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Susan Chambers
I’ve made jewelry of some type for most of my life, but started in earnest in the early ‘90’s. Beginning with seed beads, charlottes and chevrons, I began to look for the more elaborate Venetian glass beads I remembered from childhood. Needless to say, finding something like that in the early ‘90’s in OKC was a fruitless endeavor. After a few years of searching, Tina and I found someone (Scottie) who could actually teach us how to make beads very similar to what I was looking for. Tina and I took our first class in October of 1996 with Scottie in her store in Edmond, Oklahoma. I used my Hot Head for 6 years, faithfully taking my sad little beginner beads to Scottie to be annealed, wringing every bit of experience out of it that I could. I bought a Nortel Minor Bench Burner finally, purchased an oxygen concentrator to use with the burner and was off to hotter and faster bead making. Contrary to most experiences, I had next to no learning curve getting used to the Minor. The transition was very smooth and produced a much more enjoyable experience, i.e. no noise! After meeting and joining in with several other bead makers, we formed a co-op for bringing expert bead makers to Oklahoma for workshops. These workshops have been the only instruction I’ve had (preventing many expensive, time-consuming mistakes) since my first class. Among those teachers have been Ginny Sycuro, Kim Osibin, Tom and Sage Holland, Anne Ricketts, Jennifer Geldard and Kimberly Affleck. I’ve now been using the Minor for over 4 years, letting loose my creative spirit and hoping that others will appreciate the result. My path in glass feels as if it has only begun, and the trip has been quite a ride! Life has been a fuller, richer experience for having glass as a part of it. Susan Chambers |