Year in Review
2012
 I made this page
at the end of 2013, so this is really a retrospective. My computer
crashed in 2012, and I lost a lot of photos. But I didn't do a lot
of glasswork in 2012 anyway, my obsession that entire year was
rocks, opals, and making cabochons. I sold/traded a lot of pieces
before I ever took good photos of them also, to feed my rock
hoarding obsession. So what you see here may not have been my best
for the year, but are a great cross section of the types of designs
I was working on.
I made very few sculptures in 2012, mostly
pendants, glass cabochons, and marbles. So here's a large cross
section of each type I worked on as representative of the patterns
I did, separated by types. I had a lot of fun putting the images
together, it gave me a good idea of my glass progression and
technical skills.
 Here's the only 2 sculptures I did in 2012, which was for
trade to some wonderful rock people, who traded me special and
treasured rocks for these. I hope they still love them, I still
love looking at photos of them.
And Newts (can you tell I like blue?)
I had several special focuses this year. "Phases" I
went though. Honeycombs were one of them, and I tried them in
muliple forms. Often, when I go through a phase, I make some
incredible pieces... then promptly forget how I accomplished it
later. This series was one of those... I still can't do it again,
but wow... I love how they came out. These remind me of some of
Georgia O'Keefe's flowers. That's flattering myself, since Georgia
O'Keefe's work is legendary... but I think in a few of these, I
caught a small spark of inspiration from her.
The "Blue Honey' set
Another theme I worked on was trying to perfect a
design I knocked out of the park last year, that became my
'signature' piece. It was another of those 'inspired' pieces that
while I could come close, I could never duplicate again. Still,
these came out lovely, and I'm pleased with them.
Blue Tidal Pool
Now these are some soft glass beads I made back in 2009 where I
was testing some Trautman soft silver glass I received as a prize
at the Gathering in Miami. I don't often make things in soft glass,
as I prefer borosilicate texture, but since I only took these
photos in 2012, I thought I should show them here, because I'm
quite proud of how they turned out, and I regularly wear both of
them.
The one on the left is called 'Aliens'. The bead
on the right is called Magnolias.
Then I worked on some shapes. Not very many, but here are some
hearts.
  Because of my rock obsession,
I started making glass pendants also. These are designed for other
crafters to bead or mount in metal work, or to wire wrap, something
else I learned to do this year. If you look at my 2013
Collaboration with Steve Ferenz, I wanted to show just how lovely
mixed media projects could be. I love how those turned out!!
Here are 2 examples of cabs I made:
And then, I did some experimentation with different shapes. In
the piece on the left, I incorporated a real opal (not a synthetic)
in Epoxy. I wanted to bring my stone/opal obsession into my
glasswork, and I made several pieces (sold) like this. A whole lot
of work, but they turned out really well. I may explore that
again.
  I revisited my
'water drops' series from 2009... and as with so many of my other
inspirations... I simply could not duplicate my precise method
again. It's a strange thing how I can get so inspired to make
something incredible, and then, I can't remember exactly how I did
it. 2012 was just one of those years where revisiting everything I
previously tried simply did not turn out as well. And this is an
example. It's good, but not great. And here's a quotation mark or a
question mark, depending on how you view it, that sums up my
feeling about that.
The below are representative of the rest of my year. New marble
style experiments, where I got better and better at working with
silvered glass implosions... and pendants... lots and lots and lots
of pendants! Thank you for visiting my page!!
Helen
Starkweather
Email
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