Well , April came and went and already we are half way through May. In the last year my focus has steered into the world of glass more and more, Experimenting with lampworking and flameworked glass has suddenly developed into an obsession with texture,sculture and most of all colour. For the past 15 yrs i have devoted my skills and creativity to silver and other precious metals - It's now all about glass, sure i still love teaching silversmithing and silver jewellery making from the studio in Hampshire but colour has just added a whole new dimension. For the past month i have been trying to put a collection together of unique lampworked pieces and fused glass art.
At this rate I'm going to be moving to a bigger studio . I think this will last for the rest of the year but 2011 I'll be looking at moving along the corridor.
This months studio open day was fantastic for those that don't know ~I hold a monthly meet for lampworkers,fused glass artisans and silversmiths, all free to come along but of course you must bring cake.After last Saturday I now have a cake mountain. There were a total of 27 came along throughout the day the furthest travelled was a little under 300 mile round trip, and thats the second time she's made the trip in the last 6 months.
The lampworking tutoring has now been taken over fully by me as my very good freind Denise has been very poorly of late and will have to give the torch a miss for a few months. I have to say teaching lampworking is incredibly rewarding and the people who are now queing up to come along certainly appreciate a decent commercial studio with all the facilities that it has to offer.
I have found there is a huge increase in those wishing to learn this great art. My studio is fully equipped and beginners can learn all the basics, I can even supply a decent starter kit for those that wish to proceed at a far greater pace. For those unsure or wish to rent torch time I can accomodate that too.
If you have the basics why not come along and learn how to make some encased twisties these can make the difference from a nice bead into a truly stunning one.
I've also been asked to produce 200 Pandora style silver cored beads for a retailer so I'm going to be extremely busy in front of the torch for the next few weeks completing that order.
The silver jewellery courses are really in full swing and over the last 8 months I have seen some great developement in some of the students, they are now really producing some fine pieces.
The fused glass is almost as popular as the silversmithing and the lampworking, I've recently added some stunning Dichroic work to my portfolio and there are soon to be some glass art on sale.
Anyway appologies for not blogging for a while and don't forget you can add me to twitter as well http://twitter.com/CarlMartinGlass
