AOTM May 2007 - Claire Morris

Started by Isabelle, May 01, 2007, 07:53:52 AM

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Isabelle

The Artist if the month for may 2007 is:




Hello, I'm Claire and I'm a glassaholic. I am also a full-time,
self-employed glass bead maker and jewellery designer, living in not-so sunny
Staffordshire with my husband and three troublesome cats. I first came into
the world of beadmaking at the end of March 2006. Before then I was a
jewellery designer for a silver jewellery company designing Celtic jewellery
for Past Times and other shops, and I also had an online business making and
selling jewellery. Unfortunately at the end of 2005 I was made redundant
from the designing and for a number of reasons my jewellery business started
to fail too.  I was lost, no money and felt I had no future or a direction
for my creativity ... until I stumbled upon a local bead maker, Lesley of
Flame Born Beads who took my hand and lead me into the glassy world and I
was given a new lease of life....


As a jewellery maker beads had always fascinated me - but actually
making them was just amazing as it gave me the ability to have so much
control over a design and be able to create something totally unique to me.
I also find that glass working appeals to both the scientific and artistic
parts of my personality. I find the medium of glass amazing
and exciting to work with - there is always something new to learn and
master. Glass will never bore you!



I've never had a lesson, so I guess I am self taught through books (and also
Corina Tettinger's DVD on stringer control!) but I also wouldn't have learnt
half as much without my lampworker friends both online and in real life and
I owe them a great deal.


I really enjoy seeing the glass bead as an individual art form in its own
right, and am slowly beginning to find myself moving away from jewellery and
just into glass art. I try my hardest to follow an artistic process on all
of my work, building up a burst of creativity and pouring it all into a
piece and enveloping myself with it. I find Diana East's work inspiring
particularly for this reason, and I'd love to have a lesson with her one
day.



I am a pagan and an environmentalist so I am very inspired by my love for
nature, the earth, the elements and the cycle of the seasons in my work. I
am beginning to get well known for my tree, goddess and stone circle beads
that I hope reflect this.  


I am also incredibly inspired by both the scenery
and history of the UK, and am currently developing a range of beads inspired
by this, including white horses, hill figures, scenes and famous landmarks
which I hope to perfect and launch soon.


Apart from this, I also love making "organic" style beads and love the challenge of juxtaposing loose organic
"swooshy" styles together with some elements of design that are more
precise. This fusing of the two opposing styles can create some interesting
pieces.


The future? I am not sure but I hope it's a glassy one! At some point I'd
love to start teaching, and would love to have an exhibition if I am lucky
enough! I also have an idea of maybe trying to get a collaborative art
project going working with recycled glass, using my husbands links with the
glass recycling industry - whether this will come to fruition I am not sure
yet, but its an interesting possibility.


I sell my work via my website www.rowanberryglassart.com, on eBay at
http://www.stores.ebay.co.uk/rowanberryglass and also
via an agency who places my work for sale in selected hotels in the West End
of London. I am also hoping to find more outlets very soon.