I don't make beads (unless you count the blooming bead). I definitely don't make glass beads. So how did I end up with a copy of
Creating Glass Beads by Jeri L.Warhaftig? Well, the powers that be at Lark Publishing thought it would be a good volume for me to review. Were they right?
While I am endlessly fascinated by the beauty that can be achieved by artists who melt glass to create beads...and I even have one or two (or thirty) of these beads in my stash just waiting for me to use them in a design...I am illogically terrified of the flame these artists use in the process. I hated having to light the burners on my old gas stove. I can't imagine wanting to be in the same room as someone using a torch, much less wanting to use one myself.
Warhaftig, whose first book
Glass Bead Workshop was published by Lark in 2008, has created a ten-project workshop for intermediate level beadmakers. Nine of these projects are shown on the cover of the book. Not pictured on the cover are these cane beads featured in Session 6 of the workshop:
Each session/chapter in the book provides detailed instruction lists and excellent, clear step-by-step process photographs in addition to lengthy process descriptions to guide the beadmaker along. Interspersed throughout are little highlighted "workshop wisdom" clips that provide just that: workshop wisdom, lessons learned by the author that she shares just as she would in a real workshop environment. Also included is a section on "The Basics": Tools and Materials, Annealing, Safety, and How to Use This Book. Two detailed appendices on Mirroring with Silver and Working with Resin provide detailed special technique information needed for two of the projects.
My favorite aspect of the book is that Warhaftig enrolled ten beadmakers in this workshop to test each project before publication. Better yet - she shares the project testers' results with you. Her reasons for this approach are best detailed by Warhaftig herself in the introduction:
I've witnessed the birth of many beautiful beads that stand on the shoulders of the original project. The project bead is, after all, primarily a teaching device -- a combination of materials and techniques that results in a bead. What's fascinating is to watch where students take it. I wanted to show you the work of your fellow students, the creative and inspiring paths they take. I wanted this book to embody the interactive dialogue of my studio classroom, and not be just a static lecture from me to you. Out of this desire to share my "classroom" with my "book" students, the concept of project testers was born.
The most varied interpretations of one of the project beads (at least for this uneducated eye) can probably be found in Session 2, where the "Cheery Little Guy," for instance, turned into this pirate under Emma Mullins' torch.
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| Pirate beads by Emma Mullins |
At first glance a far cry from Warhaftig's Cheery Little Guy family of beads, but using many of the same techniques.
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| Cherry Guy's Family beads by Jeri L. Warhaftig |
The author also includes galleries after each session with photographs of beads created by other artists, applying techniques, materials, and/or styles similar to those used in the project. I will admit to not caring for the Cheery Little Guy beads or any of those created by the test beaders - just not my style, that's all - but I did fall deeply in love with these face beads by Cathy A. Lybarger
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| Untitled, 2007. by Cathy A. Lybarger |
The most fascinating project for me was the End-of-Day Bead in Session 10. I marveled at the complexity and variety of techniques and materials that went into creating this bead:
And then, once again, I went to the gallery page for the session and found myself completely enchanted by this bead by Corina Tettinger:
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| Pink Quark, 2010, by Corina Tettinger |
I do not now, nor do I suspect that I ever will, make glass beads. (Working with open flames is just what we used to call "a killer concern" in project re-engineering.) But after reading this book I have a much better appreciation of the level of workmanship that goes into creating these small works of art.
There is no reason for this book to stay in my library when it could provide so much more (useful) fun for one of my friends, and so I'm going to give this away to one lucky reader. Here's how you could win my copy:
Leave a comment here (be sure there is a way for me to contact you, please!) before midnight on Tuesday, April 26. I will using my trusty random number generator to select the winner and will post the name here on Wednesday, April 27. International entries are welcome; it's the least I can do when Lark has been so generous.
Only one of you can win this book from the drawing, however, and so you should know that you can purchase your own copy online and in book stores. You should also know that while I did receive a complimentary copy of this book (the one I am giving away to a lucky winner) from Lark Jewelry & Beading, I did not receive compensation for this review.
Be well and get going!
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