Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2019 - 46

Kimberley
Adams
Glass artist
Tiger, Georgia

rtists can often trace their
interests back to an earlier
time in life. From there,
the road to following that
dream can twist and turn,
come to abrupt stops, or perhaps not be
mapped until decades later. For Kimberley Adams of Tiger, Georgia, a career as a
glass artist began when she was 28 and
starting her family.

Starter Kit/Inside Tips from Kimberly Adams
➻ "There's something incredibly valuable about watching people work glass in
person. So take a class from someone with experience who enjoys teaching.
Do NOT learn this from online videos!"
➻ Get books for references.
➻ For lampwork, the costs to start will be around $500 for a torch, tools,
regulator, glass, safety wear, and so forth. An inexpensive basic kiln is recommended for proper annealing (cooling).
➻ For fusion (kiln-formed), there are kits available with all the basics to start
including a kiln.
➻ "Figuring out the cause when things go wrong with kiln-formed glass is the
most challenging."
➻ For fusing glass, you must have extremely even heat "coming down on the
glass" in the kiln.
➻ Take a business class. Learn about spreadsheets, costs, margins and all the
other business knowledge if you want to make a career of this. "Then you'll
be able to eat!"
Kimberleyadams.com
"The Complete Book of Glass Beadmaking" by Kimberley Adams
Northeast Georgia Arts Tour - artstour.org
North Georgia Arts Guild - northgeorgiaartsguild.com

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

"I distinctly remember analyzing
the stained glass in church when I was
a child. I'd look at the details of leaves,
figures, colors, shapes, and particularly
the transparencies that changed as the
light shifted through the seasons. That
was probably the beginning of my fascination with glass," she says. "It just took
me two decades and a lampwork bead
class to get started!"
The lampwork process requires tending the movement of melting glass under
a torch's intense flame. A delicate dance
with gravity and surface tension forms
the balls of molten glass around a mandrel (steel rod), which ultimately become
one-of-a-kind beads. With a new workshop in the basement at that time, Adams says glasswork was her third child.
"I was so taken with it, the kids would
have to call me to supper several times,"
she laughs. "Eventually, my husband at
the time quit his job, and we took our art
on the road. That became what mommy
did for a living to my kids," she says.
Through the years, Adams has taken
many classes and created thousands of
hand-made glass beads that became all
manner of jewelry items. Ten years ago she
started working with sheet glass and creating kiln-formed pieces, such as platters,
bowls, cups and other functional items.
This is a completely different process that
begins with creating a blank by arranging
strips and bits of glass into a pattern.
"There are an infinite number of ways

http://www.Kimberleyadams.com http://www.artstour.org http://www.northgeorgiaartsguild.com http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2019

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