Links
Here are a few of my favourite links (I hear a song in there...) Do go and have a look, especially at the British lampwork websites: these designers are amongst the very best and have been hugely inspiring to me. British Beverley Hicklin* designs and makes truly gorgeous lampwork beads and her website is definitely one of the best around. Beverley also gives a lot of time to teaching lampwork too, so do give her a call. Wendy Willmott is one of my favourite lampworkers, not only because she's one of my dearest friends - I'd never dream of being so biased! Wendy's website, Creeky Beads, is also a delight to visit, so do go and see why I'm so partial to her beautiful creations. * These artists also offer lampwork courses, should you wish to take up this most rewarding craft. Lampwork Jewellery Ros Price-Jones is a lovely lady and a dear friend, designing the most beautiful jewellery, not only with my lampwork beads, but a great supporter of British lampwork generally. Jewellery I cannot speak highly enough of Sarah Austin at Beadsisters who, together with her hubby Steve and daughter Loren, run one of the busiest and most popular stands at bead fairs all around the country. They offer a huge and varied range of quality beading materials, at fantastically competitive prices. They also have an ebay shop (link from their website). Cooksongold.com offers a wide range of jewellery-making materials, including precious metals, PMC and tools. Having used them on a number of occasions, I'm more than happy to recommend them to you. Lynne at Amanda and Mark from Palmer Metals have the best selection of sterling silver and gold you could ever hope to find, in an amazing range of superb quality products and findings. If they don't stock it, then you don't need it! Organisations The Contemporary Glass Society* (CGS) was founded with 'dual objectives of encouraging excellence in glass as a creative medium and developing a greater awareness and appreciation of contemporary glass world wide'. Their website is a breathtaking resource for all things glass - please do pay them a visit. Galleries The WOW Gallery in Dorking, Surrey is owned and run by Caroline Salmon. Caroline has an exceptional collection of art and crafts including glass, ceramics, wood, expressive painting and etching. Her gallery is intriguingly inviting - I promise that you won't be disappointed!
With the other categories, I have had to be quite strict in my listings, otherwise it could go on forever and you'd never find the time to visit everyone included here. If you have any questions about anything, just drop me a line and I shall endeavour to help. These listings are in alphabetical order: enjoy browsing.
Lampwork
Artists
Sarah Downton
Emma Green is a nutty lady who I'm honoured to call my friend :-) Emma's speciality is lampwork critters and animals, once telling me that she tried making spacer beads but they all turned into sheep!
Judith Johnston's lampwork is instantly recognisable, in that she creates some of most beautiful encased focals I've ever seen.
I met Sharon Reynolds at Lingfield's bead fair in 2007 and I'm not ashamed to say that the beauty of her work reduced me to tears. She's an adorable person too :)
Ray Skene* is based in Wales and his hollow bead work in particular (just my humble opinion) has to be seen to be believed.
One of the first lampwork sets I ever bought was made by Sandy Spires. As well as her beautiful lampwork, Sandy is now selling some fabulous lampwork tools too!
John Watt* is hugely popular with jewellery designers and his raku lampwork is highly sought after.
Rebecca Weddell's lampwork designs show an incredible eye for detail and perfection.
& Glass
Suppliers
Creative Glass is a Swiss company with an outlet in Rochester, Kent. As well as having a fabulous range of glass materials, they host a wide variety of courses in lampworking, glass fusing and stained glass.
Creative Glass Guild offer stained glass and glass fusing supplies, with a shop in Bristol and a comprehensive online shop too.
Plowden & Thompson not only sell their own glass, but have an amazing selection of Reichenbach glass too (yum yum!!). They also host lampwork courses.
I've spent a lot of time at Spellcast Studio in Horsham, drooling over their stained glass materials. They offer courses in both stained glass and glass fusing.
Martin & Teresa and Tuffnell Glass have been unceasingly helpful to me and offer possibly the widest range of lampwork glass, tools and other materials available in the UK, at extremely competitive prices.
Warm Glass have an amazing range of materials primarily for fusing, but for bead making too.
Designers
As well as being a hugely talented lampworker, Vicki Honeywill with Pure Shore Lampwork and All Strung Up creates all sorts of delightful goodies. Vicki also sells on ebay (link from her websites), so do go and see what she's up to.
Suppliers
Sarah Hardcastle and her husband at Beadbuyer offer arguably the best gemstones around, certainly the best I've ever bought. Quality is paramount to them, which is clearly visible when you visit their stand at various gemstone and bead fairs around the country. Sarah's still building her website, but you can always contact her with any query at sarah@beadbuyer.co.uk
GBUK
You may be familiar with the acrynom SRA*, standing for Self-representing Artist. A self representing artist is someone who creates and sells their own or their immediate families handcrafted work. They never sell mass produced beads. A list of their members is available on SRA's website: my SRA number is R38. You can use the 'SRA' abbreviation to search on ebay for work by these artists.
Last updated: Saturday 26th June 2010