Marion Sidebottom
I’ve been collecting beads and making jewellery since I was a child. The bead shops I visit remind me of the old fashioned sweet shops with their juxtaposition of beautiful colours, shapes and textures. A few years ago I visited the famous glassworking island of Murano in Venice and have been fascinated by lampworking glass ever since.
I have a City & Guilds in Jewellery (Silversmithing & Design) which I completed in 1999 and in 2006 with much excitement, I did a professional grounding course in glass beadmaking with Diana East. Soon afterwards I converted my daughter’s nursery into a little studio and spent the next 6 months locked away in it and it was practice, practice, practice until I bombarded Ray Skene for a day later in 2007 with the hundreds of questions I had amassed!
As my confidence and skill grew as well as my passion for lampworking and silversmithing, Hothouse Beads was created as a natural fusion of the two.
I love to learn from other lampworkers and have done some very enjoyable courses, including metals, foils and enamels with Dora Schubert, and in 2008 I did a 3 day master class with Diana East. On this course I learn’t some amazing new techniques like sandblasting, engraving, off-mandrel, and lots of enamelling and murrini making.
I am a member of GBUK, the International Society of Glass Beadmakers and the Guild of Essex Craftsmen. I currently sell my work through shops, galleries, my website, shows, and occasionally on auction sites.
The wonderful thing about lampworking is that there are always so many new techniques to try and things to discover about glass. I am not well known for a particular style as it is evolving all the time but I am enjoying the process of finding it immensely!
If you’d like to find out more about my work have a look at my website www.hothousebeads.co.uk
