Whilst I’ve made jewellery most of my life, both commercially and for fun at different times, it wasn’t until summer of 2014 that I discovered lampworking.
A small group of friends starred to go to craft workshops, starting with a workshop at Jo Downs studio. Whilst glass fusing was great fun, I didn’t see it as more than a fun day out. Our second course however, was to be a different matter!
This was a one day workshop with the Solent’s very own Karen Taylor. We were truly spoilt, with this workshop being run for just the 2 of us. During the day Karen showed us a variety of lampworking techniques, from adding dots to our beads, to encasing, to adding bubbles and using frit to decorate our beads.
We tried a couple of different torches in the process, with myself finding the slower speed of the hot head torch far more appealing (although much louder!).
All in all it was a most enjoyable day. I soon found myself wanting to do more, so in the weeks that followed I started thinking about what I would need too set up a little studio of my own to make beads from home.