One of the real pleasures of belonging to a guild is watching your fellow glass beadmakers discover and pursue new ideas. Artists do this sort of thing all the time; it's called making a series. Rita tells me that she read about shards somewhere, thought they sounded interesting, and started making her own.
One of a set of ‘shard’ beads, roughly 30mm edge to edge. Sodalime glass, artist made shards (some cased with silver foil) applied on bead-pressed lentils. manufactured/copyright 09dec06, Rita Stuckey. N.b. All rights reserved.
After making a number of beads that explore the rich earth tones heavy metal bearing glasses (e.g. ones with a lot of copper or silver) she went for a lighter look with all transparent shards. Still playing the metals, she foiled some of her shards with silver, which you can see beaded up for a very subtle and appealing touch.
Second in the series. These were shot with available light on a plain section of white paper. This one I lightened a little, but considering the conditions, I think these are pretty decent photos. Of course, it helped that the beads were so appealing to begin with.
What I found particularly interesting is that shards weren't demonstrated to her: she just read about them. That strikes me (pardon the pun) as rather unusual. Despite the plethora of books now available for lampworking, my sense—perhaps because I'm lucky enough to interact with so many other beadmakers—is that people learn most of their techniques from other beadmakers. Certainly that has been true for me, so maybe I'm just projecting.
In any case, the word for these is Yummy!
file created 10dec06, introduction started 25feb, completed 2mar07. Beads divided into separate images & post completed 2mar07. If you are interested in purchasing these beads or others like them, you can try contacting the artist through glassact.org. Re-indexed, 3jun08
This black barrel cylinder bead with opaque spider-webbed shards is almost certainly an xmas trade, probably by Rita Stucke
Winter wonders trade with rita stucke . Originally posted 09nov08. 10nov2008
This 2007 xmas prezzie was from GlassAct's annual secret santa trade . Originally posted 04jun08. 04jun2008
Rita Stucke has recently developed this wonderful series that contrasts the precision of molds with the organic quality of freely applied shards. This latest variation of using all clear colors into the mix to show off transparency of glass for a real winner. Originally posted 25feb07 02mar2007
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
