Lesley Silver

Glass, Jewellery

I create designer glass beads in the traditional way one by one in my studio Beadashore located steps from the sea in the Downlong artistic quarter of St Ives, Cornwall.

This process is called lampworking and originates from early days in Venice where artists melted glass over the flame of an oil lamp to make a bead. Today???s lampworkers use modern torches fuelled by a mix of oxygen and propane, this provides a clean flame to melt the glass in excess of 900 degrees.

I use only the finest Moretti-Effetre glass rods from Murano Island, Venice, Italy.

All the beads are kiln annealed for durability and strength – this removes any stress from the glass and once the tension is removed glass beads are quite resistant to breaking

The beads are then cleaned and ready for wearing and hopefully admiring!

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