Glowing Bubble Beads

I love glass and I love glowing lights! I’ve always enjoyed neon signs and used to want one to hang on my wall when I was younger. I’ve always been attracted to black paired with bright colors, especially green. I love to see those plastic glow bracelets and jewelry the kids wear, bouncing around the evening landscape like floating magic rings, the wearer almost invisible.

And remember those black light posters popular in the 70’s? Spencer’s displayed them in the back with a large black light fixture so you could see the colors pop. The big angry tiger, dragon, the landscapes that looked like they came from a Conan The Barbarian book cover. Those.

So anyway, I had made this big green and black bead not long after I first began lampwork. It’s basically a bead with “half hollows” around the edge. I had the idea of hollow domes of glass on my bead instead of huge solid dots. I placed white dots of glass on the bead so the transparent would have a lighter background and then coiled the transparent green on top. It really catches the eye and almost appears to be lit from within. You really need to see it in person, photos just can’t catch the glow.

As you can see, my wire wrapping skills weren’t so great back then.   I had made this bead into a zipper pull and used to wear it on my coat… I think this was the last one I made.

But I’ve been wanting to make some more. I tried doing another bead like this but it was much smaller and it just didn’t look the same. So what did I like so much about this bead anyway? The glowing bubbles. I decided to try making simple drops with the little “half hollows” on them. I also made a couple long spiraled drops but they didn’t turn out how I imagined.

I still need some practice. They’re just not as clear as I would like, the bubbles inside seem to be a bit off-center. They look ok on the outside but I tend to be a perfectionist and am always finding fault with my work. I still like them and plan on using them in my own jewelry though, I have a special necklace in my head and these are going to make great accent beads.

Tracy Jerrell Akhtar blogs from her home studio in Southern Michigan. To see her webpage and more of her creations, click on TracyBeads.

Golden Geisha

Well this one has fine silver melted onto the surface, but turned a pale gold. The body really looks like a cross between shiny gold and silver at the top and I love the fact that it stayed that way while I was working it in the torch. I used blue on black for the bottom half of the bead and swirled it into waves. My mother said it made her think of  the “Starry Night” painting by Van Gogh.

I placed her on a fine silver headpin as usual, it’s times like this I wish I could afford to work in gold.
She’s currently available for sale at my online store Hey Where’d You Get That?!

Passchon Furuutsu

My newest geisha! Passchon Furuutsu = Passion Fruit in Japanese.

I really liked the color combinations on this one, a deep pink reminding me of pink lemonade or grapefruit, black and mango. Yummy! She’s holding a tiny lantern in her hands, attached with one of my fine silver headpins.

 

You can find her here -> Passchon Furuutsu
Tracy Jerrell Akhtar blogs from her home studio in Southern Michigan. To see her webpage click on TracyBeads

So Where Does It Come From And Where Do You Put It?

Some of my ideas come to me while I’m sitting at my desk surrounded by my own beads. I’ll look and ask myself “How could I do this better?” Or, “Hey these colors would look great together.” Sometimes I’m not anywhere near a bead and *zing* an idea pops into my head. I seriously don’t know where it came from, the image is in my head for that second or two and I better write it down if I want to remember it later.

I make a conscious effort to avoid looking at other’s work when it comes to lampwork. I look when I post in a forum gallery of course, it’s kind of hard not to in that case. But I try not to for my own peace of mind. I know there’s a big debate about inspiration vs. copying and this post isn’t going to be about that, I’m just explaining how I work.

So where else do I get inspiration then? Does my muse come and whisper in my ear every night? Stick her wand up my nose and tickle my brain? Honestly it comes to me when I least expect it, when I’m not trying.

For example, I was watching MadTV (I love lowbrow humor I guess) and there was a parody of an old space avenger show. The villain was Debra Wilson dressed as what looked like a low-budget female Fu-Manchu character. Long metal fingertips, huge wig with tassles and an actual paper fan for a hair ornament. *ZiNG* Now there’s an idea for my geisha. A hair decoration that resembles a fan shape, something to stick out and add interest and detail.

So I sat with my book and imagined myself making this hair ornament. It’s like I’m watching a movie playing in my head, I see myself doing it. “Hmm, kinda hard to add decoration so close to the mandrel. Ohhh but if I add flowers or whatever before I position it…that would work.” And I had my tutorial in front of me on paper.

That’s why I keep a small notebook on my desk to jot down ideas and mini tutorials for myself to use later. I have this little green notebook filled with pages of sketches and step by step instructions. I’ve had ideas pop into my head and at the time they seem so obvious, like a lightbulb really flashed over my head. And I’ve thought to myself,” Nah it’s ok, keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll remember and can write it down later.”

But I don’t.

This is how it works for me. It just hits me, the idea/image pops into my head and I usually go write it down before it disappears. Now I have a book full of ideas I can always turn to when I feel stuck or in a slump. The act of writing my idea down and thinking it out as I construct tutorials helps my creative process. If you were to peek inside my book it’d probably look like a mad scientist scribbled in there, I just get so excited when the idea hits. Some of the designs in my book are for glass I can’t even use yet, like boro. Doesn’t matter, I’ll be glad I have it when the time comes.

So my biggest tip to all of you is to keep a notebook or journal handy and when an idea comes-Write It Down!

This post can also be seen on the group blog  Watch Me Create.
Tracy Jerrell Akhtar blogs from her home studio in Southern Michigan. To see more of her work check out TracyBeads.com

Hello world!

  This is my first blog ever. Usually I work very hard to keep my thoughts to myself because my words & opinions sometimes cause people to get their noses bent out of joint. BUT- this is a project to explore my work in creating lampwork glass beads so I’ll make an exception.

   I’m in a group of aprox 10 artists that are blogging about their creative process. Where the ideas come from, trial and errors, etc. So this is almost a blog about a blog…except I’ll add more personal thoughts to this one. This one is for me.

   The Name Game. I was recently married in Pakistan to my soulmate, Javed. I’ve been working on branding, getting my name out there and building a reputation for myself as a glass artist. So now that my work is catching on, here comes a name change! What to do, what to do.
   I haven’t legally changed my name yet. I’m hyphenating it currently on non-official venues to Jerrell-Akhtar to get people used to seeing my new name. Once my husband’s here in the USA I’ll probably switch to just Tracy Akhtar. I love my name really, Akhtar means “star” in Arabic. I love my new name and love my new husband! I have a partial story and photos on my website TracyBeads.com if you wanna take a peek.