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Susan Stanford - Artist
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Hello,
I am Susan Stanford and I am an Alaskan
artist. Although I have worked in many different art mediums,
my first love has become creating handcrafted lampwork
glass beads.
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But, before I tell you about
how I got into them, let me tell you a bit about myself and
how I got to where I am.
I came to Alaska in 1968 as
a Dental Hygienist. I worked and lived in Anchorage, plus I
was part of what is known as "bush dentistry," which
means that we traveled to remote areas, providing the residents
with dentistry services and teaching oral hygiene.
In 1979, my late-husband, Walt
and I moved to a tiny remote island, Bare Island, which was
part of the Kodiak archipelago. Walt and I were the sole residents
and homesteaded there for 15 years.
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During that time,
I fished commercially and started trapping fur-bearers for many different
projects.
Eventually, I started a small fur
sewing business on Bare Island using my trapped furs. I created a
wide variety of fur-related items for sale, including antler baskets,
jewelry and much more. This was my first successful craft business
and evolved to include many of Alaska's natural materials, like salmon
skins that were tanned into leather.
Today, a number of years later and
after moving to Sitka and taking lampwork glass bead classes, I have
changed the direction of my artwork.
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Lampwork
glass beads are almost as old as man's
use of glass. Where they were historically made in a wax or
oil flame, today they are created by working colored rods of
glass around a metal mandrel in the flame of an oxygen/ propane
torch. The beads are then annealed
in a kiln.
I have experimented with a wide variety of
known lampwork techniques, but being a naturally creative and
inquisitive person, I have also created special techniques of
my own that you will not see duplicated in other handcrafted
glass beads.
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When I prepare to create a bead, I
usually envision a certain way that I think the glass and other substances
I'm working with will mix, but almost always I let the glass take
me in its own direction.
Being made of the earth, each glass
has its own unique characteristics that we cannot control or change.
I often mix the glass with unusual mixures; sometimes it's a piece
of silver, gold, or copper, other times it may be a piece of glass
that I found on a trip that I add in as a memento, or ash from Mt.
Egdgecumbe Volcano which is so well known here in Sitka, as a keepsake
for visitors.
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After the loss
of my husband, my neice, Jesse, asked me to create a bead with
my huband's creamation ash for her to have always. I did for
her and for myself, as well... I call these my memorial beads.
Like all arts, lampwork glass
beads is an art that is ever evolving as it is limited only
by the imagination of each artist. Each bead is unique, special;
made of nature's gifts, encrafted by the artist's vision.
And, with each person that chooses
one of my beads, I feel I have made a special connection. That
person sees something in the color or substance in that particular
bead that makes it special to them.
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There is a reason they chose
that bead from among the many I've made. A reason that it is
special for them.
Thank you for allowing me the chance to create
a special bead for you.
Susan Stanford
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"Those who contemplate the beauty
of the earth find reserves of strength that will last as long as life
lasts." Rachel Carson
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