I will never forget the first time I saw a handmade glass bead. It was in Dillon, Colorado, 1998 (Luna Beads). Up to that point I had been making seed bead jewelry and doing torchwork with metal since I was a kid, but I had never seen anything like this. I was in a bead store: a clear glass cylinder held around a hundred colorful glass beads, each one unique. The shop owner’s husband was a lampwor
ker, and he had made them. My awestruck enthusiasm hit a chord in the shop owner, and she changed the course of my life with one phone call to her husband (for which I am so grateful). This sweet couple invited me to their house one afternoon, where he showed me the basics, and then just let me play on the torch by myself for a while. He sold me his old “Hot Head” torch, a book a few rods…then, I was off and running…and totally obsessed…(***thank you, Stony***)
My work with hot glass and beadmaking blossomed into a full-blown business, as Alpine River Glassworks, in 1999. I developed a hair accessory called a “Hairnoodle”. After creating a business plan, getting the appropriate licensing and tax things figured out, I would come to find that I was, without a doubt, the toughest boss I had ever worked for. I tasked myself with an intense production schedule, making beads (mostly Hairnoodles) for wholesale, retail, craft shows and bead shows all over the country. During this time, I moved to Jacksonville, Oregon, for a year, then came back to Colorado, and lived in the Colorado Springs area (where I remained for about 10 years). Looking back, I am so grateful for the hours and hours of production work that was so necessary to acquire the skills required to excel with this medium. I did quite well selling the Hairnoodles at art and craft fairs in Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, California and Oregon. In addition, I began to design suites of jewelry, as well as adding additional signature pieces. All of the work is truly one-of-a-kind, and after a few years, I began to sign them. (1999-2005 signature is JC , for Jannine Cecilia (middle name). Currently, the J9 signature has been in effect from 2005 to present day. There was a stint as well, in that pieces were signed JC2. Eventually, I also presented my work at the Bead and Button Show (for Bead and Button Magazine) in 2004, as well as in 2005, in Milwaukee, WI. During this time frame, I was one of the featured artists in the March-April 2005 edition of Lapidary Journal’s Step-By-Step Beads with step-by-step instructions on how to create a daisy millefiori-encased garden bead. In the summer of 2005 I was filmed for a spot on HGTV’s “Crafters Coast-to-Coast,” creating a murrine cane face bead. Later that year I had photographs in The Flow magazine (Volume 2, Issue 4) for one of the first “Women in Glass“ issues. I was able to attend the ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers) Gathering in Portland, Oregon in 2005. I was invited to teach bead making at the Bemis School of Art in Colorado Springs, to promote the Chihuly exhibit that would be at the Fine Arts Center for several months in 2005. It was a wonderful opportunity to witness the public truly appreciating the material that they were to admire in the gallery. I had been a full time lamp worker for five years at this time in my career, and I still love to teach. (Currently, I offer private lessons in Manitou Springs, Colorado, as well as with Aurora Borealis Glassworks in Albuquerque, NM )
I am truly looking forward to this next step in the evolution of my career as an artist and a teacher. My most recent work explores new concepts in glass jewelry and accessories. These collections are becoming more and more refined, and I am eager for the future. This future will include: creation of large-scale sculpture, lit wall installations, as well as developing the jewelry line into whatever comes next….
