AOTM March 2009 - Maria Louisa Wessels

Started by sparrow, February 28, 2009, 11:47:40 AM

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MARIA LOUISA WESSELS

I've been fascinated with glass my entire life and I have been buying glass objects as long as I can remember. There is nothing more beautiful that the sunlight falling through coloured glass.  In my house I have a little showcase of all I've collected throughout the years and it's right beside a glass window so the sun can play with the colours in there.
                                           




I never thought it would be possible to sculpt hot glass by myself until...............
the first time I came across beadmaking. This was in the summer of 2006.
I was really crazy about 'Trollbeads' and started to collect silver and glassbeads to wear on a silver bracelet. I'm like a raven, really crazy about jewelry.
These beads made me go on a search on the internet. And then I found out that people actually made these glassbeads by themselves. Glass wasn't an impossible dream anymore, it became something which could be mine too.

I made my first bead during a beginners' workshop. It was love at first sight.
But because of the costs of this hobby, it took me another 3 months before I bought a torch, glass and some basic tools and started beadmaking. This was in September 2006.



Since then I love taking classes. It's so much fun to meet the lampworkers I admire and to be able to learn from them.
In 2007 I've taken a 2 days class from Julie Ann Denton, The Human Form and I've done Sarah Hornik's Silver Secrets.
In 2008 I did Dora Schubert's Stringer and Dot Applications and 2 classes with Michaela Maria Möller, Flower Power I and Under Water I.
Furthermore Carla di Francesco's World of Color, Jens Mueller's Making Glass Rings and Pati Walton's All about the Garden.
Also there was a wonderfull weekend in Hamburg with Teresa Laliberte.
And I've closed the year with 3 days of Sherry Bellamy: Implosions and Pods: Taking the Plunge!,  Shipwrecks and Other Watery Subjects! and The Manipulation of Meshes and Metals!



This year I promised myself to do only one class. Last year was completely over the top and as a result of that, I have enough ideas in my head for the coming year(s) to practise.
My choice for 2009 was Frans Meeuwsen's Creative Training in Working with Borosilicate glass (it's  a class of 4 hours a month during the whole year).
However, I already broke my own promise but I'm completely happy about it. I'm going to do Julie Ann Denton's Human Form again, this time not only in soft glass, but in borosilicate glass too.



I'm admiring lots and lots of beadmakers, there are so many talented people out there. But my main interest remains sculpting glass, rather than making beads.
I really love the work of Milon Townsend.



I get my inspiration from colours and from nature.
Because I've been drawing and painting all my life I see glass like a oil palette.
It makes me want to use the glass like paint. It's because of this I think that my favourite beadstyle is to do organics, especially organics in combination with silver glasses. I think you can call those my signature beads.
   



Also I really love the sculpting part, but then again this also reminds me, about me painting with a palette knife, thick paint, oil on canvas.
Making hollow fish, the bigger the better, always makes me happy. They all end up with their own characteristics.
     


The skill or technique I want to learn the most is the 'not so simple' stringers and dots control. It takes lots and lots of practise and patience (which I do not have a lot of).
The other thing I'd love to do is using bright colours.

I have no specific bead I'm most proud of, it's very often the last one I made.
               


                                               
In my beads my real personality comes out. Everything else is 'not really, not completely me'. Glass for me is like coming home finally after all those years (why didn't I find out about this 15 years earlier). It's like a state of Zen to me.

At the moment I'm practising perfect round balls of borosilicate glass, an exercise preliminary to working with hollow tubes.

You can see my work at my website www.glassbeadsculptress.com
in my etsy shop www.glassbeadsculptress.etsy.com
and at www.flickr.com/photos/beadpress
     


I haven't got any beadfairs planned yet but I would love to do a meet and greet somewhere this year in the UK to see all of you.

Love and greetings,
Maria Louisa
Sabine x

www.littlecastledesigns.co.uk www.facebook.com/littlecastledesigns Ring Top Tutorial