As many of you know, I am a lover and collector of beautiful lampwork beads. I discovered Deborah Burch of Contessa Glass on eBay of all places, and have purchased several sets since then. In fact, Margot Potter used one set to produce this beauty for the show. It’s been sweetly dubbed “Haight-Ashbury” because it so reminds me of this San Francisco neighborhood where Flower Power and the VW Bus were iconic.

In addition, black and white is super hip this summer, so I put this art deco set together and called this one “Jazz Piano.”

Deborah says she has always been a creative person. Her past includes publishing short stories and culinary training in pastry arts. After a beautiful edible career specialized in wedding cake designs and sugar sculpture, Deborah decided to stay home to spend more time with her son. Still, creativity called, and in no time she was looking for a new medium. A friend introduced her to lampwork beads and when she discovered that molten glass behaved in a similar way to melted sugar and chocolate, she knew she was home!

And we certainly agree!! The main aspect that I love about her work is the use of color. Color combinations are key to the beauty of a design, and Deborah admits being driven by it. She also strives to produce designs that are clean, simple, elegant and inspired. She wrote to me recently and said that she’s inspired by color in fashion, and in fabrics, prints and textiles. She even loves looking through wallpaper books for color ideas!

She is also completely self-taught, and began working and practicing on a hot head torch set up in her basement. After a year, she upgraded to a dual-fuel torch and an expanded home studio.
She also loves the time that this art form allows her to spend with her son (who is now 4) during his first incredible & special years.

Some of my favorite examples are below! Let me know which ones are your faves when you have a chance!!

xxoo

TL

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I am self admittedly addicted to beauty. I love beautiful places, beautiful things and beautiful people (inside and out). I am simply one of those types that must have beauty in my life to avoid the blues. If things around me are ulgy, I am too. I have been so busy lately, I have been out of sorts when it comes to finding pretty things to share with all of you. So when my mom sent me this pic, I went ooooo, ahhhhh, felt such a calm inside and knew I had to post this. This is beauty at its finest, created by the most talented crafter of all…(guess who?)

Now I think as Crafters, the desire to create beautiful things reflects our apprehension of the beauty we see around us in our lives and in other people. We notice something or someone in the world that inspires us (perhaps like this photo) and then we are driven to produce something we thinks is beautiful too; and then we go oooo, ahhhh!! I personally find it important to share what I make with others because of this reason…I want them to feel good, and I feel good when they go oooo, ahhhh!Â

In addition, many people believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I disagree. Beauty is actually in the world and a beholden eye apprehends it. (That doesn’t mean we don’t disagree on what we prefer or not, I am just saying that there really are objectively beautiful things out there. But this is just the deep thoughts side peaking out, so excuse my need to unpack every conceptual box I find.)

Now I’m so sure you’ll feel sorry for me, because being so busy trying to launch Crafty Nation, I haven’t produced too many pretty things lately, and it’s starting to get to me. Part of the reason is that we tore my office/studio apart a few months ago, and had a hard time putting things back together. So this weekend, hubby set me up with an awesome organizational system, and as soon as I get everything put “beautifully” in its place, it’s back to beading. And then maybe I will feel a bit of regular ooooo, ahhhh again.

xxoo
TL

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Ok friends and fellow Diva’s, here’s the dish on our day with the most enjoyable, most entertaining, and most empowering self-appointed bead queen of the universe, MARGOT POTTER! (We blogged about this a few weeks ago, but for some reason WordPress decided to hide this post from the public!! We have had a long chat with our software, and hopefully the bugs are fixed!!)

The CN team spend a day in beautiful Amish Country to visit this darling gal in her darling studio in a 150 yr old, what-used-to-be Amish Schoolhouse and Town hall.

We sat down and had a proper chat about how it all began, what inspires her, why’s she’s wacky and what she says every crafty diva must know about our own inner creative sparkle! Sparkletastic to be exact!!

We just loved her approachabiliy, her talent to speak in full and articulate sentences at more than warp speed, her full blown hospitality and most of all… HER.

I even got to take home fresh country eggs, WHAT A TREAT!

Margot is a talented writer, and is fulfilling her mission by creating a series of how-to beautiful colorful books that encourage and educate hip craftiness in all of us!

Her mission is truly to inspire and empower others to CREATE, to bring our their own creative mind’s eye, and to emphatically insist that we can do anything we set out to do! Margot’s done it all: Theatre, music, t.v., books, publishing editor, jewelry design, public speaker/teacher, blogger, family, and least we not forget, Bead Queen of the Universe (self-appointed)!

Margot’s daughter, Avalon, is simply adorable, and also taking after her mom quite radically!

When we were there, she was designing her own photo shoot…

And, she is quite stylish… If you have seen the “Hair Show” on M’s website, you’ll get a clear picture on the magnanimous influence in this young beauty’s life!

There is much to much to tell and I need to save all the downright delicious details for the segment, but suffice it to say that Margot’s story is the inspirational gem we all must hear to keep our heads high, our imagination bubbling and our wire nippers ready! After all, we all have the delightful duty to “Empower, Inspire & CREATE!”

We’ll share so much more with you on this episode, which will air when we launch here in the next month or so, and we look forward to having your thoughts on Margot’s World!!

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