My name is Annelyse Taylor. I am French, married to a Scottish man and we live in Aberdeen, Scotland with our two children.

 

I make Lampwork Glass Beads!

 

This is a mesmerising addiction occupation where light, colours and alchemy all come together for some unexpected and sometimes amazing results.

 

In a nutshell, making beads involves melting glass on a torch and winding it on a steel mandrel. Making a bead can take anything from 10mn to 1 hour (or more).

 

My beads are then placed in a kiln where they are annealed for strength and durability.

 

I started learning on a hothead torch in July 2005 but equiped myself with an oxy-propane setup and a kiln within months.

I have learnt from books and videos but I have also taken classes with some great lampworking artists : Diana East (March 2006), Kimberly Jo Affleck (June 2007), Leah Fairbanks (June 2008), Sherry Bellamy (November 2008) and Claudia Trimbur-Pagel (September 2009), Andrea Guarino (April 2010).

 

I am inspired by everything around me. I love improvisation, practice and play, and my greatest motivation is the desire to try something new, sometimes to great effect and sometimes not (but I always learn something from my experimentations).

 

 

 

My email address is:

millbank.cottage@dsl.pipex.com