Lampwork - The Most Glorious of Arts

   

                                                             Sculptured floral focal by Geneva Perkins  

 

                           
During a recent online discussion with some friends, I mentioned my love of lampwork and  discovered that a few folks were not that familiar with the subject. Well, we'll have to address that won't we?  I think the utmost I can do is to lead you into temptation and indoctrinate as many of you as I can in this passion of mine.

I will give you a brief introduction to the art form and then happily share  photos of some of my favourite acquisitions.

A basic definition of Lampwork is the process of sculpting glass by twirling thin rods of colored glass over a gas-oxygen burner.
Lampworking is an ancient art form which flourished in Italy in the early 14^th century, although evidence of the art dates back as early as 550BC in China.  Glass artists used an oil lamp flame to melt glass in the process of creating beads, which was both labour and time intensive.

Nowadays, conditions have much improved and people generally use propane-oxygen torches  to melt the glass. The glass is melted and wound onto a mandrel (steel rod) and then it is shaped and embellished in and around the torch flame. After that process is completed,  the bead is then annealed.  That is a procedure where the decorated bead is put into a kiln which evenly heats the bead,  removing any stress in the glass.  Then it is slowly brought down to room temperature taking about 8 hours to do so. Annealing makes the bead strong and durable and without this process, the beads are prone to cracking and breaking.

For those of you who might wish to delve into the process of lampworking in more detail, there is a very good article here :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lampworking

 

I have long marvelled at how artists can manipulate a torch at such high heats and create the most intricate and detailed work while dealing with the equipment and other factors. To be honest, it truly fascinates me.  It is a skill that requires a great deal of patience and practice.  The artist must understand the various types of glass, how much heat it takes for glass to flow, how different colours and types of glass interact with each other, at what point to add decorative elements and other various aspects of the medium. So many other things factor in too, safety being a major issue -  the handling of propane, eye protection, safe clothing, respirators, kilns, ventilation, glass slivers, eye strain looking into the flame just to mention a few important details. In spite of all this, it seems that those who take up this art are dedicated and passionate about it. They are also some of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of knowing.  Please let me share some of the beautiful pieces I have acquired.  Most I will use in my work as I go along but some are so exquisite I will just display them in order to enjoy them daily.


  Sea Garden by Bobbie Pene

    Auckland, New Zealand

This is a large lentil shaped focal bead which has beautiful texture and depth.  It depicts the ocean with a reef of coral, barnacles and anemones. Look closely as there are tiny semi-transparent jellyfish floating among the kelp.
This bead is 38mm round x 16.5mm thick with a 2mm hole.  Bobbie's work is very intricate and masterful.

              Splash by Susan Jones
             Minneapolis, Minnesota

This is one of those pieces that looks
even more magnificent in reality. The dimension and flow is astonishing. It
is a flattened oval of gorgeous ink blue
raku and clear glass with spirralling light
blue discs accented with layered dots.  This piece looks fantastic from all angles.  Size - 48mm x 25mm.

                                                                     


   Sunflower by Julie Christie of Cocktail Glass, Edson, Alberta, Canada.

This gorgeous piece by Julie is incredible in that she has the sunflower on
both the front and back side of the bead ( see pic on the right above).
The colours are vibrant and the cane was hand mixed and hand pulled to create this beauty.  In addition, she has lacquered the hole which has made it virtually disappear.  The texture, dimension and colour of this
piece is phenomenal.  I love it so much and with the two sides raised, it would be a waste to stitch it down so I am going to hang it from a rod in the
studio window on clear nylon where the sun can catch the beautiful highlights.



     Sunset Lake by Amy Kinsch
                Ione, California

This is an unusual and brilliant piece.  The base glass is deep blue and then Amy used blues and deep browns with a hint of an orange sunset.  It has a wonderful crackled
effect in the larger dark ivory dots in the upper half.  The small accent ivory dots are done on a band of Olympia Rain which has a nice metallic lustre.
Size is 28mm x30mm and 2mm hole


And for the last piece for this post - a little whimsy for you:

 

Bacon and Eggs, special ordered and well cooked by Marcy Lamberson of Studio Marcy,  Atlanta, Georgia.  I commissioned Marcy to make these two sweet little pieces for  me as she is a specialist at miniatures and in particular food items. I hope to make these into a little brooch to fasten onto a playful embellished scarf I have in mind.

** Myself, along with several others, have currently been experiencing problems with photo loading on Blogger due to our browsers ( Blogger & Google are working on it )  so I am not going push my luck in loading any more photos for the moment but if you have enjoyed this post I am going to make a follow up post shortly with continued discussion on lampwork and I will feature more photos of  some amazing pieces by some very talented artists.  Please visit again soon.