Lampwork glass happiness!

Look at the stash I picked up yesterday! This is a pile of handmade lampwork glass happiness, if I've ever seen one! Since I design for a National Top 100 lampwork bead artist, I work with a lot of lampwork glass. Somehow, I never grow tired of it. Even just one small piece, can transform a design. One single piece can birth a design. One single piece can speak to you, offering tasty color for the eyes, immaculate detail to lose yourself within and true art on a tiny little canvas. I've stood there with my eye protection on in the glass studio, watching the art come to life under the torch ... and I still can hardly believe how it all happens!

I obviously was in the mood to design with rounds, when I picked these out! One of my favorite lampwork shapes, is a square or rectangle-shaped bead (as you may have noticed in my designs!). But lately I've had several ideas for pieces centered around more round shapes and in my mind, they're feminine, cheery and happy. Jackpot! I had no trouble picking out what I wanted to work with next when I saw these.

With each new design I see, it's never a question of "if" I want to design with it, the question is "when" I want to design with it. It's so much fun to work with materials that can take you from a blank design board, to something scrumptious and fabulous, so effortlessly. Many times I've taken a handmade lampwork glass bead from my stash, not sure what I'm going to do with it. I can always lay it down in front of me, enjoy a sip of Diet Coke while I relax "spending time" with it ... and it always speaks to me. And yes, I often do have a problem making myself "use up" the beads. They're so happy to see everyday, I can hardly stand to think about not having them around anymore! You would think that I would be anxious to get the bead into a piece I could wear and enjoy, but at this point I almost always feel that I should offer the item for sale once it's finished. So that means, I know that one way or another, at some point, it's going to leave. A little piece of happiness out the door. But I do love knowing the happiness is going to someone else to enjoy and that keeps me going. That, and I continually find the next design I have to work with!