Planning Fall schedule and torching.....

August 28th, 2006.....Here in the Northeast US, summer is drawing to a close. We'll still have some warm days in September and October but the summer comes to an end when the kids go back to school during the first week of September. If you have followed my posts or read my profile, you know I'm a part time sign language interpreter and interpreting work always picks up the last week of August. So, more time interpreting and less time at the torch!

BUT - I've added more shows and will do so steadily over the next year. Take a look the CindyGimbroneBeads website for the schedule - I'll have my beads in the "Once Upon a Bead" show in Hunter, New York during the fall and I'm pursuing other gallery opportunities. I'll also have a tutorial on the Lucky Knots and Lampwork in the debut issue of the Annealer magazine. So, you'll be seeing MORE of my work rather than less!

The summer has gone well, though. I've made good progress in organization and marketing. A biggy for me - marketing myself. So far, my schedule has worked out so I can have 3 un-interrupted days a week to work in the studio. My next project is to insulate the studio for the winter. I want to be able to work year round and in an unheated, uninsulated studio, I can't work January-February. I do sometimes go out there in the winter - but with about 4 layers of clothing! Smile!

Ancient Glass.....August 27, 2006

While on vacation in Toronto, we went to the Royal Ontario Museum, the "ROM" - and in the new Asian exhibit was this grouping of horned and warring states beads. I've seen lots of pictures of ancient beads such as these, but I've never actually seen the real thing until now. The beads are big - probably around 30mm-50mm. I find that most beads that have that many layers of dots have to be large. The holes are much larger too than most modern day beads. I really like them - it was a real thrill to see some "live."

The 2996 Tribute Project

August 26, 2006....I've signed up for the 2,996 Tribute Project which honors those who were killed on 9/11. On September 11, myself and other bloggers will post a tribute to an individual who was lost on 9/11. To learn more, you can click on the title of today's blog.

Do you see beads everywhere?

August 23, 2006....Sometimes, I see beads in everything! I look at the most mundane things and am inspired to make beads! On a walk through Chinatown in Toronto last week, the fruit and vegetables on the street were so vibrant with color that I had to take a few pictures. It said glass to me! I'm grateful and fortunate that something as routine as a walk on vacation can provide such inspiration - as long as I'm willing to stop and look at it.

Hands and Mudras.....

August 22, 2006.....I'm back from vacation....we went to Toronto for a few days. Very busy visiting many different sites - was alot of fun!

Last Friday, we spent the afternoon at the Royal Ontario Museum or ROM as it's called. A wonderful new Asian exhibit had recently opened and was full of wonderful sculpture. I'm always fascinated with hands. Many of the hands were broken off - so we don't know exactly which handshape it was. But each handshape has significance and is called a "mudra." The first picture shows buddha as an infant/toddler - seems that there a few representations of the buddha as a baby. His hand is outstretched in a particular handshape. The sculpture's description didn't explain which mudra this was,though. I spent a few hours just going through this one exhibit - there was so much to see! I'm not going to show all but just a brief glimpse of the buddhas and the handshapes. Fascinating!

Travels....August 18, 2006

I'm off on a vacation for a few days to Toronto in Ontario Canada. Spent yesterday walking the streets of Chinatown - found some interesting dyed leaf shell beads that I decided I hadn't seen anywhere before - so scooped them up to bring home. Wandering the streets with my family, we look lots of pictures of street vendors and food markets. Lots of very colorful fruit and vegetables. I didn't bring my USB cable with me so I can't upload any pictures yet. When I get back home in a few days, I'll post some pictures.

We'll be visiting the Royal Ontario Museum today and hopefully get a chance to see the St. Lawrence Market. Tomorrow, the zoo and then home! I promise lots of great pictures to share!

Hard work....August 14, 2006

Good morning! I'm in a great mood today despite the fact that it's a paperwork day! I'm excited to announce that my work has been accepted into the "Once Upon a Bead" show at THE GALLERY in Hunter, New York. The show is hosted by the Catskill Mountain Foundation and features beads made of all types of materials, glass, ceramic, etc. The show will run from September 30th to November 12th, 2006. All beads at the show will be for sale.

If you've been reading my blog, this is one of the series of applications I've been working on this summer. Hard work does pay off!

So, in honor of the upcoming show, I've posted on of the "Chakra" hands that I make. The fingers have all of the colors of the rainbow representing the chakras. I use the pearly yellow for the palm - I really love the color - so bright and energetic. I've been making some variations on the chakra hand theme and using a cobalt blue for the palm. A very soothing color - gives the hand a whole different feel. Funny how changing one element can lend an entirely different tone. That's what keeps me interested in creating!

Development and Comfort....August 11, 2006

I'm developing a new series of beads and that means that while they're in development, the beads are not show-able. During a torch session, I'll make a few of the new series beads and then make a variation on one of my current series. It's comforting to go back to something I can make with confidence after working on new techniques/styles.

I've created slight variations on my hand beads. In the Cosmic Hand bead, I've made a separate "bail bead" and created the hand hanging from it. The flame-hand was inspired by a fellow beadmaker, Jim Anspach, who creates "fire and ice" beads with small flames. He was kind enough to post directions on how to create the flames. I used his tutorial to place the flames in the palm of my hand!

Homage to Favorite Artist Picasso -Copying?

August 7, 2006....I did a series of beads awhile ago that were a HOMAGE to certain artists. The goal in creating the beads were to look like the artist's work. I've posted my homage to Picasso which is very recognizable as Picasso - that's was the point. I don't say I came up with the artwork, the image - it's a tribute to the artist.

I really love the paintings that Picasso did of this woman - she's so languid - I can feel the adoration he might have felt for her coming through the painting. So, I entitled it Picasso's Amour. I wanted to be out there with where the image came from.

There's nothing that gets some people more red in the face than these beads! I'm sure it was the subject of a long, sharply critical thread on one of the glass boards when I posted a picture of it there. I only scanned a few of the posts because I could feel the anger.

It never occurred to me that someone might think it was improper. It was a homage, a tribute. The image on the bead was supposed to look like Picasso paintings. If you recognized the style, the name - then you were a Picasso admirer like me.

I love these beads so much and are so excited to show them that I put one or two of the homage beads out at a bead show - one person picked it up and looked at me and said - this is Picasso! I said yes it is! (with a smile on my face - I thought she understood it! - Fellow Picasso lovers! Wrong!) She grumbled under her breath about copyright infringement - huffed and walked away.

Interesting.

The point was to look like Picasso - it was obvious to her - so does that mean I copied or achieved my goal?

Well, it matters not how everyone else feels about the bead. In the end, it's how I feel about them. I love them. I love Picasso's paintings in this style. I'd be happy to send a percentage of the money from the sale of the homage beads to the estate of Picasso but I don't sell the beads - selling isn't the reason I make glass in the first place. I've just given this one away but the rest I'll keep in my private collection - just more for me!

How to's and To Do's....

I've written a "how to" article for the online forum WetCanvas! It will appear in the Glass Art section. It's an easy tutorial on what to do with the left over bits of glass rod from flameworking/beadmaking. The finished project is a textured piece of glass, about 1.5 inches square. They look woven, but they're not. I love the look of them!

I've decided to start using a "to do" list - bought a dry eraser board and have placed it directly in front of me at my desk. To Do lists have never worked well for me - I tend to write a list that has 15 or 20 things on it that need to get done. After I write a list that long, I'm too overwhelmed with what I have to do - so I don't do any of it! LOL! Instead of writing a very long list, I force myself to write 2-3 things at a time. I've been doing that this week and haven't felt overwhelmed yet! I actually gone things done! Truth be told - I got things done before but for some reason, I feel more of a sense of accomplishment when I can erase items from the list!

Glasscaster Podcast Review.....August 3, 2006

Finally there is a podcast out for flameworkers/lampworkers! Hurrah! Thanks to Marcie Davis for bringing a radio show for flameworkers to our computers and iPods! Before Glasscaster, there was/is GlassTalk Radio but since I am a MacHead, I was never able to get it to run on my Mac. Missed out on alot of great interviews but Glasscaster will fill that void nicely!

In this show entitled "The Life of an Artist: Is it for You?" Marcie has lined up some of the flameworking greats, Paul Stankard and Fred Birkhill. Davis interviewed both at the annual Flameworking Conference held at Salem Community College in New Jersey.

Glasscaster opens with some catchy instrumental music which fades as Davis begins the show and interview with Stankard. Davis is an excellent interviewer, she asks the questions that all of us are thinking. The first time I listened to the show, what stood out for me were the voices of Davis, Stankard and Birkhill. No disrespect intended to either Davis or Stankard, but both voices were fairly monotone making them difficult to listen to for the entire 21:50 minutes of the Stankard interview. In person, their voices would be supported by seeing the person, their gestures, facial expression, etc. and I doubt I would have felt their voices were monotone. On a radio show, the voices have to carry the listeners' interest and I felt myself wanting more inflection, more "personality" because I couldn't see them. In contrast, when Davis began the interview with Birkhill, his voice was full of personality, inflection and enthusiasm. His excitement about flameworking became my excitement and I wanted to hear more than 15 minutes!

Voices aside, the show was engaging and the questions thoughtful. While being interviewed, Stankard mentions several books that he feels an asipiring artist should read. I've posted most of them below with either summaries or links to summaries for those who are interested.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man


Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence Robert Pirseg (first published 1974, 25th Anniversary edition, 1999) From the back cover:

A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintencance becomes a personal and philogophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live. The narrator’s relationship with his son leads to a powerful self-reconing: the craft of motorcycle maintenance leads to an austerely beautiful process for reconcliling science, relition and humanism. Resonant with the confusion of existence, this class is a touching and transcendent book of life.

The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property– by Lewis Hyde first published 1979 – Literary Criticism/Sociology – from back cover:

The gift is an inquiry into the place of creativity in our market-oriented society. Starting with the premise that the work of art is a gift and not a commodity. Lewis Hyde’s revolutionary book ranges across anthropology, literature, economics, and psychology to show how the “commerce of the creative spirit” functions in the lives of artists and in the culture as a whole.


Ayn Rand – The Fountainhead. From the back cover:

When it was first published in 1943, the fountainhead, Ayn Rand’s daringly original literary vision and her groundbreaking philosophy,, Objectivisim, won immediate world wide interest and acclaim. This instant classic is the story of an intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him.



Robert Hughes – American Visions excerpt at: American Visions

Earnest Gombich – The Story of Art

(I have the last book, The Story of Art and it is a readable art history book. Lots of pictures of the artwork Gombich describes. His writing style is accessible and not full of professional jargon. Worth the $30.00 I paid for the hard cover off Amazon. )

I must admit to being puzzled about some of the book recommendations. I am not sure how Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair makes one a significantly better artist. However, art is subjective and a whole variety of things can make one a good artist. Although I may or may not agree with the recommendations, I will agree if Stankard feels reading it made him a better artist, then by all means read it! No one can argue with the beauty of his paperweights and his skill as an artist.

After about 22 minutes, the show transitions to Birkhill. I'd like to hear a little more of the instrumental music between the interviews - it would help to bring back listeners who may have drifted off. However, the minute Birkhill starts to speak, he draws you in with his voice - he's excited and his love of flameworking comes through the earphones. Birkhill's portion of the show addresses the title - The Life of An Artist - is it for you? best. He describes his own journey and how art can be a compulsion - something you can't NOT do! Many of the listeners will feel the same. It was interesting to hear how his "failures" at other careers lead him to his current and successful career as a glass artist. At the end of Birkhill's interview, Davis promises to interview him again in the future. I look forward to hearing more.

Glasscaster gets a thumbs up and thanks to Marcie Davis for all the hard work it takes to put a podcast together. I look forward to future shows.

You can subscribe to Glasscaster through the iTunes store:

Glasscaster Hot Glass Talk in a High Tech World!

or via Marcie Davis's site: Glasscaster Hot Glass Talk in a High Tech World!

Ivory Glyphs....

Working on a series - this is Ivory Glyphs. I see this as an outgrowth of the Ancient Star Maps series - it's all part of the same vision I'm working on inspired by petroglyphs, archeological beads and how they were used as talismans and communication. The Star Map beads are made differently than the Ivory Glyphs - Ivory Glyphs is manipulated amber glass whereas the Star Maps are enameled. Let me know what you think of these!