Glass Beads

I have had the best day today!!!
I learnt something new today & I also had brilliant fun doing it!! I went to a one to one workshop just down the road - it was run by Bev Ferri of Ferri Glass & I finally got to learn how to make beautiful lampwork beads. It took me a little while to get the hang of making the beads round (believe me there were a few wobbly attempts to start with!) but I think I got there in the end - I made several experimental beads to learn how to mix colours & add designs & detail to the glass. Obviously my favorite bit was adding silver to the beads but then I love anything that has silver in it!!!

Working with Bev was loads of fun - it was so inspiring to look at her work - which is really wonderful (I would recommend everyone who gets the chance have a look at her creations!) and it was such a treat to be able to make some beads that were a combination of her ideas and mine - I find it is always interesting that given the same materials 2 people can produce something so completely different!

Bev runs 2 different workshops - a 2 day course on glass fusing & a separate 1 day workshop on lampwork beads and I think the best thing about her workshops is that you could enjoy doing them if you had no experience of jewellery making or even if you had no intention of ever making jewellery again - it's a great day out and you get to take home some beautiful pieces of jewellery at the end of the day! Or you can use the day to learn an new skill to incorporate into something you are already interested in.

I cannot wait to pick up my finished beads once they are fired....!