A sterling silver chain of hearts accents the Lampwork Pendant created with my favorite recycled Kahlua bottle glass.
Many of my necklaces and pendants are reversible and both sides have their own character showing off the accent beads.
Wikipedia describes lampworking as, "Lampworking is a type of glass work that uses a gas fueled torch to
melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. Once in a molten state, the
glass is formed by blowing and shaping with a variety of tools and hand
movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as
the modern practice no longer uses oil-fueled lamps. Although the art form has
been practiced since ancient times, it became widely practiced in Murano, Italy in the 14th century. In the mid 19th century
lampwork technique was extended to the production of paperweights, primarily in France, where it became
a popular art form, still collected today. Lampworking differs from glassblowing
in that glassblowing utilizes a blowpipe to inflate a glass blob known as a gob
or gather, thereby inflating it by blowing air into the blowpipe, whereas,
lampworking manipulates glass either by the use of tools, gravity, or by blowing
directly into the end of a glass tube."
"Early lampworking was done in the flame of an oil lamp, with the artist blowing air into the flame through a pipe. Most artists today use torches that burn either propane or natural gas, or in some countries butane, for the fuel gas, with either air or pure oxygen (which can be produced by an oxygen concentrator) as the oxidizer."
"Lampworking is used to create various artwork, including figurines, trinkets, curios, Christmas tree ornaments, beads and much more. It is also used to create many scientific instruments as well as glass models of animal and botanical models that so closely mimic the real thing, they are virtually indiscernible from the actual thing, save the fact that they are not living."
My "Hearts of Kahlua" is showing at:
Arts Prescott Cooperative Gallery on Historical Whiskey Row in Prescott.
May 22, 2009 Arts Prescott will be celebrating a 15th Anniversary with a party and you all are invited. Be sure and visit Prescott for this event. I will be celebrating along with most of the 24 local artists showing at Arts Prescott from 6 PM to 8:30 PM.