Lampwork

Lampworking is creating glass beads using a torch. It's a very ancient technique, this fact alone inspires me very much. Information about it like History, development, and scientific process is better told by Wikipedia, than me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lampworking

I have been creating glass beads and objects since 2020. I got into it quite accidentally, it's a funny story actually. By the age of 30 I have tried all the arts and crafts you can do at home, and was still "officially" considered a stay-at-home mom, so everyone was giving advice. And my daughter's teacher suggested that since I'm so creative and crafty, and am good with kids - I should totally work with kids! Become an art-teacher or something... But I felt like it would be wrong doing it without any kind of diploma, so I decided to go and get myself a diploma. Not a degree, but at least find some courses on how to be an art-teacher, art-tutor or open your own studio, something like that. I found an Educational Center (Michlala) that provided the necessary education. You'd have to take several Arts classes, and get a diploma in the end of the year. So I searched for arts and crafts I haven't tried yet, and I couldn't really learn it by myself with books and internet.

I chose Ceramics, Silversmithing, and... I didn't know what else to choose. I looked around, saw lots of artworks from previous students - like papier-mache, and paintings, and suddenly I saw tiny shiny objects that I thought were Polymer Clay at first... I looked closer. Intricate details, tiny miniatures, transparent and transluscent...

I've been searching for a material to realize my ideas of vibrant, whimsical,

intricate miniatures for such a long time, but everything I tried is either too coarse, or not transparent, or isn't durable, or looks like a cheap craft no matter how much energy you put in it... I have never even considered, not in a million years, that the perfect material I was looking for was GLASS! I feared glass, having small children and a blood phobia - I tried to get rid of every glass jar that popped up in my house. But this was my perfect material, this was my dream come true!!! So I overcame that fear. And I got cut and singed plenty these years,

but it was definitely WORTH IT!

Oh, and did I actually sign into this Center to get a diploma to teach kids? I forgot all about that when I discovered Lampworking...