Ellen Black Handrcrafted Art glass beads biography

I always enjoyed drawing and making different craft projects when I was growing up. I painted, crocheted, and knitted. I also remember my aunt giving me beads to string whenever I would visit her.

As I got older, I attended as many drawing classes as I could fit into my schedule. I eventually joined a calligraphy guild and took lots of workshops on letter forms, including a year long study one weekend each month. We spent six months on Roman letters alone. I learned how to cut quills, use dry ground pigment, lay gold and a host of other skills. This led to a real interest in paper crafts in general, including making it, marbling it, decorating it and finally binding the beautiful papers into my own handmade books.

At some point, while trying different ways of decorating the book covers, I got the idea to use beads as embellishment. I needed to learn some beadwork techniques in order to use them and found that I really enjoyed just playing with all the beads. There seemed to be no end to all the shapes and sizes of the beads; all the wonderful colors intrigued me. I had found a new passion and I never made another book after that. Who knows, maybe that bead stringing all those years before had stuck with me.

Working with beads inevitably led to other processes including making the beads themselves. I took a wire-wrapping workshop with Lynne Merchant, and Cindy Jenkins happened to be in the same class. Some of the students started to get together after the class to share what they knew, and Cindy did a lampworking demo for us at one of the sessions. I already owned her book, Making Glass Beads, but hadn't really done much. Now I was hooked. JoAnne Reece, a friend and lampworker, encouraged me to go for it so I bought a Hot Head torch and set it up on my kitchen table. When my oldest son saw it, he thought I had really gone over the top this time but calmly commented "I guess this is a natural progression from beadwork". I don't know if that's the way it works for everyone but it sure did for me. True to form, I began taking workshops as often as possible.

Since it was mostly the colors that drew me to beads in the first place, it’s kind of funny how addicted I have become to black, white, ivory and clear. I have to say, though, that I never met a color I didn't like. I just love everything about the process. For me, being at the torch is the ultimate in relaxation. I find that the good stuff happens mostly when you don't plan too much and just play.