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About MeIf you are here and have already looked at my studio then I assume you want to know more about me personally.
I am now 66 years old. Married with a grown daughter and 2 grandsons also grown.
New box new toy.
Ah ha another new toy! |
I have been a craft person all of my life and for many years was heavy into the creation, teaching and selling of Fabergé Style Egg Art. In 1995 the computer ventured into my life and that started some fairly concentrated learning. Web pages and design were the new kid on the block. Ebay was short on those heels. My interest turned to PhotoShop, Web Design and all that jazz. For those of you in the field back then it was a whirlwind of learning, developing and creating. No one could take a break because next week you would have been left in the dust. So while some of the beading greats were becoming master beaders (our teachers of today)... I was learning to become a computer whiz and web designer. Somehow in all of that fray I ended up owning about 53 web domains housed on my own hosting company. That worked for getting before the public whatever suited my fancy.
About 2 years ago life took an unexpected turn. My mother (then 84) fell and broke her C1 vertebra in 3 places. I brought her to live with me during her recovery. She had to be fitted with a Halo (a device that had screws in her skull that had rigid rods attached to a rigid vest). This device kept her head and neck from moving in order for the vertebra to mend. We got through that 3 months with all but one fracture of the vertebra totally mended. However since she was a heavy smoker (she started at 13) we were informed that the C1 might never totally heal unless she quit smoking. She refused and several months later got pneumonia and suddenly died. It was time for me to retire from my job of 13 years (I was a poker dealer in an Indian Casino near here). My husband and his brother had sold their 55 year old business a couple of years before. So now I had an opportunity to get back out of the work rat race and back to things I really loved doing daily. My daughter was into beading. Making bracelets and necklaces. So I said gee why don't we look for beads on ebay. I was thinking onyx, silver and crystal. Oh my gosh ... what did I find instead? Lampwork!
That was it. My next thought was WOW I bet I could do that? I scoured the area for a teacher and took a private lesson from Viki Cederquist. From that point I was hooked and driven. Does ADDICT ring a bell here lampworkers? The next thing I knew a week later Suzanne the owner of Scarab Glass Works was teaching a beginners class the next day with 1 space open. I jumped at the chance and ended up with the basic tools and a hothead torch. Suzanne is a great teacher too. So all in all Fresno is a pretty lucky town for being in the middle of California. 11 bottles of MAPP gas later had me convinced I needed something different/better. Have any of you ever dunked the bottom of your gas tank in hot water in order to get the last of the gas out of it? On days of 105 degree temps I can now see some value in those what seemed to be frozen tanks between your legs ... lol
Suzanne teaching us at one of the classes. She makes gorgeous hollow fish. Immediatly after Suzanne's class I got on the internet looking for supplies, tools and equipment. Somehow I could not imagine lugging around huge tanks of oxygen. And my imagination could fathom blowing the roof off the patio with butane and oxygen mix. So my first real piece of equipment (purchase) was an OGSI20 oxygen generator. It took a couple of months to get here (it was just being released by the company). Today it runs my 2 mini CC torches with ease. My daughter caught the addition too and we bead together when we can. Next we seduced Kim Osibin to Fresno in order to teach a group of us to be better beaders. In my case pretty much bead period ... I was only beading for about 3 months when she came to Fresno the first time. I could barely wrap glass on a mandrel back then. I could however make a mean twisty (Kim always hated the word so I did LEARN latticino and reticello right a way.) Kim and her trusty assistant Toni Lutman have now been here 3 times and I have a standing reservation for every class. For those of you who want to learn from experts in glass color and technique? Seek Kim and her assistant Toni out.
As I look back on my beading experience I consider myself grateful that my first class with Kim caught me brand new to being a lampworker. I had not yet had the opportunity to work into many bad habits. Those that I did have she nipped in the bud immediately ... lol. Like "Linda why are you only twisting and pulling with one hand?" Funny how you do not realize some of these quirky little things you can pick up without even knowing unless an expert teacher watches you. From the beginning I was a beginner in an advanced class. I have never for one moment been sorry for that. In the last class Kim took me aside and quietly said "you know Linda if you practice between classes you will do better and get more out of the class". She was right except for one thing ... I have always had almost a photographic memory for certain things of interest. In class I sat right to the left of her and could see exactly where she held her mandrel and cane in the flame. That careful scrutiny of her techniques are invaluable to me today. There were other things I observed that could not be applied until I tried it myself alone later. Those observations have saved me so many ruined beads. Her lessons on color combining have saved me glass failure enough to pay for her classes I am sure. So now I have been practicing. Finally things on the home front are settled and I can truly get back to my art work. I have accumulated big bowls of beads. They are taking over my house. In fact I am fairly certain they are breeding at night. My husband said "don't you have enough beads?" "what are you going to do with them all?" To be honest I was not sure. What I did know was not making more beads was not an option. So placing them on ebay was the solution so here I am hoping to find others who love the beautiful work that glass, heat and a creative mind can produce. I call my beads gratitude beads. For those of you who know "the secret" (something I have practiced all of my adult life) ... one of the people on the DVD talked about carrying a stone he had found somewhere, in his pocket to remind him to remain grateful for the good in his life. I thought a beautiful bead that someone created with enthusiasm, love and joy would be better. So that is what you get when you win an auction. A beautiful bead created with enthusiasm, love and joy. Now how can you beat that? You simply can't.
One of my egg creations.
One cabinet full of my Fabergé eggs .
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