Liliana at work...

This is what it looks like.
This is what it sounds like.
This is what it feels like...
I love love melting glass :)

In this video, I'm making a focal glass bead with layers and layers of petals; the flowers will eventually be encased. While I'm at the torch, I often listen to WBUR which you're hearing in the background. In the evenings I switch to Paradise Radio.

New LilianaBead Work featured at Natick Artists Open Studios

Silence is golden..
I don't think this saying works in this paradigm and yet I have a lot of silence in my everyday life.
I go to the studio in the morning -usually around 8am or so, turn NPR on and listen to it while working with my glass.
Every once in a while I chat with my studio mates and fellow artists with whom I share projects and ideas. Most late evenings I go home and become an active member of a family of 7 - not exactly golden and not exactly silence... :)
What about blogging? Hence this entry.

Natick Artist Open Studios is coming up on October 16 and 17 here in Natick.
I will be in my studio #2 at 43 Main on the second floor. At least two new collections will be there for your viewing.

I have a new collection of beads--inspired by the concept of water—into which I incorporate fine silver wire. This design is built on a specialty of mine - fine silver inside glass. The wire technique introduces continuity while a prism of layers and layers of clear give the sensation of movement in these pieces. This is a collection built on my visual and social experience of water - while I know what water looks like and feels like, the moment of seeing moving water is undeniably fleeting. Each time I look at one of these beads I see something different.

I've heard wonderful feedback from my customers about these beads and several of them have become partners in aesthetically driven relationships... :) Yes, they are out there...

There is another collection that may interest you. This one is a result of my collaboration with Marie Picard Craig - a Natick artist photographer. She's been working with me on my tutorials and occasionally photographing my work for a couple of years now. Marie's talent and skill nurtured and fueled her interest to incorporate the photographs of my beads into her photos of nature. The end-result is simply amazing!

Marie and I are working on a book on the fruits of our creative relationship. In the meantime, we published a calendar to hopefully tease your interest and get you excited about our collaborative work.
If you can't make it to the Open Studios and would like to acquire this calendar, please e-mail me to inquire about cost etc.

Looking forward to hearing from and/or seeing you.
Cheers

To learn more about the Natick Artists Open Studios and the participants, go to www.natickartistsopenstudios.com
To see examples of Marie Picard Craig's Work, visit her website at www.mariecraigphoto.com

SOWA begins this week-end and then off for a week of teaching at Snow Farm

My show season begins this week-end:

May 15 &16 - The opening weekend of the SoWa Open Market
@ 460 Harrison Ave, Boston
10am to 5pm

It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend!

Hope to see you there!

Please note that I will not be in the studio during the scheduled showroom hours on Saturday, May 15.

On Sunday, May 16 I will be heading down to Snow Farm for a week of teaching.
Be back on the 22nd.
See you then!

A New Tutorial: Heart Pendant

It's just a week before St. Valentine's and I finished my new tutorial.

I'm thrilled to be able to share this technique with whoever's interested.

Ever since I learned to make hearts I've been feeling the same thing while creating - captured by the hot glass moving to the rhythm of gravity.
A nice journey which always turns into a beautiful heart.

Looking forward to your feedback.


Happy St. Valentine's :)
May we all give and have love. May we all keep learning how to love and be loved gracefully...

A NEW LilianaBead Tutorial Out There - Fancy Ribbon Design

I prefer it when the tutorial is all done and ready to be read, enjoyed and used for guidance.

This tutorial focuses on a design of my own which I call Fancy Ribbon. Layers of color and movement as if it is a fancy ribbon floating in a freshwater stream.

Below are some excerpts - visual and linguistic - to introduce this tutorial to you.

o Learn to detect consistency by studying the heat color in your glass. Red heat color communicates hard clay, orange – soft clay, and yellow – paint. The most advantageous and empowering location is of course on the margins. For example, managing orange-yellow heat-colored glass is much easier.

o After winding discs always hot-fuse them by gently heating them to an orange-red heat color to the side of it rather than from the top. The discs transmit heat unevenly which makes them extremely vulnerable to thermal shock.

o Melt the bead in the upper part of the middle section of the flame.

Steps 15, 16 &17: Encase the bead.

Come Melt Glass and Make Beads at Worcester Center for Crafts

Flames are burning bright at WCC!!!

I'll be teaching two classes this winter and spring in 2010 at Worcester Center for Crafts. One of the oldest craft centers in the nation, WCC has a well equipped lampwork studio and a fresh outlook.

		Begins	Ends	Meets
		01/19/2010	02/23/2010	Tu from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
		03/02/2010	04/06/2010	Tu from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Last night I taught the last class of the fall session. I was so impressed with how in a short period of six weeks each student accomplished so much, becoming aware of and engaged by a new medium. We admired the beads they made, rich in choices of form and color. I felt confident that everyone was well-equipped to continue their new journey.

I enjoyed observing every student persevere at learning from demos, solidifying understandings, and develop his/her aesthetic preferences.

I can't wait to see and share more.

Open Studios for Natick Artists

This is one busy week as I'm getting ready for the Open Studios this week-end.

Saturday and Sunday
October 17-18
Noon - 5pm
http://www.natickopenstudios.org/

Stop by and say hello.

Artist Statements that I enjoyed reading and more

I've been surfing internet this morning for a few reasons:
1. I like to renew items in my etsy shop in the early hours of the day.
2. It is a nice way to wake up when I find something curious to read and see.

Here's what I found:

• Pam's Corwin blog which I found very informative, easy to read and quite entertaining. http://businessofcrafts.blogspot.com/

and

• an artist statement written by Mark Rosenbaum, an artist glassblower. http://rosetreeglass.com/artist.html

I enjoyed every image and emotion that this statement evoked in me and remembered the time when I was an artist-in-residence at Worcester Center for Crafts. We all had to write our artist statements for our graduating exhibit. I wanted to tell a story and a story within a story because that's what working with glass and getting to glass has meant for me. To see my statement click below.

• http://lilianabead.com/statement.htm

If you're looking to write your own artist statement, there are a lot of resources out there on how to write one: google "arist statement". As far as examples of artist statements, there are thousands and thousands out there. The ones that appeal to me are grounded in journeys through process and thought.

• Read Julian's Voss-Andreaehttp statement to experience a wonderful journey: http//www.julianvossandreae.com/Work/Statement/Statement.html
• See this video of the "Magic Wave" which is an artist statement in action http://www.reubenmargolin.com/waves/magic_video.htm

Be inspired by poised statements about connections of art and life, art and science. Make them your own and start your journey. Have a wonderful day!

Back from Snow Farm

I'm back from Snow Farm and missing my students, my fellow instructors and the campus staff.
However, I will be back on September 20 for another week of teaching and looking forward to a new class and energy.

I have to say that at the beginning the energy in my classes is quite well-balanced and full of preparedness. The students are attentive and respectful toward each other and the teacher.
As the class progresses, my students develop multiple identity syndrome, oscillating from quiet and driven to joke-making, uncontrollable glass addicts. I love it and can never get enough.

My favorite thing about teaching is watching each student develop her (sometimes his :) ) own relationship with the process and the glass. While caution and/or enthusiasm make time pass and glass melt, mutual trust helps members of the class learn to watch for each other and even create together. The resulting beads are wonderful, each like a pearl encapsulating a journey rich in understanding and representing layers and layers of experience...

In addition to spending a lot of time with my students, I enjoy my time with fellow faculty. Some of them I run into quite often and there are always a few that I have yet to meet. One whom I see a lot and whose work I admire very much is Alexandra Sheldon. Check out her website to see her mind-blowing collages. I'm contemplating on taking a class with her just to see what collage can do for me...

SOWA - Soth End Open Market in Boston

www.southendopenmarket.com

540 Harrison Ave
Boston, MA 02118

This Sunday August 2nd I will be exhibiting at SOWA again for the fourth time and I'm looking forward to it. Below are the dates when I will be there for the next three months:

August 2, 9, 30

September 13, 19 & 20 (United South End Artists Open Studios)

October 11, 25

I've enjoyed all the shows so far and I have recently added more. I love being among some talented artisans whose work is creative, conceptually driven and well-executed. I also enjoy the customers who have interesting and rewarding reactions to my work; some of these reactions result into sales and that, of course, is undeniably and WONDERFULLY

Two tutorials with confusing titles

This is a tale of two tutorials, whose titles may have caused confusion:

I posted the tutorial LilianaBead Apple Core Design - Starting with the Center - Part One - Lampwork Bead Tutorial several weeks ago.

I just posted the tutorial LilianaBead Tutorial - The Apple Core Design - Lampwork Bead a couple of days ago.

Today I changed the title of the first tutorial to LilianaBead Apple Core Design - Starting with the Center - Lampwork Bead Tutorial after realizing that "Part One" makes the tutorials sound more connected that they really are. These two tutorials are for two entirely separate beads. The bead shown in the first tutorial is not at the center of The Apple Core Bead.

I called the first one "Part One" because perfecting that bead gave me the inspiration for the center of The Apple Core bead. This tutorial focuses on a beautiful design which lies at basis of the apple core design. Long before I made an apple core for years I made this bead and developed it to where it is now.

Why would you purchase this tutorial if you can just purchase the Apple Core Design Tutorial? This tutorial is different in that the goal of it is

1) to show you how to make the bead in the image;
2) to start you thinking about designs as modules that will lead you to more composite designs of your own;
3) to get you to practice several techniques that make this design what it is;
4) to introduce you to concepts of color use to accentuate depth and color in glass.

The clues I offer here make each step more comprehensive and strategic. They are perceptibly different from tutorial to tutorial. I rarely copy and paste. My preference is to think about each tutorial in the moment as having its own logic and a distinct flow of words and expression. Thus, you will learn something different from each of them even though processes might appear as similar if not identical.

Apple Core Inspired

I don't know if you know this...
(1) I can crack an apple open in half with my hands.
(2) I eat the entire apple. Yes, the apple core included.

You probably don't know that growing up in Moldova, a mainly agricultural country which at the time was the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldavia...
(1) I ate fresh apples only during their ripe season and otherwise my dad, who had access to farmers and their harvest, would bring cases of fresh apples to the city and store them in his cellar. That is why we ate apples and hence they were quite exotic to us during off-season periods. In my family the entire apple was consumed.
(2) In my school not everyone's father stored apples for the winter and I, like many others, had to share with my classmates. I didn't like when people bit out of my food, so I learned how to crack apples in perfect halves with my bare hands. Sometimes I cracked those halves into two more halves depending on how many kids wanted a bite of my apple at the time.

It's nice to share and bring to the surface these memories. It's even nicer and very curious to see what comes out of this experience - an apple core lampwork bead. Who would have known?

I'm including a slideshow of images/art/craft I found on the web. There is an abundance of expression driven and influenced by the apple core - thank Goddess of All Apples :)

Create for a Cause - Suicide Prevention

This morning I'm thinking of my dear friend, RM, whose teen son died by suicide a few years ago. As result of her experiences pre- and post-, she's dedicated her life to this cause.

On June 4th, RM and her friends are holding an event during which several crafters will help her guests enjoy the process of creating and sharing the wonderful energy that usually accompanies such activities. Among conversations and meaningful relationships, we will sew and collage handmade cards and assemble jewelry.

RM and I met a couple of times to come up with ways to use beads of all types to create pendants, bracelets, rings and keychains. To economize, since this is a fundraiser for a good cause, we used memory wire and cords that we've had lying around my studio and her home to create models of what our guests can make. I will take pictures during the event and will have another post after June 4th showing you some of the pieces we will have made.

RM's son had a make-your-own streak in him. I got to know T. better when RM brought him to my studio and wanted me to teach him how to work glass in a torch flame. He ended up making beads that were all blue and red because he was a very passionate citizen of the Red Sox Nation - our baseball team here in Boston. I was amazed at how fast he took to the process. He explained to me later that he had just learned about the laws of gravity in his physics class and that he enjoyed seeing it happen so fast right in front of his eyes while melting glass.

After T. made some very nice red and blue glass beads, I taught him how to macrame so that he could incorporate them into jewelry that he would enjoy wearing. We sat in RM's kitchen with hemp thread and T. made his first of numerous macrame hemp necklaces. I found out later that many of his friends ended up with macrame hemp necklaces as result of T.'s new interest.

Now, to engage and pass on those memories of T's desire to create hands-on, RM created this fundraising event where professional crafters will provide guidance in designing and creating handmade and the guests will add new narratives to their relationships and this particular cause.

There will also be a silent auction. I donated two sets of jewelry which include a necklace and a pair of earrings representing my Berry with Seeds and Flower Berry Collections.

6 followers? Unbelievable and very exciting!

WOW! I'm thrilled to find out after a short absence here that I have 6 followers!
Thank you for signing to follow my blog.

Thinking about designing while I'm getting ready to write Part II of the Apple Core Tutorial

As I'm getting ready to write the Part II of the Apple Core Tutorial, I'm thinking of all the seminars, lectures and workshops where people come together to discover and articulate their voice and style.

To me designing is about
(1) paying tribute to those who have been designing with glass (and other media) many years before I came into the process
(2) spending the time to understand and to address my own aesthetic principles that move me emotionally and intellectually.

In this day and age with the democratizing of the medium includes making access to equipment and materials easy and affordable, and encouraging a culture of sharing in respect to knowledge and skills. Those of us who enjoy working with glass and value the ways of the glass to facilitate self-expression, take it to the next level, i.e., the marketing and the selling of the product we create.

I get so excited and thrilled when I see that the crafter, in addition to making her/his product available for sale, has also made an effort to show the customers that s/he spent energy, thought and time to make glass speak for them and help them express themselves. If not, then the question for me, is why else would I do it? Now more than ever the market is full of glass creations, so why would I buy something unless it helped me connect to its creator who thinks, feels like me--or quite the opposite, and that can be exciting as well, enough for me to want to purchase it.

Here’s the story that I want to share with you to show you my path which led to the apple core design and collection.

A few years back I took a class with Jim Smircich. Among his wonderful demonstrations, he showed us how he made HIS apple core. You can check it out in almost any publication about his work. It was in the middle of the demo when I felt an arousal of my creative energy as I watched the disc placed between the two bridged beads melt. The disc was pushing down and out while the rest of the glass was drawn by the heat to the surface of the bead – what an innovative technique and a sensuous experience all in one. After the class was over, I spent hours making Jim’s apple core and watching the disc melt. Being somewhat attention deficient, I started sticking things on the bottom before I applied the disc, like metal etc. I have a few designs that incorporate the fruits of that period. They include the Constellation Collection and the Aurora Borealis Collection.
So, while continuing to experiment with the Apple Core technique I simultaneously started enjoying the dots to stripes technique (I show how to make this bead in my Part 1 Apple Core Tutorial) and did that for a long time till my brain/experience took me to marrying the two together, thus creating the current LilianaBead Apple Core Collection. Hence, the Mother & Daughter Duo.

By bringing the two designs together into one Apple Core Bead, I recognize the connection between the two but mainly I want to encourage you to make similar connections in your experience with glass and design. Isn’t this the reason why you’re lampworking: to create collections that only you could have thought of because you are an individual with creative and intellectual powers which are characteristic only to you and no one else?

While we come out of a community, we are our own idiosyncratic selves - Let’s celebrate that!

Call me CRAZYYYYYYYYY

50% OFF one item in either of my two shops with a purchase in my Mom's shop http://bookmarkwithlove.etsy.com

Call me CRAZYYYYY but I'm crazy about my Mom!
Her birthday is coming up and she doesn't want any gifts.
I do know, however, that one gift that she would loooooove is for her lovingly-made bookmarks and wall hangings to find loving homes.

Please enjoy this offer from the depth of my heart till the end of this week, last day of purchase should be April 12.

Click here to browse my shops:
http://lilianabead.etsy.com
http://lilianabeadjewelry.etsy.com


Thank in advance.
Please consider this offer only if you really like something in my Mom's shop.

Selling Online Also Means Enlarging Your Social Footprint

If you are just starting to market and sell your artwork online or you've already been working at it for a while, it is worth to you to consider expanding your online presence continually. The more shops your work is in, the more networking you're doing, the larger your social footprint is online.

Do you have a Facebook presence?
Do you have a Twitter presence?
Do you have a Flickr presence?
Do you have a Blog?

In addition to expanding your social network, multiply the shops your work is in. These shops are built in ways that even those with few computer skills can sell their artwork successfully.

Use the same name for your shops which is your business name and you will find that all roads lead to Rome - Rome being you and your wonderful creations.

At first I thought it would be difficult to keep so many shops online and manage them all efficiently. But because all these sites are made extremely user-friendly, I found that it is actually quite easy once you have the following:

1. Have your listing done with pictures and use the same info in all your shops.
2. In your note to the customers let them know when you will have their item shipped. Make sure that you allot enough time for yourself to finish the task. As long as you tell them ahead of time, you can take up to a couple of weeks to ship the item to them.
3. Create a calendar where you keep track of your tasks. It helps a lot when I feel overwhelmed with orders.

Whatever you decide to do, in the end we all want our work to sell. The best way to do it is to have a presence in multiple shops where your customers are looking to make their next purchase.

In the meantime I'll just keep posting new items in my artfire shop FOR FREE :)
This a recent shop where I have been offering my work for sale.

I hope you consider opening your own shop on Artfire. Click below to go there and get your shop now. Let me know how I can help and I will be glad to do it.

Register on ArtFire.com

LilianaBead Tutorials Available Now

I've been a teacher for many years now.
I taught public speaking, rhetoric at several universities and colleges, but my passion for the last several years has been lampworking.

I love to teach glass, heat, gravity and design in part because the students in those classes really want to be there - that makes all the difference sometimes :) I think of the lampworking process as communication. The communication between

• your urge to create and the powerful medium you're creating with
• your desire to learn a skill and the ways of the medium to teach you those skills
• ways of interpreting the clues of the process and translating those into design
• glass and heat and gravity
• and much more

So far I've created two tutorials to share some of the knowledge I've accumulated and formulated over the years. My teaching style is reflected in these tutorials in that I am quite informal in my interaction with glass while paying close attention to observations I make during the process and systematizing those. Each step is an instruction followed by numerous clues that you should watch for in order to make that long-term investment.

The tutorials contain pictures of each step in the process. In my Basic Horizon Tutorial I took the pictures myself - a long and tedious process. In my second tutorial, LilianaBead Apple Core Design - Starting with the Center - Part One, I was aided by my friend, an accomplished photographer and artist, Marie (www.mariecraigphoto.com). You will find wonderful photos accompanying each step of this tutorial.

My intention is to keep creating tutorials of my designs as I believe in my heart that sharing knowledge and making it available to others is very important. My preferred way to share knowledge is by teaching in a classroom environment. I will be teaching two workshops this year at Snow Farm. Please my website for more info and/or browse the Snow Farm Catalog (you can access it by clicking the pic on your upper right).

It's a rainy Sunday and it's very peaceful... Now to Designing with Chains

Snow and Rain together ...
Middle of February in Natick, MA can be a crossroads of seasons where either direction I look I can think back of winter passing and look forward to a spring rain. Today, watching the rain fall onto the snow, I'm pausing to give this moment merit. I'm finding peace lying in bed in my bedroom upstairs and enjoying a cold, the harsh reminder of which is just a sore throat.
Today is a good day to pause....

Our house is full today. Everybody plus* is home today and everyone is inside and on the inside of their ways of being: thinking and being in a sincere and warm way.

My friend Tolly just surprised me with a phone call. She is an Icelander who lives in beautiful Copenhagen and she studies glaciers. We know each other from Alaska where we both attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I love talking to Tolly because we can talk about everything and nothing while laughing and laughing and sometimes crying together.
Sometimes we talk about global warming since this is a part of her professional pastime and she keeps my awareness on this issue alive.


Let's talk design a bit or let me talk about design a bit and then you tell me what you think in the comment section. The topic is CHAINS.

I love using chain in my designs in part inspired by the many talented artists out there who've done that before me. Specifically, I'm talking about use of chain in designing earrings.

1. The most obvious way to use chain, of course, is as an extension where its primary purpose is to add length. Sometimes the function is treated too literally by some and I've done my share of that. So, this design - a bead and an ear-wire connected by a short chain segment - most of the time looks too spontaneous and unintentional. I rarely see the design value in such pieces.
2. I've seen successful designs where the purpose of the chain is to provide a frame for a focal piece or a multitude of elements such as the chandelier earrings or a vine-style earring.
   
3. When creating the design in this photo, I really enjoyed thinking about chain as a part of design that provides visual and conceptual continuity to the piece. I'm hoping that the design I'm showing you in today's post does exactly that i.e. the chain turns the bead into a flower.

Meaning creation though close attention to elements makes design much fun for me and it adds to the value of the piece. And that's the news from Liliana on this dreamy and rainy day.