Fiona Prentis a Kiwi Glass Artist

I first "met" Fiona Prentice on Facebook. She's got bright red hair and a fabulous smile! Then I started to see her beads on a thread on Lampworketc. forums called the Gaffer Chalcedony 109 thread. (I'm not sure, but you might have to join lampworketc to view the thread, but if you do, you won't be disappointed.)







This is one of those beads that you look at an gasp! It is beautiful!


















Fiona has been lampworking for 6 years with one year off. In the beginning she used the traditional Hot Head, which is what most of use used when we first started out. It's a torch that uses propane as it's fuel. Fiona has since upgraded to a Nortel Minor which is a dual fuel torch (oxygen and propane). Look at the results she's getting using Gaffer Chalcedony glass.
(The first bead is chalcedony glass, too.)






















If you visit Fiona's website, you can see more of her amazing beads. Those beads in the gallery were made on her Hot Head torch.





















Fiona works as a psychiatric nurse in the forensic unit of her hospital in her non glass life. She felt that she had lost her muse at one point in time, and that's why she took a year off. Now, thanks to Gaffer Chalcedony glass and Deb Batten, another Kiwi glass artist, she feels that she is able to develop her style and skills in glass.





















See what I mean, she only gets better!

Each Day Contiues to be Amazing!

Today was my day for orientation for Civic Fest. I will be an "exhibit host" at the miniature White House. I will go into more detail on this in later blogs. All I can say now is that this is an absolutely amazing work of art! Orientation was a bit longer than I had anticipated, but I was amazed to find out that a person did not have to volunteer for the entire week. I was amazed at that! I was also amazed that I actually managed to find my way to the Minneapolis Convention Center, with the help of a friendly cab driver and the light rail in Minneapolis. On my way home, I managed to find my way back to the light rail, and, ultimately to my car, with the help of a woman who was walking down the street in Minneapolis. Seems I was going the wrong way, as directed by a Minneapolis police officer, who didn't work downtown normally, but worked in the northern part of the city. However, what is amazing is that, as I was walking down the wrong path on the way to the light rail, I found an amazing discovery! Look at the name on the pub. This is for you, Deb, my Kiwi friend. Until I "met" Deb, I had never heard the name "Kieran." This is her second eldest son's name. What an amazing discovery when I saw this pub in Minneapolis! I'm sure that I will find many more amazing things in the days ahead.