ShebaMakeda Glass Art

Despite rave reviews i did NOT buy the hat and feather boa...

I like to play with fire and glass… and think out loud.

I’ve adored glass for as long as I can remember.  When I was very little, I loved holding my marble sets up to the sky and marveling as the colours sparkled and blended in the sunlight.  I would roll them in my hands revelling in the smoothness, varying shades and satisfying <clink> as they knocked together. 

I moved from marbles to jewellery making and eventually accumulated a fine collection of glass beads.  I enjoyed making jewellery and my pieces sold well but I was always frustrated at the limited design possibilities of even high end (but still mass market) beads.  Over the years, I’ve dabbled in just about every craft medium out there.  Of course, none of them could ever produce what I really wanted: the beautiful, ethereal intensity of custom, flameworked glass. 

In January 2006, I stumbled onto the WetCanvas Glass Art forum with its daily gallery of artist-made lampwork glass.  I was blown away - FINALLY there was a way for me to make my own glass beads and these people held the secret!  After six months of intense research to convince myself (…and family…and friends) that deliberately playing with fire inside my house wasn’t completely crazy, I bought a HotHead lampwork kit that spring. 

At first, I was so scared of my torch it sat for two weeks - I would look at it and think “i should do this!” then I’d hear the voices of caution whispering: “you’re going to burn the house down, you’re going to burn the house down”.  Of course, I did eventually light that torch, spent every spare dollar (yes, even my cute shoes dollars) on glass, presses, frit, foil and all the other required paraphernalia, and so began my complete and total obsession with manipulating hot glass. 

Funny thing happened along the way though: I’ve found the more I play and learn to control the glass, the less interested I am in making beads for jewellery.   Wait! Wasn’t that the reason I started down this path???   Soooo, I’ve started this site and I’ll soon start seriously selling but who knows what my long-suffering muse might produce?  Might be beads, might be sculptures, might be something else entirely… we’ll just have to see.  

To be frank, I’m just as curious as you… 

Evelyn

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 

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To join my mailing list send a message to:   evelyn@shebamakeda.com (also, be sure to add my email to your addressbook/contacts so my messages don’t end up in your spam folder)

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