If you experience emotions when looking at the fire, running clouds in the sky or a babbling mountain stream, it is almost always a sense of wonder. I also have such a feeling when touching "drops" of colored glass, it's magic, I do not pick up another word. Many of us in childhood during the game loved to see the world through colored pieces of broken glass because everything became strange and magical.
Glass beads accompanied human civilization for thousands of years, it is an indicator of the development of crafts, welfare and trade ties. From pharaonic Egypt and to the Scandinavian Vikings, from the ancient Sarmatians to the present day glass beads are like colorful frozen droplets of time strung on a necklace of Human History.
So, when I saw the work of the well known Danish lampwork artist (about 3 years ago), not knowing the basics of this craft, I fell in love with this idea and began to collect information about the tools, equipment and materials, and began to try different glass. Now I use in my work materials by Effetre (former Moretti company). I'm completely satisfied with the quality and palette of the produced by this remarkable manufacturer.
It may seem a trivial form of my beads but believe me, it is not easy to make the ideal toroidal shape and meet conceived design. Small beads should properly display the palette and pattern to the person who has taken a bead in hand to get him study it for a few minutes and find new and new nuances. Lampwork is both an art and a craft.
From the beginning I wanted to create my own line of glass and silver beads that the price would be affordable to a very wide range of fans and artists (from students to retirees), and the quality and design were not worse in comparison to the best samples in this area. My motto is "Find the drops of the rainbow"; I mean that any person who is not indifferent to such things is able to find interesting patterns.
Silver beads of my collection are a good addition to the glass beads and a beautiful accent in bracelets and necklaces. Ideas for them come from life; I think that it happens at all those involved in craft and artwork. Silver and glass beads can be combined in jewelry according to your mood, which gives you the opportunity to realize your new ideas in creating jewelry.
This is a very practical idea is not mine, and many well known companies, such as Trollbeads, Pandora and others use it in their collections. Everyone has the right to make his choice in favor of one or another manufacturer. The most important is that a piece of jewelry could reflect artist's inner world and the mood and could grant a joy and a little holiday to a wearer.
My silver beads are around 10-12mm (0.35-0.5 inches), the master models for manufacturing them are made by my sketches by several artists sculptors. It is a long and complex process and the way from the idea to the result takes much time. Since I have my own foundry, then I'm pretty independent to work on my plans. I have two assistants, with whom I'm designing and developing lampwork beads.
My small business is called "Fiery mask" ("Ugnies kauke" in Lithuanian), my studio and workshop are located in Vilnius. That is a small room of about 75 square meters (about 810 square feet) where I have a foundry and workspaces for jewelers and lampworkers. I sell my beads at auctions like Ebay and at the craft shows. I also plan to create a commercial website and to sell the beads in small souvenir and gift shops in small resort towns.
Lampwork pandora beads
Sterling silver beads samples
About author:
| Michael Ivanov, Vilnius, Lithuania | |
| Email address: | kauke69@mail.ru |
