HomePage
Home | Soldered Charms | New Listings | Long Tube Beads | Cat Lovers | Holiday Beads | Felted Bags | Beads Available Now | Beads for Order | What I do ;-) | Finished Jewelry | Sets Available Now | Bracelets to Order | special request | About Me | Show Schedule | Payment & Shipping | Sneak-Show | Frit Test | Favorite Links | Gallery
About Me
Welcome!
      "Bead making, has become an obsession of mine and I hope that you will enjoy my efforts."
Brandie tends to make fun and fanciful beads, as well as more sophisticated styles; designing and instructing the creation of "fiber" jewelry with her lampworked beads has proven to be equally rewarding.
 
"I began making beads after my dad saw a man making glass marbles.  He was excited  and insisted that it was something I would LOVE.  There was very little information available on the internet at that time  My public library had a book by Cindy Jenkins about "making glass beads", but nothing on marbles.  I ordered my own copy of her book and purchased a beginner kit, with a hot head torch and a bit of everything needed to get started. Well, I think I've made five marbles in the past eight years.  Beads are my passion and the possibilities are simply endless."
 
When she is away from the torch she starts "seeing" beads in everything around her; from a cute little kitten, amazing sunset or footprints on the beach, to the color of a car as it passes by or a wild purse on the lady standing in line ahead of her.  Scraps of paper are everywhere with color ideas or sketched out designs. 
"At the rate I'm going, I'll need to be buried with my torch.  I'm never going to get them all made in this life!  I've always dabbled in one craft or another...but nothing can compare with the feeling of holding my first rod of glass to a flame in 1998. I find working at the torch to be very calming...a benefit I hope my family enjoys!"
                                                                                             
 
 Beginner and Intermediate Lampworking classes out of my home studio.
Fiber Jewelry classes out of my home studio and in some shops.
Some basic bead stringing and other jewelry making classes in my home studio and some shops.
 
A contributing artist in The Spotlight on "beads for the inner child" of Passing the Flame.

 
A little bit of "Glass Bead" info :-)
Glass bead making is an ancient art.  Beads were originally used currency.  There are different ways to make beads and the one that I use is lampworking.  I take rods of imported Italian glass (about the thickness of a pencil and 13" in length) and melt them over an open flame and wind this molten glass around a metal mandrel.  This mandrel is what gives the bead it's hole.  Each color on a bead starts as an individual rod that I can use to "paint" my designs in glass or can be "sculptured" with various tools (i.e. needle nose pliers, tweezers, picks, etc...).  The end result is a one of a kind piece of art that can be collected, used as an embellishment, or worn as jewelry.

 

 

brandieglass@earthlink.net