MARTA BERNBAUM
LAMPWORK BEADS
I have spent the last eighteen years sharing with others my passion for glass. I have worked as an instructor teaching glass techniques in many New England art campuses such as Snow Farm (MA), Waterfalls Arts (ME), Brookfield Craft Center (CT), and Sharon Arts Center (NH), as well as teaching out of my own studio here for years. My work has been on display at the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center here in Vermont, and my work has traveled the country with a glass flower competition. https://www.Instagram.com/martabern_glass/
The beads you see are part of the play and exploration that I share with my students. I use both borosilicate (pyrex) and Italian soft glass.
The process involves me melting rods of glass with a table top oxygen propane torch. I have steel mandrels with clay on them that I wrap the glass around to make the prefect holes.
The clay once fired breaks away and helps me get the glass off once it has cooled overnight in the kiln.
The belt buckles are a collaborative effort where I am taking the remainders from some of my husband Josh Bernbaum’s work and placing it in the kiln to create a sheet of glass, from there I cut out the buckle shape and adhere it to the base. I use archival museum grade epoxies.