Kelly Wild • March 2007

Oceans of Glass

By Tara Roberts

Sitting in her garage, surrounded by bundles of colored glass rods, brass stamps and molds, Kelly Wild of Bluewater Bay dons yellow tinted goggles to shield against a sun-bright flame. Working quickly, she fashions hot, supple glass into stunning artwork that is reminiscent of the oceans that inspired it.

A lampworker, Wild creates custom glass beads either for her own jewelry designs, or as focal pieces for other artists. Armed only with a propane torch, thin steel mandrels and colorful glass rods and homemade canes she transforms raw materials into tiny seascapes.

Holding a ball of glass at the end of a mandrel, Wild twists and turns, pulls and teases strands of molten color into wearable art. She keeps adding colors to her beads until she has what she hopes is a finished piece, and then slips it into a 960-degree kiln.

Over the next eight hours, the glass cools to room temperature and hopefully will produce an acceptable bead.

A perfectionist, Wild will not sell what she considers anything less than flawless. The flaw may not be discernable to the average person, but Wild will see a center hole off kilter, a color blend that is not quite right, or any other minor defect that will make her start over again.

The origins of lampworking can be traced back thousands of years.

The ancient Egyptians first recorded glassmaking techniques more than 5,000 years ago, and Japanese and Roman cultures used beehive kilns well before the birth of Christ. Traditional methods most recognized in lampworking today, can be attributed to Italian artists working over oil lamps during the early 1500s.

The intense heat created by the oil’s flame was hot enough to soften glass to where an artist could manipulate it. Today, torches, fueled by propane and pure oxygen, are used. Reduced to a blue-white flame, lampworkers like Wild continue the ancient art, different only in the modernization of mechanisms used to heat the glass.

Wild became interested in jewelry making about six years ago after the birth of her son. At home caring for a pre-mature infant, Wild wanted something to occupy her time since she couldn’t work outside her home.

“I started making (jewelry) for friends to pass the time,” she said. ‘Then I started getting requests and thought I better start selling (the jewelry) and stop giving it all away.”

The problem she faced was that the beads she purchased to make her custom jewelry looked obviously mass-produced, so she began to study. She took classes, read every book she could get her hands on and spent months learning all she could.

“It took months to get the knowledge to know glass,” she said. “How it melts, why it cracks when you put it in the flame. That’s why you go to these classes, there is always something else to learn.”

Today, Wild divides her time among lampwork and jewelry making, training for and running in marathons, and tending to two children. She uses what she sees in nature during her daily runs to help her design her unique, miniature pieces of art.

She considers herself to be an “organic” lampworker, making pieces that are more abstract than true to form. “I won’t do (a shell bead) that looks like it comes off the beach,” she said.

Using the warm greens of the Pacific Ocean and ecru beaches of her home state of Washington, Wild created her SandWave beads. The rich teals of the Gulf waters and the sugar white sand along the Emerald Coast helped inspire her Waves of Destin series. Keeping with her water muse, Wild has also created Neptune’s Lair and Mermaid’s Lair series of beads, and also makes abstract conch shell beads, complete with starfish attached.

The Waves of Destin are made with white glass, a handmade glass cane mixed from three different shades of green and teal, and real silver and gold leaf. While the unfinished bead is still hot, Wild lays on the fragile leaf, heating the glass again until the precious metal fuses to the bead giving it the distinct glimmer Destin Beaches also have.

“I try to mimic the colors on the beach,” Wild said. “I use nature as my palate. I try to look to nature for my inspiration.”

Finding Wild
No two of Wild’s beads look alike. While similar in color and design, each is distinctive and unique. To see more of Wild’s work, or to purchase her lampwork beads, you can find her at any of these locations:
102 Racetrack Rd.
Fort Walton Beach
(850) 862-1119