Archived Featured Bead Artists
Ania Karolina Kyte,
Amy Waldman Engel,
Barrie Edwards,
Jodi Lindsey,
Rebecca Voris,
Karen Elmquist,
Allison Turner,
Debbie Dimoff,
Margaret Zinser,
Slava Popov,
Faith Davis Ferris,
Helen Harvest,
Dwyn Tomlinson,
Kristy Naray,
Connie Paul,
Rosemary Tottosy,
Jennifer Gurganux,
Jinx Garza,
Nikki Lynn Carollo,
Cathy Lybarger
by: Dwyn Tomlinson
|
Beading Times: How
long have you been making beads?
Beading Times: What
got you started making beads? |
 photo by Steven Elphick, Toronto |
| I think my main inspiration to collect lampwork beads, and then to start making them myself, was Cindy Jenkin's original picture-omnibus book, Making Glass Beads. Cindy's great accomplishment was to make almost everyone believe that they too could make those wonderful beads in the many pictures, and thus she broke down a lot of barriers to participation for many people. She's a major reason why there has been such an explosive growth of lampworkers in recent years. | |
Another big push was visiting the Tucson Best Bead Show in the late 1990's and 2000 — all those gorgeous beads clustered in tents in the hot desert sun, around a swimming pool in a small dusty Ho-Jo's with a tiny parking area just off I-10, like a bazaar in a desert oasis. (I'm sure that also got me interested in Bead Shows as well! Now Best Bead II is starting up in a small ballroom and poolside in a hotel, so it's déjà vu all over again…)
I started lampworking using Moretti glass and a lot of surface reduced silver; my favorite lampwork beads at the time were the metal powder abstract work of Renee Roberts and Stevie Belle. I always felt I was pushing or abusing the soft glass beyond normal limits to get what I wanted. Early on in my Moretti work, just after switching from my initial Hothead Torch to a Minor and finishing 20+ pieces for a big bead swap, I discovered a Glass Alchemy sample kit and some clear boro rods and started to play with it. I've done the vast majority of my lampwork in boro (borosilicate or "hard" glass) ever since.
photo by Steven Elphick, Toronto
Beading Times: Were
you interested in making beads before that?
Nancy Meisner: I
did meddle around a bit with polymer clay and did a bit of silver work before
taking up lampworking. I never felt the evident plastic nature of my polymer
clay beads was worthy of my using them in my jewelry.
Beading Times: Did
you take a class?
Nancy Meisner: No,
I'm self-taught.
Beading Times: What
has surprised you most about working with glass?
Nancy Meisner: It's
so hard to stop! There's an enticement about hot glass work that's addictive
(there should be warnings!)
Beading Times: Whose
beads inspire you the most? Is there any one person you would consider to be
a mentor?
Nancy Meisner: I'm
mentored mainly by the beads of others. Originally and continually I'm inspired
by Rene Roberts' beads and by her approach to glass (and also her crossing-over
from trial law to fulltime lampwork!). Her work with raw metal powders as a
surface treatment instead of using colored glass is ground-breaking.
In boro colour, of course Sue-Ellen Fowler is an inspiration to all of us — without her recipes for mixing her own coloured boro from chemicals and clear tubing, we would have no commercial boro colours. And I love her dragons! Others worthy of mention in the boro world are not just beadmakers (as in boro we are influenced by techniques from the sculptural world as well): Bob Mickelson, Milon Townsend, Lewis Wilson; and some beadmakers: in boro: Amy Hafkowitz, Nancy Tobey, Gail Crossman-Moore; in Moretti besides Rene Roberts, Michael Barley and Andrea Guarino. There's a pattern there — all those beadmakers are abstractionists who use relatively few dots and fewer flowers…!
I have had a number of mentors in how to display and show beads, and certainly in the bead show promotion side (Joan Johnson of Bead Renaissance).
Beading Times: You
talk about bead shows, and now you are starting your own. How did that happen?
Nancy Meisner: I've
always loved bead shows! I've experienced all the top three US promoters' shows
and others, to see different ways of doing things.
Why start our own? Well, there are no commercial bead shows in Canada, there are only a few bead society one-day shows, and yet there are so many bead shows in the US! As a vendor or customer in Canada, that's really frustrating. I'd have been delighted if someone else up here had started a show circuit and I would have supported them, but it wasn't happening and I thought it shouldn't wait much longer. So I started one!
Beading Times: So
obviously, you are selling your beads. Where do you sell them?
Nancy Meisner: Of
course! We do a lot of shows all over the place each year, and we have an online
store where we sell our beads, marbles and jewelry, in addition to lampwork
supplies, beading supplies, etc.
photo by Steven Elphick, Toronto
Beading Times: What
does your family think of your beadmaking?
Nancy Meisner: My
partner thought it was interesting so he started doing it too, and now he makes
fully half the beads we sell (Sam Henning) and shares the workload in the e-business
and does a lot of the selling at local shows. He also helps extensively with
show set-up in our new bead show promotion business, the Canadian Bead Oasis
Show, which was very successful in the debut of its annual Toronto show September
2004 (and its new sister show, Canadian Oasis Wearable Art and Craft Show coming
up in 2005). We're very excited about these new shows and some others we are
considering.
Beading Times: What
is it like working with your partner? Is there a synergy in your work, or do
you tend
to work fairly independently to contribute to the whole?
Nancy Meisner: We've
learned in boro that each person's work is really unique — we have trouble
making each other's beads even when we'd like to, even in the production work
in some styles! So we really do divide the work to be done — orders to fill,
inventory to build up for the next big show, etc. We do feed off each other's
discoveries though — the biggest fun in boro is playing and coming up with new
ideas and experiments. When one discovers something neat, despite differences
in personal styles, there's usually some other new idea that the other one will
develop based on seeing that new thing. I guess that's synergy of a sort.
Beading Times: Sam,
Nancy says "you thought it looked interesting." Is that how you remember
it? ;-)
Sam Henning: Yeah!
I've always been fascinated by furnace glass work, and the lampwork form of
glass working was a simple way of playing with glass. A touch of pyromania helps!
Beading Times: What
was it about lampworking that appealed to you.
Sam Henning: As
above, working with molten glass has its attractions. Making something simple
and subtle with elegance that emerges upon closer and continued examination
has a satisfaction factor that is hard to beat — especially when other
people agree!
Beading Times: Did
you also teach yourself, or did you learn it from Nancy?
Sam Henning: Mainly
self taught. Nancy took a few minutes (literally) to show me some basics, and
some reading on my own (as Nancy mentioned), was all. From there on it was just
practice, experiment and learn from my mistakes.
Beading Times: Were
you interested in any part of the jewelry making before that?
Sam Henning: Jewelry
per se — no. I've always liked making "things" — models
when young (which I may yet get back into), software as a career, and now glass,
first as an avocation and now as a vocation.
Beading Times: What
sort of set up do you have for making beads? (Type of torch, gas, kiln, etc.)
Nancy Meisner: We
use a Nortel Red Max torch (with a Minor on top), burning propane and oxygen
from tanks, and an Arrow Springs kiln with a separate digital controller. We
can't use oxygen concentrators as the boro colosrs require a very high-pressure
oxygen setting. We have a custom high-volume hood ventilation system which covers
the entire 7' worktable including the kiln, and is driven by a 16" squirrel-cage
fan that resides outside the studio (for lower noise) and is connected to the
hood by 8" flexible ducting. The ventilation system can suck most of the
heat out of the studio in winter in short order but we believe that at least
this level of ventilation is essential for hot glass work whether you do Moretti
or boro.
Beading Times: Surely
you have two torches?
Nancy Meisner: At
present, we share a torch and take turns! There is so much other work on the
business side, that it's usually easy to do. But there are times when we could
certainly use a bigger studio. Right now it's a space limitation (to have enough
counter space under ventilation for 2 torches, 2 kilns, plus piles of frit containers
and rods and mandrels and tubing etc.) that we're hoping to fix next year.
Now the fun begins when Sam and I take turns on the torch — when I come back to work, where did those rods and frits I had out go...?! We've looked at carts with drawers on wheels but they always becomes really awkward to use. Need to build bigger space...
Beading Times: Do
you have a favorite product, i.e. bead release, glass, etc.
Nancy Meisner: We
sell lampwork supplies through our website, so it's tough to pick favorites.
I do use both Northstar and Glass Alchemy colors interchangeably and often
on the same bead, and I firmly believe that we need most of the colors both
companies provide (and even though there are already over 150 colors of boro,
we still need more). In terms of clear boro (which I don't sell at present)
I prefer Symax, Kimble and Pyrex. I use Fusion Bead Separator.
Red Brocade
Beading Times: Do
you have a favorite technique?
Nancy Meisner: I
love abstraction and color, and the fluid interplay of both. That leads me
to the use of frits, including clear frit, hobnailing, and raking with glass
rods plus tool manipulation, rather than the precise placement of dots or flowers
etc. Boro colors often require clear encasement to bring up certain shades,
and layering of colors gives valuable effects, so encasement is common in most
of our beads.
Beading Times: Hobnailing?
Is this the same as raised bumps, i.e. vintage glassware?
Nancy Meisner: Ah
yes, sorry — hobnailing is a term used in boro a lot, don't know where
it came from, but the first I heard use it was Sue Ellen Fowler. It could have
come from her teacher, John Burton (who was a boro blown-vessel maker and an
early boro color developer who had a popular TV show in the US in the 1960's);
since many many of the boro folk today have been taught by Sue Ellen, I suspect
that's where it came into use. It refers to the adding of raised dots on the
surface of a piece, usually in a geometric pattern — thus the reference
to the hobnail rivets used on leather goods — and is often done with clear,
and can be melted in flat or left raised.
Beading Times: Do
you make sets?
Nancy Meisner: Yes,
we make sets of bracelet/necklace/earring beads. However lately our sales have
been shifting to be dominated by focals, by customer demand. I think part of
this is due to the oversaturation of lampwork on eBay, which is reducing the
value of sets.
|
Beading Times: Which
do you prefer to make, a pile of beads or a single perfect bead?
|
 photo by Jerry Anthony, Utah |
Beading Times: Have
you developed a "signature" bead, a unique type of bead that is recognizably
yours. Tell us about it, how you developed it, etc.
Nancy Meisner: I
guess my variation of the vessel form is my current signature, as the "Jovian"
marble and cylinder beads are for Sam. And of course those Brocade bead sets
(especially red brocade) have become a signature pattern for us. But we experiment
with many forms and color combos, and move on, and we really don't like to
stick with one style only but like to let things evolve.
 Amphorae by Nancy Meisner photo by Steven Elphick, Toronto |
 Amphorae by Sam Henning |
Sam's Jovian marble
Beading Times: Can
you both make the same production beads, or are some exclusively done by one
or the other of you?
Nancy Meisner: Boro
is very changeable stuff — even with the same torch and gas pressures and
same studio conditions, in some styles just the different ways in which people
encase a bead can totally change the colors! So there are some styles that
only I make, or only Sam makes. The rest, we both do, but still in many cases
the results can vary somewhat.
Beading Times: What
was your biggest obstacle to overcome?
Nancy Meisner: I
really am not enamored of torch flames and it remains a relationship of cautious
respect. Also, at the beginning I developed some ineffective habits on a couple
of things like bead ends that I had to work hard on in the early days and overcame.
Sam never had bead-end problems as he read Jim Kervin's booklet on Jim Smircich
before ever making a bead, and he has never made a bead with a weak end.
Beading Times: What
is the hardest kind of bead to make for you?
Nancy Meisner: Vessels
are a love but also a tight-rope walk, as a perfect vessel can be botched by
a bad handle. I only make them periodically, in groups. We both find that repetitively
making a production style can be tough re: motivation, but it is an inevitable
part of the business. Tubing beads are a challenge as we are most used to mandrel
and off-mandrel beads.
Beading Times: What
are "tubing beads?"
Nancy Meisner: In
boro we have all that lovely (mostly) clear tubing in many diameters and several
wall thicknesses, that are made for the scientific glass blowing business (they
blow beakers and even big distilling units and retorts via lampworking, from
glass tubing on a torch, usually also using a glass lathe). In boro beadmaking,
we can make beads in an entirely different method than the more traditional
soft glass lampworking methods (mandrel or punty-based off-mandrel), by blowing
them using tubing. Although the working techniques differ in many ways from
soft glass furnace blowing, and the equipment needed is much less, there are
a lot of similarities too in working blown beads and one can achieve many similar
effects — for boro examples, see Roger Paramore's very Venetian-styled
goblets and Robert Mikelson's Venetian-inspired sculptural vessels, plus the
work of Cesare Toffolo, in various web sites, videos, books and magazines. We
can make hollow beads with inside-out decorations or surface decorations in
a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
Beading Times: The
easiest?
Nancy Meisner: Well,
aside from spacers, some of our production bracelet beads are really fun for
me as they are a release from the effort of other types.
Beading Times: What
is your favorite kind of bead or technique?
Nancy Meisner: Right
now I'm really enjoying the flat focals, and when something is fun, it's easy
no matter how complicated it is. I think Sam enjoys the marbles first but he
has been playing with beads for key chains etc. as well.
marble bead
Beading Times: How
have your beads changed? Since you started or over the years?
Nancy Meisner: They've
gotten bigger, a lot bigger, and techniques have expanded a lot. With our science
background we love to experiment with color combinations and chemistry. The
beads continue to evolve in ways I can't predict.
Beading Times: What
is the science background?
Nancy Meisner: I
have a Masters in Math and a Bachelors in Math, but originally I was in Chemistry
and switched streams, so I have almost enough credits in Chemistry to have gotten
a degree in that instead.
Beading Times: How
does the chemistry background help?
Nancy Meisner: Chemistry,
chemistry, all is chemistry! In a ultra-simplified view, clear glass is just
some special sand and a few chemicals, all melted together. Colored glass is
clear glass with a few more chemicals that are added to give color, brightness,
clarity etc. In boro, the industry is just 15 years down the road from when
artists had to mix their own color recipes from chemical powders, mixing a pinch
of their favorite formula into a clear boro tube and pulling their own color
rods (Sue Ellen Fowler's video has a neat example of her creating her marvelous
version of Amber Purple from a little vial of powder). There are far fewer boro
workers than soft glass workers and boro workers have been working color for
a much shorter period of time (compared to Moretti's claim of 500-year-old formulas);
if you look at pictures of famous glass sculptures of the 1970's by artists
such as Lewis Wilson, you'll note those works were all done in clear.
Many glass colors react chemically with each other, in soft glass or boro, and as things converge in our global exchange of information, you are now seeing Moretti come up with colors like 288 Dk Silver Plum that almost look like boro, and boro developing some colors which have brightness almost like Moretti colors. But there are still many many more reactive colors in boro than in soft glass. When you are working with reactive colors, it really helps to understand the chemistry behind the reactions in coming up with neat color combinations. If you know how to make color A in the first place, it helps you understand how it will react in the flame and with color B.
Beading Times: Do
you still have the first beads you made? What do you think of them now?
Nancy Meisner: I
still have a jar of my first Moretti beads. I think we should all hang on to
our beginner beads, to keep our egos grounded!
Beading Times: What
was your scariest beadmaking experience?
Nancy Meisner: Well,
in boro shops they like to coin different humorous names for those "runaway"
chunks of very hot glass that get away and run around the studio floor! Hopefully
they avoid your lap, and the dog/cat!! We have a porcelain tile floor in our
studio and a sheet metal table top. But in doing off-mandrel work (and sometimes
in mandrel work in boro when you "flash" through a 3/32" mandrel!),
the odd runaway is inevitable.
marble
Beading Times: Have
you had any "glass epiphanies" while working — some revelation or
understanding? What were they?
Nancy Meisner: To
me, hot glass work is a meditation, and provides some of the mind-expansions
that meditation can bring.
Beading Times: Do
you have a technique or method or tip to share?
Nancy Meisner: Boro
beads need light in their cores to shine, and boro color is very expensive
(typically $45+ US per pound) while boro clear is much cheaper than Moretti.
So most boro beads are mainly clear at the core and color built up on the outside.
Beading Times: Have
you "invented" any new tools, or recycled something that wouldn't
ordinarily be thought of as a tool for lampworking?
Nancy Meisner: We
make a lot of our own tools, and buy others. We've used all kinds of household
things for tools. Sam invented a very useful version of a bent hemostat that
we sell that can hold a rod or stringer vertically or horizontally.
Beading Times: Could
you share with us some pictures of your studio set up?
Nancy Meisner: Here
are a couple of desk-top shots (taken with the sidewalls off the hood to get
more natural light for the photos) to show the typical lampworker clutter!
This is what happens to your workspace when you work a lot
in frits and powders — a tall stack of tins of every color, every size, commercially
available and hand-made..
the other side of the table — lots of rods, tools, big tools,
tubing hiding under the kiln... better shot of the torch with the modified torch
marver mount
Some flat focals about to emerge from the small kiln (AF-99).
Beading Times: What
about photographing your beads — what do you use to get your pictures?
Nancy Meisner: We
have tried upside-down plastic food containers and many different lights. We
still prefer daylight outdoors for boro bead photos. All our photos for juried
shows and most ads are done by professional photographers who specialize in
glass (Steven Elphick in Toronto and Jerry Anthony in the US).
Beading Times: Do
you have a website or auction site that you regularly sell you beads on?
Nancy Meisner: Yes,
www.nlmglassarts.com
Beading Times: Do
you sell at shows or in stores or other venues? Do you sell the beads by themselves,
or already made up into jewelry?
Nancy Meisner: We
sell mainly at shows and through our website, and also through a few galleries
and stores. We sell both unstrung beads and our jewelry which uses them, and
we are beginning to sell kits that incorporate our beads, plus instruction booklets.
Beading Times: Where
do you see yourself going with lampworking/glassworking in the future? Or, where
do you see it taking you?
Nancy Meisner: It's
an amazing world filled with some amazing people. I love going to the ISGB (International
Society of Glass Beadmakers) Gathering each year, just to enjoy the powerful
collective "energy" of all those highly creative people in one place.
To me, it typifies the creative rush that lampwork provides.
I would hope to continue boro lampworking in future and letting it develop where it may take me. I suspect that more blown work and larger pieces is a possible new direction for us. We also hope to expand the bead shows to allow more lampworkers and other bead exhibitors to have more opportunities in Canada to show and sell their work/products.
Beading Times: Do
you have a favorite bead, a "best bead." Can you share a photograph
with us?
Nancy Meisner: The
nicest new bead I just made! Of course, no pics yet... That's tough, as I have
a couple of favorites of each style we've evolved through. And many of those
have been sold. We do our big photo sessions once in January and sometimes twice
per year, and for us, a lot happens in a year so our photos lag behind the work
quite a lot.
(photos by Nancy Meisner or Sam Henning, unless credited otherwise)
Beading Times is pleased to present a monthly article spotlighting a lampwork bead artist. If you, or someone you know is interested in being featured, please contact dwyn@beadingtimes.com. Article Copyright 2004 Dwyn Tomlinson. Photos are the property of the featured artist(s) and are used with permission.
