A new find for me - welcome Josephine!
I discovered Josephine at The Big Bead Show at the beginning of April with her gorgeous beads although I wish I'd found her earlier in the day as I'd blown the budget by late afternoon! |
| The lovely Josephine! |
How did you begin your craft?
My
daughter and her friend had done some jewellery making in a club at school. I
was friendly with the other girl’s mum and we decided we would have a go. We
started making jewellery and selling at house parties. In time we moved in
different directions. She concentrated on a range of repeat designs while I
experimented with things like silver clay working on more ‘one of a kind’
designs. Then I discovered lampwork and that was that. I still make jewellery
but now it almost always features my beads. I love working with glass and I
find the process very relaxing, melting lovely colours of glass together,
looking over my garden with Radio 4 and the hiss of the oxygen to keep me
company.
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| Where the magic happens! |
Where do you draw your inspiration?
Anywhere and everywhere really.
I love making organic style beads inspired by the natural world. On the other
hand occasionally I just like to do something really pretty and girly. Ideas
for colour combinations might come from nice fabric or paper.
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| Organic etched spacer beads by Josephine Wadman Designs |
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| Handmade lampwork beads by Josephine Wadman |
Describe one of your favourite techniques to use in your work?
I like making my beads look
ancient and worn. When a bead is just about finished I roll it in bicarbonate
of soda and then put it back in the flame. The bicarbonate reacts, by giving of
some sort of gas I assume. This causes bubbling and pitting on the surface of
the glass. When I’m happy with the effect then the bead goes into the kiln for
annealing. To complete the look I will acid etch the bead to make sure it all
looks matte. Etching beads is a bit of an obsession. Some days they all end up in the acid. I just
love the look and feel of the glass and I think it often enhances the design.
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| Jurassic Coast Etched Seaside Beads |
Is there anything new you are itching to try and incorporate?
I can’t think of anything in
particular at the moment. I’d like to get better at making hollow beads and
maybe experiment a bit more with some of the newer reactive glasses that I
haven’t invested in yet. And maybe experimenting a bit with enamels. I did
start using them quite a bit a few years ago but I haven’t done much with them
recently.
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| Glass Shell Focal Bead |
What would you describe as your biggest professional achievement?
Well I’m hoping that is to
come. I hope that I will be able to support myself through my bead making. I got divorced a few years ago and have
another 18 months or so until my youngest goes to university and I no longer
get any maintenance. I am very aware of how quickly that time will go but I’m
hopeful that things are moving in the right direction.
You can find out more about Josephine and view her work here:
http://www.josephinewadmandesigns.com/
https://www.facebook.com/JosephineWadmanDesigns
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/josephinewadman
Josephine also sells her beads through a Facebook auction page and I've been lucky enough to win one recently so stay tuned to see what I create :)
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