The Bead Tree.net | Index | Loren Stump's Class 2009

Loren brought some examples from past work. These are all pieces he made in previous classes to show various steps in the process of making certain objects.

Here are some of his murrini (defined as pulled cane with a design that is then cross cut & used in the creation of a larger glass works) & a man's head. The attention to detail is phenomenal.

Above, a murrini Loren Stump made of an adaptation of

Leonardo Da Vinci's, Madonna of the Rocks

* I think this piece goes for thousands of dollars.*

By the way, if you haven't been to Bedrock Supply to see the amazing Bead Museum that Kathy has set up there, you really should go - she has one of the largest collections in North America & Loren donated a lot of his class pieces to it.

One of the coolest things to see in Loren's class is how small & big he can work. We saw him make teeny-weeny flowers that were so fragile & detailed. And then we saw him melt glass the size of a tennis ball to make a paperweight. His heat control skills are really extraordinary & his torch kicks.

Above, pulling glass the thickness of a needle to make the stem for a flower.

Above, in the process of making a mermaid chalice. Such tiny work making fingers on her!

And here it is finished.

Above, Loren is pulling a nose murrini, which was later cut & put together with eye & mouth murrini to make face murrini. Which is then sliced crosswise & attached to glass to make a face. Lots of steps, crazy stuff!

This class was broken into 3 portions; how to make murrini, how to make sculptural work & how to make paperweights, with a whole lot of diversion in between. This was the sculptural portion, basically showing us how to do cold work with glass. You have to build the largest part & move outwards, making sure you don't reheat areas that have cooled because if you do, the glass will crack or even explode.

Here's the finished figurine, made out of a single rod of black glass & just a couple of tools.

The last portion, paperweights, was quite remarkable to watch. I definitely have a new appreciation for paperweights. You have to make tiny little pieces to go into the paperweight & this class the theme was a floral landscape so the students had to make wee little petals, leaves & stems.

Here Loren is showing that even though it's very challenging to make the paperweight by yourself, it is possible. He's heating the little flowers he made earlier in the graphite cup with a jeweler's torch, while melting a giant gob of clear glass.

The tube in his mouth acts like a vacuum that you suck on when you push the gob of glass into the graphite cup, which pushes out all the air so you have no bubbles in the paperweight.

Here's the paperweight after being pulled out of the cup...

Now he's shaping the paperweight with a tool he invented. Shortly after, he melted off the glass rod that's attached to the bottom & put the weight in the kiln. Unfortunately, I didn't get back the next day to see it cooled & finished, but I did take pictures of the previous classes paperweights below:

I didn't have much time to actually work on a torch while I was there so I don't have any of my own things to show. I had to be on my toes assisting whenever it was required of me, however, I did watch almost all of his demos which were fascinating, amazing, & some times even mind blowing, just seeing these things appear out of molten glass.

Loren's classes were exhausting; they went from 10 am until 1 am each day for 5 days but the entire time he worked, shared techniques & tricks, instructed & talked about the glass world. If you've ever wanted to take a class with Loren, you really should, you'll get your money's worth & more. Get some sleep before hand though.

I don't imagine I will ever make paperweights or face murrini but I was shown some pretty awesome techniques that I hope to apply in my own work.