Heather Trimlett, Artist, Teacher Extraordinaire and Head Spinner!

I mentioned last week that my head was spinning after taking Heather Trimlett's class. I'm amazed I even blogged anything coherent last week! And while I mean NO disrespect to the other fabulous teachers I've studied with - I so wish Heather had been my first teacher.

Yes, I took her class to figure out what I'm doing wrong on big hole beads and to hopefully see how she wraps those delicate filigrana around such big beads! And yes, I learned about that but...Oh so much MORE!

This past week has had me rethinking EVERYTHING I do at the torch:

• The way I sit
• The height of my chair
• The position of my hands
• The amount of glass in my initial gather
• The heat in the mandrel
• How I hold the mandrel

Beads I made during and after Heather Trimlett's class

But all of that is just the tip of the iceberg! I've also worked on or learned:

• Patience (definitely missing from my "hot and fast" routine.)
• Why there's more white in a twisty and how make more evenly colored ones
• Dealing with great big gathers of color
• Casing great big gathers
• Getting filigranas to "line up"
• Why my BHBs melted down wonky
• Getting texture lines out of skinny beads
• The key to great puckered ends
• The coolest way ever to close up a hollow
• Getting heat to the core of a big bead
• Stringer control
  
• The art of reading the glass and getting it to do what I want by understanding what it wants
• Heating large masses evenly
  
• More patience!

And I'm sure I'm forgetting something.... I can honestly say I have a a different relationship with glass after this class! I have better understanding of heat and using it to make the glass go where I want it.

I really cannot recommend Heather's classes enough! If you have a chance, she is a must see teacher!

Zipper pull by Heather Trimlett, my treat for studying hard!