Internet is a wonderful medium and a source of information and inspiration. Especially for a creative and artistic person like me. Since I wasn’t very mobile for about 8 weeks due to a complicated foot fracture, I spend a lot of time surfing the net during the first months of 2008. During one of these sessions I encountered a movie about lampworking which has triggered the already latent fascination for handling hot glass and became the origins of my artistry. Because of this movie I learned it’s possible to work with hot glass on a small scale by making beads. So the minute I became somewhat mobile, I attended a beginner-workshop, bought the required equipment, some basic tools and a small collection of glass rods and transformed a part of our dining-room-table into a workplace. Every single moment you could find me there, behind my burner, staring in the hot flame looking at a stainless steel rod with "clot" hot glass.
Soon after an additional barn in the backyard has been transformed into a studio. It’s equipped with 2 workplaces (including one with an oxygen burner), an extensive glass cabinet, many tools, a kiln and very important a good exhaust. And almost every day you can find me there transforming glassrods into a new bead or set of beads.
And although at this moment my work as a web designer provides a part of our family-income, slowly but surely, manufacturing and selling beads of glass is taking over this task. The knowledge gained as a web designer I use primarily for designing and maintaining my own website and sales pages. I also document my creative path in life by blogging about it.
My work reflects my personal style and "technical" knowledge. Bright colours, matching colour combinations, creative details with playful elements. I am inspired by nature and my surroundings but also by the work of others and am learning new techniques every day. Glass can be used in so many directions and therefore I will never stop learning.
The beauty of the bead as a form of art lies in the fact that where my creative process “ends” that of another begins...