Midwest Creative Collective

Hi all, I’ve been fusing like crazy lately, and thought maybe I’d share some of my favorites with you. I have a series I call “The Missing Piece”. Here a some of my most recent “Pieces”.

This next one is larger, it will be framed as a finished piece.

Hope you all like them as much as I do. They are in my Etsy store. http://www.iwantonetoo.etsy.com

Sheri

EDITED to ADD:

Come on everyone, I know you do more than just glass!  We all do!  I’d really love to have to go through 10 emails a morning putting them on here telling us all about you.  I’ll even beg.  LOL  I’ll even tell you what I’ve started now. 

All of us at MCC do more than glass and I would guess that most people who are involved in glass do other things as well.  These include bead stringing, PMC, ACEOs, bead crochet, wire work, fusing, resin, chainmaille and I’m sure a ton of things I’m just not thinking of right now.  I’m starting to do felting and I’m interested in doll making as well.  We are a diverse group!

I’m wondering what our readers enjoy doing as well as some of the other people in MCC.  I always feel like I know this group so well and then they continue to surprise me.

So will you pop us a comment and share the things that you like to do?  If you’ve got any favorite magazines, books or websites that are related please share those as well.  I can’t wait!

Featured Artist—JC Herrell   

Pura Vida…If you know JC, you know that’s her ‘mantra’ for life…pure life, this is life…satisfaction with life.  It must be what gives her that amazing ability that she has with hot glass.  Her beads are beautiful and unique.  I always have to smile when I see them because they are so colorful and cheerful.  And apparently perfect…did I say perfect?  J  I hope you enjoy MCC’s interview with her.

JC will be teaching at Blue Fire Beads in New Lenox, IL May 24 and 25.  I can’t wait for her class and I know I’m not alone.  If you are interested, www.bluefirebeads.com  There are still places available.

1. How did you get started in lampworking? What was the thing that made you interested?

I’ve always been fascinated with hot things. And I’ve always loved watching flowing liquids. And so I can’t remember a time when I didn’t think that hot glass was awesome. The interest was always there. I started lampworking when my ex-husband urged me to find a stress reliever and dragged me to a stained glass store where he knew the owner had a lampworking studio. Upon starting to order the equipment the owner of the store asked me what I wanted to make. I responded by telling him I just knew I wanted to melt glass but hadn’t thought about what I would make. He then confidently told me I wanted to make beads and told me what I need to do it. Beads seemed like a reasonable reason to melt glass (as opposed to tiny teapots, the other option he offered). And since then I’ve grown to love making beads out of glass.

2. How long have you been lampworking? Is it a business for you or a hobby?

I bought my torch in the fall of 2001 but found it so frustrating (and scary) that I didn’t actually start using it regularly or with any real intent until 2004. And when I started to get the hang of it I couldn’t stop. In January of 2005 I quit my job as the director of a non-profit organization and started making beads full time.

3. What inspires you? How do you get the inspiration/motivation back when you are in a slump?

I tend to be inspired in phases of the types and the quantity of inspiration I’m given. I’m either swimming with ideas or feeling creatively dry. When I actively seek inspiration or work to find new ideas I mostly end up frustrated with my self and my glass. Mostly I find that inspiration finds me and that’s a comfortable process for me. It seems that friends and architecture are my two strongest influences, at least of late. I’ve always loved incorporating architectural elements in my work and watching for them in the buildings around me. I also get a lot of ideas from talking glass with friends or picking up a new technique or idea from the people around me. Customers can also be great inspirations with suggestions of what will work for their designs.

4. Who are your 3 favorite lampworkers? Why?

This is a very difficult question. Very. I want to name friends because I love them and I love torching with them and I love their work and being inspired by it. Other than that I’m a big fan of Emilio Santini for his beautiful theories of perfection.

5. What is the best thing about lampworking? The worst?The worst is definitely the physical hazards including but not limited to: back pain, burns, cuts, and all the toxic yucky stuff that covers my bench. The best part? It’s hard to just pick one most awesome thing about lampworking so I’ll say that the lampworking lifestyle is the best thing about lampworking. I love setting my own hours, traveling, meeting people, seeing all the creativity and defining my life the way it works for me. When you consider all this ON TOP of melting glass all day and night… is there anything better?

6. What is the funniest or scariest thing that ever happened to you when you were torching? Another hard question. Scary and funny stuff happens all the time. I think my scariest moment is when I set myself on fire via synthetic fabric. Big, big flames and many bad smells. Don’t wear fleece when torching. 7. What kind of set up do you use? Torch?

I work on a Bethlehem Barracuda. I love it. It’s just big enough to rage a big bead and the versatility of the pin point flame is a total turn on for me. I used to run it on two Unlimited Oxygen M-20 concentrators (which didn’t quite get the torch to full power, but did get the job done). I’ve been traveling for the last few months and mostly, since then I’ve been using liquid oxygen dewars with my shop hosts and shop mates. I definitely prefer the liquid oxy to the concentrators.

8. What is your favorite glass?

My favorite color of glass is probably electric yellow. I love the glow of it under my enamels. It works so well with cool blues green and just as well with oranges and reds. If you ask me it’s the perfect yellow. I also love dark silver purple plum for stringer work and you’ll find that on almost every bead I make (DSP is much nicer to work with than intense black for very thin lines).

9. What are your favorite color combinations?

I have two favorite color combinations. Of course they involve Thompson Enamels. My first love is electric yellow with an orange to orange red to cherry red to dark red enamel fade on top. My second love is an enamel combo that I adore on all kinds of different base colors: grey green to gray blue green to blue green.

10. What’s your favorite technique? What technique makes you want to bang your (or someone else’s) head against the wall?

I have two favorite techniques: drawing with fine stringer and sifting enamel. Making flowers (raised, encased or any form) makes me want to scream.

11. Is there a shape that you really HATE to make?
Hearts.

12. Do you have a ‘comfort’ bead?

I don’t have a particular bead that comforts me but I do have a few beads I’m very comfortable making like berry beads or rainbows. I make these beads when I haven’t torched in a while or while I’m getting used to new surroundings.

13. How do you see yourself developing as a lampworker in the future? What are your goals?

I just love glass. I love melting it. Ideally, sometime a long time in the future, I’ll have the skills and equipment to execute any idea or concept I can conceive of. That’s the ultimate goal. Long term I want to learn more about glass casting on a large scale, and laminating, and furnace work. Short term I have some fusing projects I would like to get the facilities to work on more and I would like to have the time to improve my blown boro skills, too.

14. What do you consider as successful? What is the key to getting there? To me, success is happiness. If I’m happy and content I’m as successful as I can be. The key to happiness? I’m still working on figuring that part out…

15. What would be your 3 best tips for new artists?

Do it because you love it. Do what you love and not what you think you ought to do. Don’t let fear or judgment stop you.

16. Do you like to take classes from other lampworkers?

I’ve sat in and acted as TA in a class or two but I’ve never taken a class. I typically learn in my own classroom of experiments and errors.

17. Do you teach? Will you travel to teach?

I do teach occasionally and will travel to do so… after all, that’s one of the great parts of the lampworking lifestyle. I love sharing, being shared with and traveling to do so. 18. What other creative outlets do you have?

Glass is kind of all consuming for me. Though, I recently bought a skateboard. But unfortunately I spend most of my time melting glass so I haven’t really gained many skills on the board… Just scars.

I’d like to give my friend Judithe and the show she’s going to be in a nice plug.  Judithe is one of the early Latino muralists in LA and the only woman of the time.  She is going to be exhibiting fifteen of her works (and selling, I hope!) in this show.  I am really excited for her and I hope that anyone who can come, will. I can gauarantee you won’t be disappointed!

Felting 101

What a great time I had yesterday! My friend Rebekah and I went to TLD Designs in Westmont and took a felting class with Tammy. Tammy makes some absolutely beautiful felted items as well as doing weaving, spinning, and other fiber arts. Her work has been highlighted in Belle Armoire magazine and she’s been on “That’s Clever” on HGTV.

I’ll just give a brief description of what we did. If you want all the details, you have to take the class. LOL I will tell you though, that you need to wear a T-shirt, not a sweater. It’s not a passive process at all. If I felted all the time, I’d definitely be in better shape!

We started the process by taking what’s basically a hunk of unspun wool, called roving. We pulled very fine fibers from it and laid them down on a sheet of muslin to form the base of our scarves.

It’s not easy to get the right amount as it needs to be very fine. Mine is almost too much!

Once we laid our fibers down then we started doing the structure of the piece. We started by laying down long strands of yarns. We wanted to use yarns that would felt well so if we added something in that wasn’t a ‘felter’, then we had to be sure that it was crossed by a piece that was. This is Rebekah starting to lay down the long strands.

Once that process was finished, we started doing our designs. We could use spirals, swirls, anything that we wanted to give structure to the design. The more structure, the sturdier the piece. When we were through with that part, we went back to fill any little areas that needed it with roving.

I was too busy working to take pictures of the rest of the process but basically we finished this part, covered it with what looked like a curtain and then got it wet. Once that was done, we started the felting process with a sander. Yep. We got to play with power tools too! The next parts of the process were the felting itself. We rolled the whole thing up, soaked it in hot water and went to work. The hardest part is the last 30 minutes, trust me on this one. My hands still hurt. After the felting is accomplished, I brought my masterpiece home and hung it to dry. And, voila, here it is…

So, after following JoJo’s lead and getting into ATC’s (Artist Trading Cards), I decided to go the lazy route … uh…. make that the cheap route (creating can get expensive, you know!) and try my hand at digital scrapbooking.

New camera in hand, I took the girls to Dawson Lake in Moraine View State Park last week, and snapped a few photos, then I filled up my hard drive with scrapbook layouts and Photoshop brushes and new fonts, and went to work. This is my first attempt at digital scrapbooking. It’s not the look I was going for, but it’s not too shabby for a first attempt!

(As a side note, the green butterflies in the larger butterfly were Ceil’s addition!) Please click on the thumbnail for the “in your face” size!

      Our featured artist  is Anne Ricketts.  She makes gorgeous beads and is a wonderful teacher.  If you haven’t had the pleasure of taking a class with her, you should treat yourself.  You won’t regret it.  Here’s what makes her tick—along with a great picture of Anne and her

      muse, her grandson, Kenison.

1.  How did you get started in lampworking?

    Well I was making jewelry and I went to Ebay to find unique beads for my jewelry. I saw this word “Lampwork” on some of the auctions so I clicked on one to see what they were talking about.  

    What was the thing that made you interested?

    The one thing that got me interested was what I clicked on when I was looking on Ebay, it was a Michael Barley Chrysalis bead and I was amazed! I had to learn how to do that!! LOL!

2.  How long have you been lampworking?

    Since I took my first class in 2001.

    Is it a business for you or a hobby?

   It’s definitely a business; it’s why I went into this crazy world of glass to make a living instead of being in the crazy world of working at an elementary school!

3.  What inspires you? 

     Anything with color! Nature, fabrics, etc. 

    How do you get the inspiration/motivation back when you are in a slump?

    I try out new color combos on basic beads to see what they will do. I sometimes close my eyes and grab colors and whatever I grab I use in the bead. Sometimes it works, other times I get mud! LOL!

4.  Who are your 3 favorite lampworkers?

     Well this is tough because I have a lot of favs! Lets see, Michael Barley, Anastasia and Jennifer Geldard  Why? Michael for his free flowing designs, Anastasia for her graphic designs and Jennifer for her innovativeness and fresh designs!

5.  What is the best thing about lampworking?

   Always learning something you didn’t know about! 

  The worst? Cleaning beads and dipping mandrels!

6.  What is the funniest or scariest thing that ever happened to you when you were torching?

    Well when I was on a Hothead torch it caught on fire so I grabbed the fire extinguisher and put it out, not fun! I’ve also had a bead that I just put in the kiln go flying out of the kiln, up over my head and landed on the floor, on the other side of my chair! I don’t know how it happened; I think the end of it caught my sleeve somehow! Scared the you know what outta me trying to pick it up with my pliers!

7.  What kind of set up do you use?

    I work with a Carlisle Mini CC and two 5psi concentrators. I also have a Creation Station and a ventilation system from Bill Harrison (I was a tester for both) My kiln is a Chili Pepper.  Torch? Carlisle Mini CC

8.  What is your favorite glass?

     Moretti and Vetrofond

9.  What are your favorite color combinations? 

    I love orange, turquoise and pea green together! Another fav is copper green, rubino and opal yellow.

10. What’s your favorite technique?

     Anything organic, dripping glass, adding dots and letting them drip, letting gravity do it’s thang, etc.

    What technique makes you want to bang your (or someone else’s) head against the wall?

    Actually it’s not a technique that drives me nuts as does the silver glasses, they hate me!

11.  Is there a shape that you really HATE to make?

    I don’t hate any shape but the perfect bicones seem to elude me!

12.  Do you have a “comfort” bead?

    I think my southwest inspired beads have become my comfort beads! I could make them all day!

13.  How do you see yourself developing as a lampworker in the future?

     That’s a tough one because half the time I don’t even know what I’m going to do until I sit down at the torch! I know there are techniques out there still yet to learn! 

     What are your goals?

    I would really like to incorporate my beads into my quilts for wall art! I would like to teach abroad also! Who knows, maybe there is a book in my future also!

14. What do you consider as successful?

     Success to me is when your work gets recognized and making enough from my art to help out with the bills! LOL!  

     What is the key to getting there?

      I think putting your work and yourself “out there” for instance joining forums that are related to what you do, having a website helps but mainly just keeping yourself visible! Submitting your work to be published helps also! Especially if it gets published! LOL!

15.  What would be your 3 best tips for new artists?

      Practice is a biggie! If you want to get good at it then you’ve got to find time to practice, even if it’s making spacers! Patience is another biggie! I know that it can be frustrating at times and you want to throw the mandrel across the room but I would strongly advise not to do that! Play! You will learn a lot just by playing with different colors, different shapes, adding frits, you name it! Just sit down and just relax and just let the glass tell you want it wants to do!

16.  Do you like to take classes from other lampworkers?

      Yes because there is always something I can learn from others!17.   Do you teach?  Yes Will you travel to teach? You betcha! When do you want me there? LOL!

18. What other creative outlets do you have? 

     Knitting has become a popular hobby for me and I like to do Kumihimo braiding and I’m trying to get back into quilting!
  
  

Vikki’s bracelet reminded me of my favorite day of the year.  Or maybe it’s two days.  I guess it depends on the spring.  Chicago is lovely in the spring because of all the forrest preserves.  Whatever anything thinks about the city, it does have loads of green spaces.

There’s one or two days in the spring, just as the leaves are starting to come out that is my favorite time of the year ever.  If you go to a forrest preserve or are in the country and go by a large group of trees, everything seems to be covered in a green mist.  I hate that it only lasts a few days and am glad it only lasts a few days.  It wouldn’t be nearly so special if it lasted, oh, two weeks instead. 

Keep watch for it this spring.  If it doesn’t inspire you then I’m afraid nothing ever will.

Does two mean “rut”? Two is usually my limit. I’ll make two of anything - then I consider myself to be in a rut. I’m trying to break out of that mindset, honest! I’m on my second kumihimo braid right now -does that spell death to kumihimo in my mind automatically? We’ll see … but for now, here’s the second of my finger woven treasure bracelets.

This bracelet was made with waxed linen and some beads that I forget the name of! They are some type of wood. Very light, like bamboo - but not bamboo. (Can you tell it’s past my bed time?) It does utilize one of my lampwork beads as a clasp.

Have you ever felt that way? Last week I was faced with forcing myself to be creative and it was one of the toughest things I’ve had to do.

There is an art show I have attended with my mother every year for the past 17 years. It’s always been a dream of mine to be in the show but I never really felt my work was up to the task.

This year I decided I wanted to apply. I kept rolling the ideas around in my head. The show has many jewelry artists exhibiting and a few lampworkers so competition is tough. I knew I had to really come up with some “WOW” stuff to even be considered. My slides that have gotten me into shows in the past just didn’t seem good enough.

The closer the deadline came, the less creative I felt. It was so much pressure. Like a gun to my head with myself saying “Create Dammit!”. I kept procrastinating, allowing myself to be distracted by any little thing. It was not going well.

As the midnight deadline approached (last Friday) I was sitting at my kitchen table with a huge mess of beads, fibers, cords, wire, you name it, it was in the pile. I had made and taken apart countless ideas that just didn’t work out. I was mad, in tears, frustrated. I knew whatever it was I had to finish it, then take it downstairs and photograph it, then come back to the computer to resize it, then upload it to their site and submit my application.

Finally I got an idea with potential! I’ll bet a light bulb really appeared above my head. I started furiously braiding my cord, bending wire, stringing beads… then I got an idea for a matching bracelet. I was pushing it time wise (it was 10PM) but I could do it!

At 10:30 I raced downstairs and my husband was all set with the lights on and the camera ready to go. With a few quick clicks I was back at my computer resizing… wait a minute! There’s a hair right in the middle of it. Dog hair, cat hair, someone’s hair! Down the stairs again… re shoot the pictures. I can feel I’m running out of time. I’m panicking.

I made it back to the computer to resize again and click on the ’submit’ button and the page just sits there… loading… forever it seemed. Suddenly I was kicked back to the main page and when I tried to resubmit my application I received the error message that the show was closed for entries.

I cried… and cried… and cried. I felt like I had run a marathon all day long and tripped 5 feet from the finish line. I was so frustrated, mad at myself for procrastinating, for not being more creative.

Before going to bed I decided to e-mail the show and just see if they might possibly accept any late entries. I know some will and you have to pay a higher application fee but at this point the site wasn’t even allowing any applications. So I put my whole story out there to this generic e-mail address and went to bed feeling defeated. I was hoping for the best but not expecting it.

I received an e-mail back two days later. She told me she would ‘try’ to reopen the application process later in the week, but no promises.

It’s too late to make this long story short but I’ll wrap it up… she DID reopen that section of the site and I was able to submit my application. Whether or not I’m chosen to be in the show, I’ll always remember how this set came to life and use it as a reminder. A reminder that procrastination is bad… a reminder that creativity isn’t forced, it flows… a reminder to never give up… and a reminder that if a door closes, find another one to open.

I hope reading this helps you all to remember those things too.

I named this ‘On My Horizon’…