastplate for Ninsun, features beads by Gail.

Molly Cooley

Molly’s studio, Windswept Tree Glass Art, is in Michigan. She told me, “My space is a complete mess…for some reason I can’t create if it’s clean!” (It looks colorful and gorgeous to me!)

Here are two of Molly’s recent works:

This is a holiday-themed necklace I made with one of her tree-themed pieces.

Viktorija Vait

A few months ago, we featured one of Viktorija’s peices. She’s located in Lithuania and many of her beads are mix of both glass and paint (Etsy).

With Viktorija’s lampwork red bird bead, I created this necklace:

The best part of buying art from different lampwork artists is the variety. There are so many styles—from humorous to artful and everything in between. If I made my own, I’d be much more limited to my style only.

In creating my own art, I love that I get to support other artists. Be sure to check out what these talented women are creating!