Maddabling: Friday Friends - Australian Makers

Hello Fabulous Friday! Weekend here I come! Looking forward to some fresh air and sunshine as summertime draws to a close. Today I am super thrilled to introduce a talented Aussie maker - meet the marvellous Maxine from Glass by Girlfriday :)

If you mix humour, puns and glassy creativity you get Glass By Girlfriday :) She creates amazing things from glass. Let me share some with you...... firstly a Clown Fish!

Next some ripe and succulent glassy Cherries!

And finally these tiny beauiful Geishas! Aren't they the sweetest?

Readers, I invite you now to be inspired by The Story of Glass By GirlFriday. Happy Reading and have a fantastic weekend xo

The Story of Glass By GirlFriday

The art of Lampworking involves using a flame to handcraft glass beads, then firing them in a kiln.

"Maxine Chivers, aka Glass By Girlfriday Glass chose Girlfriday as a medium in early 2006 and after completing a beginners lampwork course, she hasn't looked back. It hasn't always been a match made in heaven... many many hours of research (ahem - forums and help

from other artists), and lots of trial and error have helped shape her style. This, combined with an offbeat sense of humour and love of cartoons have developed her unique quirky style. if you are unfamiliar with the actual process of making a bead, check out Glass By Girlfriday's youtube video, produced after a number of her customers became intrigued as to how their beads were made."

You can watch it here :

"Glass by Girlfriday has exhibited in a number of shows, including past Sydney Bead and Gem Shows, Sydney Royal Easter Show Arts Exhibitions, and has also entered various international shows."

** 1st Place Lampwork Glass Jewellery 2012 Sydney Royal Arts and Crafts

** Highly Commended Lampwork Glass Jewellery 2013 Sydney Royal Arts and Crafts

** 2nd Place Lampwork Glass Jewellery 2014 Sydney Royal Arts and Crafts

"Glass By Girlfriday has also been featured as Artist of the Month on www.beadingtimes.com and has also had an artist profile and photos published in

-The Glass Artist Studio Handbook (Cecilia Cohen - Quarry Books)

- Annual Women In Glass issue of The Flow Magazine

-various European online magazines relating to glass and lampwork."

"Her pieces sell to collectors and jewellery makers around the world, and she currently has beads and sculptural pieces in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingom, U.S.A., Canada, Hong Kong and Russia and Germany."

I've known since I was a kid that I HAD to do something crafty/ artistic. Even as a kid I wanted charcoals, paper, paints, pencils... anything arty. I gravitated towards cartooning... I have no idea why. I was inexplicably drawn to it... get it? lol

I guess I was also inexplicably drawn to glass as a medium too. Again I have no idea why. There is just something about taking the absolute raw base ingredient of glass and applying heat, trying to control a molten substance that has been in existence for thousands of years, yet knowing in the back of my head it will never be fully controlled, if that makes sense. I'm waving my hands frantically while typing this... I am so passionate about this medium and any chance I get to talk about it, I will! ;)

Favourite technique? Would have to be sculpting. Ask me to make a simple round bead and I will do almost anything to avoid doing it. Tell me to put googly eyes on something, maybe some tentacles, a goofy expression or an unexpected colour, and I'm all over it! I will often be so excited about a bead when I am making it that I get nervous shakes. That's when I know I'm on to something good. I am also a pretty big fan of dots. It may not look like it in my work, but dots are so unbelievably versatile. You can mask them, flatten them, layer them squish them together so much that they no longer look like dots. Possibilities are exciting as they are endless.

I tend to use mainly what they call 'soft' glass (soda lime glass in rod form). I have dabbled with a harder glass (borosilicate), but I have recently been playing with recycled glass. My 3rd place last year at the Easter Show was made from the gorgeous blue of a Bombay Gin bottle and painted with fine silver slip and refired. I've also repurposed some pieces of broken glass that meant something special to my customers. I have one friend who broke one of her nanna's glass plates. She didn't want to throw it out as it meant a lot to her, so I made up some beautiful simple round beads from it.

I tend not to do markets. For me they haven't worked. I have found that people sometimes don't understand the amount of hours or wastage of glass goes into perfecting a technique. I find most of my work goes overseas, and I am currently now growing my Australian market. Most people tend to do it the other way around but hey I've never really followed the rules ;)

Upcoming? You (hopefully) see my work in the Sydney Royal Arts and Crafts Exhibition this Easter. I am currently working on 2 really exciting entries.

Favourite piece? Ummm hard to say. I try to put a piece of soul into every single piece I make. I can't pick one! Although my Tenpin Bowling set would have to be amongst them. It represented a turning point for me of "well maybe it didn't win, but I now get what it is to create what you love, not what you think everyone else does"...

Other faves? My geishas will always be special, as well as the couple of wedding cake toppers I have made. To have a little piece of my art featured in someone's special day humbles me greatly.