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About Me  The only picture of me taken in the last 10 years
I live in Hove on the South East coast of England with my wonderful, talented and tolerant family. I have been married to George for 17 years and we have two teenagers, Natalie and Robert.
My father was an artist and always carried his sketchbook and a small tin of watercolours with him. He loved to paint the wild flora and fauna of the British countryside, walking for miles to find a rare specimen and paint it in its natural habitat. Is is a source of great sadness to me that and the only paintings he left when he died was a collection of four sketchbooks detailing endangered species of wildflowers, these are my most treasured possessions and I frequently use them for inspiration.
I always wanted to paint and draw like him but simply had no ability, he was very sweet and always encouraged me but I just didn't have it. For years I tried all sorts of creative things one after another: knitting, embroidery, tapestry etc, I tried everything convinced that there must be something that I could sustain enough interest in to actually finish a project, but nothing ever really captured my imagination until....
Some 10 years ago Dad and I went to the National Gallery in London and after mooching around in there for a while we wandered out to find a decent coffee shop. Our usual habit of trailing around aimlessly to see what we could find paid off this time as I stumbled upon the Bead Shop in Covent Garden, I was lost…. I had discovered beads... small projects easily completed in sparkling jewel colours...perfect...My magpie tendencies really kicked in that day. I started by making jewellery then tried weaving with seed beads and delicas and my bead collection just got bigger and bigger. After a few years my taste in beads got steadily more expensive from miniscule size 15 seed beads with special finishes to vintage Swarovski crystals, I couldn�t stop buying beads.
One day I realised that while I loved to collect, admire and organise (Virgo!) my beads I no longer had any interest in making anything with them especially if I had to use a needle. I started spending a lot of time surfing the Internet and eventually came to Corina Tettingers fabulous site full of lampwork beads. Well that was it! I wanted to make beads like hers but it was 2001 and there was scarce information on lampworking around then. What was available was in the USA but I kept searching until eventually I found the Glass Beadmaking UK website. A door was opened. I immediately booked myself on a 2-day beginner course with Pauline Holt, I loved it and I was hooked. I went home, threw all the tools out of the tool shed and set myself up in there on a hothead torch and a bulk tank of propane. I was soooooo happy, even though our tool shed was so tiny I couldn�t stand up straight in there and I�m only 5� tall. A couple of months later I followed it up with a one to one class with Di East. I had finally found "the thing" that captured my imagination and creativity and some lovely new friends as well. I invested in a bigger shed, a bigger torch (or two, OK maybe three or four!), a kiln, more glass rods the list was endless and the bank account suffered but I was and still am passionate about lampwork beads. I find it as exciting now as I did when started out nearly five years ago and there is always so much more to learn.
Last September I took a four day workshop in Ireland with Michael Barley which was great. In August of this year (2006) I was lucky enough to take four days of classes with Loren Stump at the International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge. I can't find the words to describe how skilled and talented the man is but he is also a generous teacher with a wicked sense of humour and I had wonderful time. I do have to say that on both of these courses the other students have all been fantastic too and we have had far too much fun.
It has been a magical journey and I feel priveliged to be able to follow my dream. I am grateful to all my friends and family who have supported me throughout without even a whisper that I might just be slightly less sensible than they had previously thought.....
wish you were here
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