Loving Lampwork Beads

Posts Tagged ‘define artisan’

Artisan Beads

What makes a single bead worth $100 or more? Is it the materials or the artist who designed and created the bead? And although most artisan beads aren't anywhere near $100 per bead, they all share something in common.

They were all created out of a love of beads.

About Artisan Beads

The most common type of artisan bead is glass lampwork. Basically, the bead artist takes rods of glass as big around as a pencil (more or less) and a foot long and melt them in a flame. It has to be a hot flame, so a special torch is required -- if gives literal meaning to the phrase, "playing with fire"! The melted glass is shaped into round or other shaped beads, then decorated with care.

SRA - Self-Representing Artist

You may or may not have heard the term self-representing artist when it comes to beads. What exactly does it mean?

Basically self-representing means that the person whose name is attached to the bead is the person who made it. It also includes the person's immediate family. For example, my studio name is "TasminAnn Studio". This could cover both myself and my husband...but not my niece, nephew, cousins or friends. (And in my case, I'm the only one in the studio since my husband gave up trying to make beads.)

There has been somewhat of a furor over some big "studios" selling lampwork not physically made in the studio. The lampwork is made elsewhere, sent to the studio where the bead sets are arranged and assembled. This is equivalent to someone buying a lot of beads from various locations, mixing them up into different "sets" and then representing those bead sets as being made by them.

There's nothing wrong at all with selling bead collections. What is wrong is claiming that you made the beads when you didn't.

Know What You're Buying

Artisan beads are made one-at-a-time. Most bead artists I know don't like to keep making the same colors and styles over and over again. For the most part, we are constantly trying new colors, designs and shapes. It's part of the charm of artisan beads, that you won't see the beads you bought on other people.

What To Expect

True artisan-quality lampwork will always:

Be kiln-annealed. When a bead is made, it undergoes a lot of stress, with the heating and cooling. Annealing the beads in a kiln "relaxes" the beads so they are less prone to cracking.
Have smooth holes. There should be no sharp edges to the holes that can snag materials or even cut beading wire.
Be cleaned of bead release. Bead release is a powdery white material that coats the mandrel while the bead is being made. It it wasn't for the bead release, the bead would simply melt onto the mandrel and never come off. Now it's always possible that a bead artist might miss a spot of bead release when cleaning the beads, but artisan-quality beads will never be full of bead release that you will have to try and clean.

So when you look at the photos, check the close-ups. Also be sure to read the particulars of the beads (like if they were kiln-annealed and possibly what kind of glass was used). And in addition to what you see below, here's a link to .