Mary Ann Wiegert

After graduating with a degree in Education and Art, I experimented with several different art forms until I found the most rewarding for me was making jewellery. I started using semi-precious stones.  Perhaps this was a consequence of collecting pretty rocks as a young child. Our neighbour had a display case with semi-precious stones which fascinated me. From there it was natural to want to create with all the beautiful coloured rocks found in nature. About 20 years ago a friend suggested that I might like taking a glass bead making course. I was hooked!! But I didn’t want to give up stones. My next challenge was learning how to combing the two mediums into pieces of jewellery.

Working with glass is called torching or lampworking. Rods of coloured glass are heated in a torch and formed into shapes around a metal rod. They then go into a small kiln at 940F to anneal and harden. This takes about 6-8 hours as the heat gradually ramps down. Taking them out of the cooled kiln is exciting. Did the heat change the colours? Some of the glass I work with is reactive to heat and oxygen to gas mixtures. As with the stones, the glass comes from all over the world.

My finished pieces are usually one of a kind. I would bet bored with production work, plus there’s so many colour combinations to explore. It’s very hard to part with my creations. Alas I need to buy more glass and stones.

Enjoy!