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!
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