Glass Apprentice Challenge 2007

Recently, I posted some beads that I made as a part of a challenge. The challenge was to make a new bead of a different specific style every two weeks. It was fun and an interesting exercise to work on something a little different. I would like to present each of these projects and explain a litle more about them.

Week 1 - Dots

This is a black tube bead which is about 1.2 inches long. There are raised dots in the colors of the rainbow spiraling around the bead. I went through several different designs before I decided upon this one. My strength on this bead is the shape. The dots? Not a strength. I don't usually make dot beads, and I found that I should probably get some new glasses (with magnification) before I make more! Those little imperfections looked just fine to me until I took a photo. I still think it is a nice start to a new beads for me to make.

Sculptural Challenge

There were three surprise challenges duing the main challenge. The first was to make a bead or sculpture based on a photograph. Here is my submission.

snail bead

The photo is a snail that I saw while hiking in Ogden Canyon, Utah. He was quite a ham and posed for quite a while while I fussed with the camera. This snail-bead also patiently posed for me in its natural habitat here. Can you tell which one is which? Just kidding!

This bead is a relative of my nautilus beads - those beads have a transparent center with a spiral of twisted cane on the outside. The snail is similar, but it has an opaque center - so you cannot look inside!

snail picture

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Multimedia Challenge

The third surprise challenge was a multimedia challenge. Before I began to make beads a few years ago, I did a lot of work in fiber, including machine knitted wallhangings and machine embroidered tapestries. For a long time, it has been in the back of my mind to combine one of these methods with some of my glass. This challenge was the push that I needed to get started.

The flowers in the front as well as the dragonfly are lampwork beads. The path, trees, and the remaining flowers are machine embroidered from an original pattern I designed using elements from other embroideries.

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