Corina Tettinger's Class ~ May 2006

I just spent a whole week down in Red Deer (1 1/2 hours south) in a class with Corina Tettinger & it was amazing!  Corina is fun, enthusiastic & so talented.  She's mastered glass on an incredible level; she understands glass better then anyone I know.  So, what a treat to have 40+ hours of class time learning from her. 

The picture above is Corina getting ready to make a bead.  Usually we would watch a demo, make a bead, then watch another demo, make another bead...etc.  In the end, I made a lot of beads & learned several new techniques.

Corina's dog, Bonzo.  He went everywhere she did & when she was teaching he snuggled up in her suitcase & snoozed - so cute!

From left to right, Sabina, Nancy & Michelle.  We stayed in a little townhouse just by the college & Sabina & Nancy were my roommates.  Michelle was next door ~ groovy gals! 

Our rooms were very basic, in fact, I bought myself a lamp & a nightstand while I was there because there was just a bed, a bare closet & a desk per room.  I liked the simplicity of it though, no computer or television.  Most nights we went out for dinner with Corina or just hung out & talked about beads.  Good times! 

This is Leanne & Bonzo.  Leanne, a super cool girl, was the only one in our class that actually lived in Red Deer.  It was cool to have a local in the class, but I was surprised that there was only one.  Red Deerians don't know how lucky they are to have all these glass artists come to town each summer to teach.

Does Bonzo look a little frightened in this picture? 

Corina making one of her famous frog beads on a heart.  If you wanted to see anything, she knew how to do it - incredible!  I tried the frog & painted his legs the wrong way so he looks like a crippled lump of road kill - poor bugger!

This is me & Sue (very nice & bubbly gal!) & Corina is behind me.  I didn't have many pictures of myself as I was the one taking them.  This was the last day, moments before we finished up & I'm pretty tired but elated.    

This was a ridiculously big bead that I made.  Inside of it is a core with sparkly glass (dichroic & goldstone), then layered with a whole lot of clear glass & finally coated with a thin black layer.  The purpose is to, afterwards, grind down 2 sides of it to see in like a window. 

If you notice my fingers holding the rod are way down, that's because the bead was giving off so much heat it felt like my fingernails were going to melt.  It took over an hour to complete this bead & then I had to put it in a kiln to anneal it overnight.  The next day I was going to grind the sides of it to expose the inside, but we realized that they didn't have the right machine so it will have to wait until the local glass store, Bedrock Supplies, gets some grinders in.  I'll be sure to post a picture when it's done. 

And here's a picture of the big bead with a smaller one just to give you an idea of the size. 

One of the cool things about Corina is her desire to experiment & try new things with glass.  One day we fused glass beads onto glass sheets after class.  Then she found out that there was a sandblaster at the college & thought it would be cool if we all tried sandblasting a bead.  Above, in this picture, you can just make out the words "Mod-U-Blast" on the white machine beside Corina.  When the switch for the sandblasting gun is turned on, "Mod-U-Blast" lights up like those Lite-Bright sets that were around when I was a kid.  It's rather 1970's space-agish ~ cool.  If you scroll down to the set of beads I made, the purple, teal & amber one in the middle with the stars on it is the one I sandblasted. 

Here's a shot of some of Corina's beads.  I didn't have a nice background to photograph them on, but you can get an idea of the variety of beads we made & her talent.  The top one in the left-hand corner split into 3 in the kiln which actually is kind of cool (I think it would make a fun pendant with spacers between each break).  She made lots of flower beads & her sandblasted bead is the white one in the right-hand corner with the gold & silver stars.

And these are some of the beads I made.  There's a hollow clear one on the right & some thin fossil beads down below it.  Attached to one is a sterling silver handmade headpin that I got to make in class.  There's flower beads & beads with little cubic zirconias in them - lots of fun stuff going on!  I'm really excited to try out some of the techniques as soon as I get a chance.  That's it folks - hope you enjoyed the virtual summary.

Oh & here's the full picture of the bead that you clicked

on to get to this page made by Corina.