Serendipities by numbers....
Hello, my name is Shantel Rich and this is my studio. I am primarily a self taught artist, taking a few classes to get me going, then reading many books and learning from other artists willing to share their techniques. I am one of those people that learns best by doing. I have had prior jewelry making exposure way back in high school. My absolute favorite class in high school was a metalsmithing class. We learned to fabricate from sheet, investment casting, wax carving and a whole lot of soldering. I wish it could have lasted all year! I ended up winning 2nd place in the spring art show for a ring I fabricated from the handle of a sterling silver baby cup and some sterling silver wire. I also had a large interest in computer science in high school and this would eventual by my career choice....up until now!
My career for the last 19 years has consisted of honing my skills with computers and network management. I have worked for IBM, and have owned my own network management consulting company for the past 13 years. I have always been entreprenurial in nature, so it only made sense to run my own business once I had the necessary skill set. It was while I was working at my favorite clients in 2004 that one of the owners invited me to attend a PMC (precious metal clay) class with her. I wasn't really sure if it was going to be my thing, but I went ahead and signed up anyway. The first night of class consisted of us making a free form pendant out of the clay. I admittedly have a Type A personality and was getting rather annoyed at the fact that every time I pushed on the clay to form it, my fingerprint would stay behind in the clay. After about 5 minutes of this annoyance a very bright light bulb went off in my head! My twin sister had just had a baby and I thought - how cute would it be to make a pendant with his tiny little fingerprint on it? Well, it would turn out to be really cute....and weeks later I created Keepsake Impressions Inc. and started making custom fingerprint jewelry - serendipity number 1! You can see these items at www.keepsakeimpressions.net. I've come along way refining the pendants....here is the very very first one I made of Aidan's little finger when he was 5 weeks old. Very rough....but still cute!
A few months later the same person asked if I was interested in taking a dichroic glass fusing class (say that five times fast!) with her. I had seen a very pretty dichroic pendant on one of the ladies that took the PMC class with me and was very interested in how it was made. I signed up and the addiction with glass began. Serendipity number 2! Of course I was still very much in "fingerprint" mode, so the first thing I fused on my own was my husband's fingerprint under glass. My teacher didn't know what to think when I showed up to class with it :O) Here is a picture of it:
A few years later, my Mom went to Texas to visit relatives. She brought back a pair of lampwork glass earrings that she bought from a local artist as a gift for me. She just LOVED them. I thought - eh - they are OK. She really seemed fascinated by the story this woman told of how she made things with a torch and sold them. Mother's Day was coming up and I thought it would be a neat idea to sign her up for a lampworking class and I'd go with her - mother/daughter time right? It didn't even enter my mind I would like working at a torch. I was all about dichroic and the kiln and my PMC at that point. I thought maybe Mom would get into this and it would be something she could do while I was doing my thing and we could work together. Well, she had trouble keeping up with the molten glass and figuring out where the sweet spot was in the flame. It does seem like a super fast process when you are a beginner - and kind of scary!! Large flaming torch, super hot glass and you are trying to wind it nice and round around this little rod - and feeling like you have no control over it - definitely kind of scary. Well, apparently I just LOVE scary - because by the end of the two day class - I WAS HOOKED people! Really, it is about mastery for me - in all things. I really wanted to learn to master the process - and there were so many creative options available with this new art - never ending in fact. So, by the time that weekend was over, I was already trying to figure out a way I could get my hands on what I needed to get started. Luckily my friend who got me involved in the other two classes had a hot head torch and a pack of glass and she just gave them to me. She had tried it and it just didn't appeal to her. Serendipity number 3!! I used that hot head torch for about a month....and I was d-o-n-e with that! I bought a Nortel major torch with a minor topfire and I was off and running. I laugh now at how *slow* the glass melted during our little six hour class - at how fast and out of control it seemed. Now all I can think is...can't this glass melt any faster? I've got things to make! I still consider myself quite the newby with the lampworking, but, I'm honing my skills and anticipate I still will be years from now. It is my FAVORITE thing to do! Some of the glass artists that have inspired me, as well as ones that have shared their secrets which you will see in my work are: Corina Tettinger, Kerri Fuhr, Kimberly Affleck and Leah Fairbanks.
You would think 3 serendipitous things were enough for any one person (and I'm speaking of my artwork only - I could give you many examples in my life - I am a very fortunate person!), but I think I have one more to go. My lovely daughter, Ashley, has been taking art classes in high school. Her favorite thing is pottery. She made me a wonderful clay decorative box for Mother's day. I figured it might be a good thing to expose her to here in the studio. We already have a few kilns, and some tools that would work - why not? So, I bought a bunch of pottery books so I could learn the process - I don't want to blow something up in my kiln after all ;o) And after reading some of the books.....it is piquing MY interest! So...you may find me up to my elbows in clay soon too!
Official sounding things you should know are: I'm a member of the PMC Guild and a member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers. Sounds official yes? They will gladly take your money for membership as well ;o) I am also a member of the SRA (Self Representing Artist) organization which was created for glass artists so that people who are dedicated to purchasing non-mass made glass artwork can be assured they are getting a unique work of art that was created by an individual artist who has adhered to general best studio practices of proper annealing and cleaning of their pieces. That's me, and that is what I do! My SRA# is R111.
Along with all the wonderful things I get to do in my studio, I also have a great family to come home to. My husband happens to be one of the most patient people in the world - letting me get involved in all of this craziness! I also have two wonderful kids, a 16 year old daughter and an 8 year old daughter. And we have two cats, one of them being my "studio" cat Benny, the other little Sophie. Benny's favorite spot is up on a shelf right by my glass rods watching me torch. I think he likes the warmth of the torch and the kiln honestly - he could probably care less about what I'm doing :o) He has taken to using the arch of my vent hood as a bridge over to his shelf. I'm hoping the guy who installed that vent did a good job of anchoring it to the wall!
Well, I think that is enough about me. Why don't you take a tour of the studio? Lots of artists helped me out with their websites by telling which type of equipment they used and how their studio is set up, so I thought I'd return the favor and see if I could help someone else new to the adventure. Just click on the studio tour tab to take the tour!